Howdy dear availees and welcome to a quick one topic post...regular availees will know that I tried to do a thorough review of the
St Martins Cover-up several months ago, but I only managed to get
half-way through that first week (of June 2002) before the re-dawning trauma of all of that pretty much shut me down again...but here we go again...regular availees are well aware that the June long weekend is the unofficial anniversary of the St Martins Cover-up, 'cos it was Sunday 10th June 2002 when "text-book grooming paedophile" teacher Glyn Dorling was 'removed' from St Martins, following months of multiple parent complaints, and disclosures from several children that week previous, leading to several 'official' meetings between parents and principal John Alexander...there was a meeting that Friday 8th June, leading to another on the Sunday arvo where Alexander and priest John O'Keefe repeatedly asked that parents not report Dorling's conduct to SAPol (police), but that had already occurred...as parents left that meeting, Dorling was seen leaving his classroom area, he'd been there at the school the whole time, and Alexander informed him that he'd been reported to police...(but that's illegal, to tell him he's been reported-Ed)...yep, one of many such 'illegalities' perpetrated by John Alexander and/or multiple other senior Lutherans to protect Dorling, eg, not going a Mandatory Notification...Dorling was then caught in his classroom at approx 0700hrs on the public holiday Monday and removed by security...
Regular availees will also be aware that the June long weekend 2002 is really only a continuance of the Glyn Dorling Cover-up, a cover-up that technically began when Dorling was originally moved to Mt Gambier by the Lutherans and 're-employed' after he was 'sacked' from a Lutheran school in Adelaide after an 'incident'...none of these specifics were ever properly explained/defined, but something/s happened and Dorling was moved to St Martins in 1997 (98?)...(and then there were immediate and copious complaints about him from then until 2002-Ed)..indeed, and in June/July 2002 Alexander repeatedly brandished a thick dossier of those complaints, but they were not provided to the Teachers Registration Board for their official hearing into Dorling, February 2003 - November 2004...this hearing only occurred due to my/parent's complaints (Feb 03) and our constant lobbying and activism...the same thing with the Flinders Child Protection Unit investigation that began June 2002 and was 'completed' later that year...this only occurred because we contacted Family and Youth Services and were directed to FCPU, and we organised for them to travel to Mt Gambier and we met with their junior representative and repeatedly contacted/lobbied, etc, etc, until their senior staffers came to Mt Gambier and interviewed several kids and parents at the specialised suite at the Mt Gambier Hospital...
It was at their first group meeting on 1st August 2002, at the school, that FCPU stated their concerns about what they'd heard and that they thought they "probably already have enough to get him de-registered"...in the weeks to follow there were several more meetings/interviews, and it was on 22nd August when FCPU identified Dorling to me as "a text-book grooming paedophile" who had "placed himself well within the system to abuse kids and get away with it", that is, "as the Teachers Union rep in a privately run religious school in a country town"...FCPU were shocked to learn from me that SAPol had already dumped the case sometime in mid-July, without telling us parents or apparently FCPU either...us parents only found out by accident when Alexander tried to ban me from the school (5th Aug, as a result of that original FCPU meeting0 and I went to Mt Gambier Police Station to report it, and was told by (Det?) Nick Smith that they'd already "closed the file"...at some point the (then) Labor Attorney-General Michael Atkinson had seized our reports from FCPU and handed them to the Lutheran's lawyers to be edited/censored...they were then returned to FCPU and SAPol with 'all incriminating evidence removed'...the FCPU reports we finally received, about our own children's statements, were all massively redacted, with whole pages missing/removed...
To their credit, FCPU did appear at the TRB Hearing (Feb 03-Nov 04) and did state their official concerns about Dorling's treatment of the kids, his inappropriate contacts, etc, but they were down-played/minimalised by the Board, and ultimately dismissed...the TRB panel consisted entirely of Teachers Union members/reps, was
Chaired by (then) Liberal leader Rob Kerin's (cousin?) Carmel Kerin, and
Dorling's lawyer was senior Labor Minister (later Premier) Jay
Weatherill's law firm partner Stephen Lieshke...the TRB Board outright called me a liar, dismissed/minimalised other parent's evidence, called no Lutherans, didn't call police, allowed Lieschke carte-blanche attacks on parents, ordered parents to hand over private documents, etc, etc, etc, and then exonerated Dorling...even if you don't count the multiple unexplained delays from original complaints (Feb 03) to the various initial interviews (June 2003), then the year long delay to June 04, etc, the actual TRB Inquiry of 7 hearing dates from June-November 2004 is reportedly the largest ever, and by quite some margin...it was a shambolic farce that, with the benefit of hindsight, was clearly organised, structured, and conducted to cause maximum trauma to us parents...
This TRB Inquiry only occurred because I and another parent contacted them (Feb 03), and their representative the Crown Solicitors Office came to Mt Gambier several times, interviewed several parents, etc, before commencing an official 'TRB Inquiry' June 2003...that Inquiry was then postponed for a full year, actual 'hearings' began in Adelaide June 2004, and the CSO/TRB insisted the Inquiry focussed on only a single issue, 'heads in his lap'...us parents were told by the Crown Solicitor rep that they were 'our lawyer', but that proved to be a lie...once hearings started, we were stunned to see Dorling sitting there with un-redacted copies of our kid's FCPU reports that the TRB had subpoenaed for him...the hearing process was extremely confrontational with Lieschke aggressively attacking parents, and demanding access to our private documents, etc...this went on unchallenged by the panel or the Crown Solicitor across 7 disjointed 'hearings' until November 2004 when the TRB completely exonerated Dorling, accepting his defense that 'yes the contacts had been happening, but that the kids had been forcing themselves on him, invading his personal space'...
SAPol refused to appear, the dossier of previous complaints was never mentioned/presented, and no senior Lutheran was called to give evidence...the only Lutheran called was Dorling's friend and fellow teacher, and then as a character/defense witness...in November 2004 the TRB sent us parents a 2 sentence letter stating that they were not going to act (de-register) Dorling, and flatly refused to provide us any further explanation...they did however provide Dorling the full 32 page Reasons For Decision that he then used as part of his Affidavit when several families tried unsuccessfully to sue him and/or St Martins and/or the Lutherans...this was the process where-in parent's lawyer Bill DeGaris betrayed his clients by colluding with Dorling's and the Lutheran's lawyers (both Piper Alderman), as extensively covered in some of the earliest posts on this 'ere blog, eg, Piper Alderman's attempts to have those posts removed, etc...and I repeat for The Google's benefit, these are facts, provable in Court, and that's why Piper Alderman and the Lutherans and Bouncin' Billy DeGaris, et al, it's why they come a' whingin' to you to try and have that stuff removed but never take me to Court for sayin' it...anyhoos, when the parent's attempt at legal action collapsed under the weight of Pro-Paedophile betrayal and collusion, it was Bouncin' Billy who handed that Reasons For Decision to us parents, and that's how we know the extraordinary lengths the TRB went to to excuse/protect Dorling, including blaming our kids for the abuses they suffered with Dorling...
SAPol conducted no investigation what-so-ever...not just
failed to do it correctly, but refused to do it at all...Nick Smith
attended that one meeting (1st Aug 02), but they never went to the
classroom or interviewed any school teachers/staff, only partially
interviewed only one parent, repeatedly lied to parents, and when we
persisted, SAPol openly and repeatedly blamed us for their failure/refusal,
stating that we "hadn't lodged official written complaints" and/or that
we had "compromised the investigation by talking about it", etc...SAPol never even interviewed Dorling
and then lied to us about that with 5-6 wildly differing accounts of
their supposed 'chat', involving multiple different officers, conducted either at
his home or the station, where-in he answered all questions or refused
to co-operate, etc, etc...SAPol then extensively re-investigated their own investigation and completely exonerated themselves, but never actually investigated Dorling's conduct...SAPol refused to appear at the TRB Hearing...
When the issue of bullying was raised by a teacher in my child's first week of high school (Feb 2008), another child spoke-out about Dorling's conduct/behaviours, my child supported/confirmed those behaviours, and a third child also from Dorling's 2002 class, also confirmed it...next day I went to the school and spoke with Principal Gary Costello and had to politely insist that he/they do a Mandatory Notification, and I then had to chase Gary for several weeks, and ultimately SAPol "refused to re-investigate"...I contacted the Paedophile Taskforce and that's when I personally spoke to (then) head officer Grant Stevens, who, despite my explanations/descriptions, etc, stated that he'd been "ordered to drop/not touch it by (my) superiors"...
And that's how SAPol Commissioner Gary Stevens is complicit in the St Martins Cover-up.
Gary Costello later received several meteoric promotions right to the top of the Education Dept, and that's how he is complicit in the St Martins Cover-up.
We parents also managed to organise a State Parliament Statutory Authorities Review Committee Inquiry into the TRB (SARC Inquiry no. 54 - The TRB)...this included extensive involvement with Nick Xenophon and multiple other politicians, eg, Family First's Dennis Hood, and the SARC itself, eg, Liberal Rob Lucas, etc, etc, where several families provided extensive written submissions and documents and personal testimony...this SARC Inquiry Report no.54 directly identifies 'the issues at a Mt Gambier school and the handling of those issues by the TRB', etc, as being the fundamental catalyst/justification for the Inquiry, and parents submissions/documents/testimonies feature repeatedly...this Inquiry, late 2007 to late 2011, is reportedly the longest Parliamentary Inquiry ever, albeit ultimately achieving/changing little if anything...indeed, the TRB stated outright that the Mt Gambier (Dorling) Inquiry would not have been handled and/or resolved any differently, even with proposed new legislation...
And I've said it before and so here 'tis again...everyone who's anyone in SA and/or Mt Gambier politics/law/society, they all know, and they are all complicit...the Lutherans know, as does Tony Pasin, Jay Weatherill, Mike Rann, Micheal Atkinson, Rob Kerin, Vicki Chapman, Rory McEwen, Don Pegler, Jim Maher, Troy Bell, etc, etc...multiple senior SAPol officers, upto and including Commissioners...multiple State and many Federal politicians...multiple Public Servants in the Education Dept, Crown Solicitor, etc, etc...multiple local Mayors and/or Councillors, most specifically the one I cannot identify due to the reprehensibly vile Final Intervention Orders barring me, etc, etc, etc...they all know...
And that's how all of these people are complicit in the St Martins Cover-up.
And I'll say this all again also...all you politicians, etc, y'all know what Dorling was doing to our kids and you have all condoned that conduct and protected Dorling by either ignoring and/or directly acting to subvert appropriate investigation/action, etc...and so, if that's alright for a grown man to do that to 7 year old kids, you'll have no problems when I do those things to you when next we meet...and the sense of menace conjured by that simple statement has it's nexus, it's nucleus, in the realities that you know and have excused/ignored/protected...ironically, given that same condoning and apparent support for Dorling's conduct, etc, how can there be any menace or impropriety in me promising to do the same?...
And out of all of this, for all of this definable Institutionalised Pro-Paedophile Corruption, who is the sole person to ever be charged with and/or 'Convicted' of anything?...that'd be me, the 'Whistleblower', openly pursued and persecuted by ICAC (Independent Commissioner Against Corruption) and SAPol, upto and including my very own ICAC/SAPol 'Operation Baritone' and legislative changes via the ICAC Miscellaneous Amendment Act 2014, and ultimately 'Convicted' for speaking the truth...and that's your South Australia right there, your Legislature (Parliament), your Executive (SAPol), and your Judiciary (Courts), and especially your ICAC...unrelenting and ongoing Institutionalised Pro-Paedophile Corruption with few exceptions...
Tomorrow: Either My COVID19 Ironies Or LNP Or Mt Gambier City Council Corruption
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...and I've just skimmed the surface here, left out many issues/events entirely, so if you's wanna' get a more thorough understanding of the St Martins Cover-up, just trawl back through the 7 years of TMGI...cheers and laters...
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Saturday, June 13, 2020
PM Scott 'Scummo' Morrison: A Racist, Fascist, Mysoginist, Pathological Liar
Howdy dear availees...another quick post on this weeks extraordinary comments and/or actions of our illustrious leader, The Liar From The Shire, Crime Minister, Scotty From Marketting, Bullshit Boy, Not My Prime Minister, and any and all other Twitter handles for this loathsome individual...he is a horrid, smirking, weasel-wording, sociopath entirely unencumbered by empathy, morality, or genuine intelligence...he is a serial and pathological liar with a definable hatred for anyone who isn't in his personal sphere, eg, if you're Indigenous or other 'non-White' person, poor, a worker and/or unemployed, a woman, foreign student, Unionist, non-Pentecostal, etc...(and then lie about how hard you're working to support these people you hate and have actually politically attacked and demeaned and Pariahtised*, eg, RoboDebt-Ed)...perfect, RoboDebt, relentlessly demonise unemployed as "Leaners" and 'Burdens on the Budget', etc, and attack them with 'Illegal RoboDebt', then do a vacuously offensive pseudo-apology when 'Private Legal Action' forces you into that position...(indeed, and even now the moral-less LNP is angling to 'legalise' and re-introduce RoboDebt, via Parliament/legislation, and with a massively increased number of 'victims'-Ed)...and all the whilst relentlessly rorting Public Funding Programs and Parliamentary Allowances, etc...the LNP are a Criminal Cabal, nothing more, nothing less...
*Pariahtisation:...a TMGI word defining the situation/actions when the first priority of politicians/police/media/whoevs is to attack/denigrate/discredit the 'Whistleblower'/complainant, to try and make that person a 'pariah' so as to undermine/dismiss the complaint/issue...(also known as 'Playing The Man Not The Ball'-Ed)...
And as per increasingly usual, it's Twitter/Social Media that's all over the reality of what's happening and calling it out for what it really is, etc...so here 'tis...***
*Pariahtisation:...a TMGI word defining the situation/actions when the first priority of politicians/police/media/whoevs is to attack/denigrate/discredit the 'Whistleblower'/complainant, to try and make that person a 'pariah' so as to undermine/dismiss the complaint/issue...(also known as 'Playing The Man Not The Ball'-Ed)...
And as per increasingly usual, it's Twitter/Social Media that's all over the reality of what's happening and calling it out for what it really is, etc...so here 'tis...***
#LNPcorruption #LNPfail #NotMyPrimeMinister #NotMyGovernment #LiarFromTheShire #ScottyFromMarketing #auspol #sportsrorts
We have an uneducated, ignorant, illegitimate PM & govt.
Quote Tweet
Amy Thunig
@AmyThunig
·
The trifecta of white supremacy misinformation direct from the PM of 2020. States that:
1. Cook was enlightened
2. NSW was a ‘settlement’
3. There was no slavery in Australia
Wrong, wrong, wrong. But way to dehumanise us again ay. Can’t be slaves or invaded if we’re not human
***...it's all there, "no slavery in Australia" and BLM protestors are specifically identified and denigrated...(especially by the deliberate 'Dog Whistle' of "go nuts on this stuff"-Ed)..indeed, and just the language is disrespectfully appalling, "this stuff", we're talking about Slavery and he says "this stuff", what an absolute bastard...and then when quite rightly howled-down by the Twittterati/Social Media, Scummo's done yet another pathetic pseudo-apology about "if I've caused offense", etc...you sir, are a bloody disgrace...(only on Twitter? what about the Main Stream Media?-Ed)...you mean the rancidly pro-LNP complicit MSM? you really need to ask? they're furiously defending Scummo with mind-numbing faux-excuses about his lack of education and 'maybe he didn't know because we don't teach this Slavery stuff in schools', etc...(what a pathetic joke! he's the shreckin' Prime Minister and he supposedly doesn't know the well-documented Slavery history of his own country? absolute bollocks!-Ed)...absolutely, it is Scummo' knowingly committing straight-out Racist Denialism pandering to the lowest common denominators in his LNP base, and the wholly complicit MSM is dutifully trotting along behind spuriously excusing his outrageous conduct...(and even in his pseudo-apology he straight-out lied that he "was referring specifically to NSW", when clearly he states "no slavery in Australia"!-Ed)...yep, lies in an apology that is itself a politically expedient fakery, what a stirling exhibition from a class act...
And now he's again Racist Dog-Whistling that people shouldn't/must not attend the Black Lives Matter rallies this weekend because it will compromise his 'plans to re-open the economy post COVID19'...(but what about the Anti-Lockdown protests a month ago? Scummo stated that "it's a free country" for them!...what about the squillions milling about shopping centres sans masks, etc?-Ed)...yeah yeah, and his own critical statements about opening State borders for tourism, and other crowd restrictions being lifted soon, eg, being allowed to return to the footy, church, etc...it's clearly about denigrating and demonising these specific protests and these specific protestors and this specific issue, he's unambiguously Dog-Yelling at the most pig-ignorant, bigotted, blinkered, and openly Racist people in his base support group...Scummo has also apparently straight-out lied that his 'ancestors' were on/in the First Fleet...(well the 'criminals' sent to Oz as part of the first Fleet were themselves technically 'slaves' to the 'free Colonists'-Ed)...well indeed, but we stray from the harsher realities here, the truths about Aboriginal Slavery and Islander Slavery, etc...and it takes exactly zero effort to find copious evidence/reportage of those realities, eg, Aboriginal slavery on stations, 'Blackbirding' of Islanders for sugar plantations, etc, etc, etc...
This deliberate demonisation of these protests/protestors is absolutely Racist and shows-up the disingenuous reality of his pathetic pseudo-apology about 'No Slavery'.
And now he's again Racist Dog-Whistling that people shouldn't/must not attend the Black Lives Matter rallies this weekend because it will compromise his 'plans to re-open the economy post COVID19'...(but what about the Anti-Lockdown protests a month ago? Scummo stated that "it's a free country" for them!...what about the squillions milling about shopping centres sans masks, etc?-Ed)...yeah yeah, and his own critical statements about opening State borders for tourism, and other crowd restrictions being lifted soon, eg, being allowed to return to the footy, church, etc...it's clearly about denigrating and demonising these specific protests and these specific protestors and this specific issue, he's unambiguously Dog-Yelling at the most pig-ignorant, bigotted, blinkered, and openly Racist people in his base support group...Scummo has also apparently straight-out lied that his 'ancestors' were on/in the First Fleet...(well the 'criminals' sent to Oz as part of the first Fleet were themselves technically 'slaves' to the 'free Colonists'-Ed)...well indeed, but we stray from the harsher realities here, the truths about Aboriginal Slavery and Islander Slavery, etc...and it takes exactly zero effort to find copious evidence/reportage of those realities, eg, Aboriginal slavery on stations, 'Blackbirding' of Islanders for sugar plantations, etc, etc, etc...
This deliberate demonisation of these protests/protestors is absolutely Racist and shows-up the disingenuous reality of his pathetic pseudo-apology about 'No Slavery'.
Just listening (ABC South East Radio) to Chair Bill DeGaris explaining why Stand Like Stone should be allowed to change it's 'payment/tax structure', whilst he repeatedly and massively praises-up Tony Pasin (Liberal Member for Barker) and how he's "working really hard" on SLS's "tax status", etc...Bouncin' Billy's bangin'-on about what terrific work SLS has done with local disaster relief (eg, COVID19, bushfires, food vouchers) but complains that "payments take months...because of the (tax) structure"...apparently community foundations world-wide are different, eg, Canada, and in Britain $70m went straight back to community, etc, but in Oz, for example, the Supreme Court has ruled that the $50milllion Celeste Barber Bushfire Fund has to go to 'official firies services', not to actual fire victims...and Tony Tony Tony, Tony understands, Tony does this, Tony does that, I love shreckin' Tony...(well Billy is another welded-on Liberal stooge so what would you expect?-Ed)...fair enough...anyhoos, Billy's main points were 1) that there should be more foundations...(which contradicts his previous statements on this issue that 'they' should consolidate for efficiency and tax reductions, etc-Ed)...indeed, 2) that government should invest more, and 3) people should give large tax deductible donations...I have my personal opinion about the genuine nature of Stand Like Stone and some of those involved, but I'm also aware that there are many decent people involved and with genuinely positive intent, and that's all part of what I identify as the 'manipulation' of these sorts of 'foundations'...my main beef though is as always this...
Bill DeGaris and Tony Pasin are knowingly and willingly and intimately complicit in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...and that's something I will never walk past...
And if you have the time and inclination, here's a link to a wee document of a mere 200 pages of LNP scandals, rorts, and other assorted skull-duggeries...sounds enormous but many of the pages are only part-pages of a few short paragraphs...whilst I can't personally vouch for the exact accuracy of all of this stuff, the vast majority of it's already public knowledge and/or I was aware of it, if not in some of the detail provided, and there are many links to the original sources, etc...
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/63418446/coalition-scandals-as-at-june-2020
And I'm gunna' assume y'all have read that so I'm just gunna' finish-up here for today...
Tomorrow: The Long Promised COVID19 Ironies Post
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my increasingly frequent blog...(yeah, I'd noticed that we're posting with a slightly increased frequency, and yay for that-Ed)...trying anyways, yeah...so dear availees, talk at ya' real soon, and until then, cheers and laters...
PS:...and even as I promise that post, I must apologise and correct 'cos the next post will actually be;
The 18th Anniversary Of The St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up
...'cos the June long weekend 2020 was exactly that, 18 years of the St Martins Cover-up...
Bill DeGaris and Tony Pasin are knowingly and willingly and intimately complicit in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...and that's something I will never walk past...
And if you have the time and inclination, here's a link to a wee document of a mere 200 pages of LNP scandals, rorts, and other assorted skull-duggeries...sounds enormous but many of the pages are only part-pages of a few short paragraphs...whilst I can't personally vouch for the exact accuracy of all of this stuff, the vast majority of it's already public knowledge and/or I was aware of it, if not in some of the detail provided, and there are many links to the original sources, etc...
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/63418446/coalition-scandals-as-at-june-2020
And I'm gunna' assume y'all have read that so I'm just gunna' finish-up here for today...
Tomorrow: The Long Promised COVID19 Ironies Post
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my increasingly frequent blog...(yeah, I'd noticed that we're posting with a slightly increased frequency, and yay for that-Ed)...trying anyways, yeah...so dear availees, talk at ya' real soon, and until then, cheers and laters...
PS:...and even as I promise that post, I must apologise and correct 'cos the next post will actually be;
The 18th Anniversary Of The St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up
...'cos the June long weekend 2020 was exactly that, 18 years of the St Martins Cover-up...
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
More Fascism Identified In The National Cabinet Debacle
Howdy dear availees, and welcome to a quick one topic post...trawling through Twitter and found this from South Australian (federal) Senator Rex Patrick, via the acknowledged Twitterer yesterday 9th June 2020...Rex's press release is dated 1st June 2020, but I had not read this prior to my post of 6th June 2020, in which I identify many of these same issues/concerns...I was however not aware of the point that Rex makes about how, under National Cabinet provisions, the Prime Minister is now also the "final arbiter...of membership, agenda, processes and decisions"...as this reads/alleges, PM Scott 'Scummo' Morrison gets to decide who's in the National Cabinet, what is discussed, how all of this is done, and any final decision lies with Scummo...(hang on, if I'm reading this right, if there's a 'drawn decision', Scummo gets the final say-Ed)...yep, and worse, what exactly is a "collective decision"? does this mean that, if say, only 2 (Liberal) State Premiers disagree with a majority of (Labor) Premiers, is that "not a collective decision", which then empowers Scummo to decide?...(strewth! that's quietly terrifying-Ed)...indeed...but before we get too involved, let's let availees read this first...(fair enough-Ed)...see y'all on the other side...***
#auspol2020
“While National Cabinet has served Australia well in coordinating COVID-19 decision making, it is likely to have a pernicious longer-term effect on the Australian Federation,” Senator Patrick said. “The influence of the smaller states such as South Australia is likely to be further diminished in the new highly secretive National Cabinet process.”
On 13 March 2020 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to Prime Minister Morrison’s proposal to establish a National Cabinet to coordinate Federal, State and Territory responses to the COVID-19 crisis. On 29 May 2020 the Prime Minister announced that COAG was abolished, to be replaced by National Cabinet as a permanent forum, the centrepiece of a broad shakeup of federal-state relations.
“By securing the agreement of the Premiers to abolishing the leading intergovernmental forum of COAG, the Prime Minister has shifted Federal power balance to the significant advantage of the Commonwealth and the clear disadvantage of States and Territories.”
“Although few commentators have paid much attention, it is highly significant that National Cabinet operates within the framework of the Federal Cabinet. The Prime Minister has made this clear as early as 15 March, saying that National Cabinet had been ‘established formally under the Commonwealth government's cabinet guidelines’.”
In a submission to the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet further explained that National Cabinet is actually constituted as a “Cabinet Office Policy Committee” and operates in accordance with established Federal Cabinet rules of collective responsibility, solidarity and confidentiality.
The Federal Cabinet Handbook, the latest edition approved by Prime Minister Morrison, states that the Prime Minister is ‘the final arbiter’ of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee membership, agenda, processes and decisions. In “exceptional circumstances where a collective decision is not possible the Prime Minister’s view is authoritative.’
Asked at the Senate Select Committee about the secrecy of National Cabinet, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Secretary Philip Gaetjens confirmed that ‘the deliberations of the [National] cabinet and the decisions are protected.’ Last Friday, the Prime Minister reiterated that National Cabinet “operates under the Federal Cabinet's rules and that relates to the security of documents, process, procedure.’
“This is a profound shift in the operation of Federal-State relations”, Senator Patrick said.
“Unlike COAG where the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers all enjoyed equal status, in National Cabinet the Premiers are the Prime Minister’s invited guests to a Federal Cabinet Committee.
“Whatever agreements may be reached between the Prime Minister and the Premiers, it is the Prime Minister who sets the agenda, has the last word and decides what can and cannot be said about those deliberations. In recent times the Prime Minister has sought to further expand Federal Cabinet secrecy, even having his Department argue that the dates of Cabinet meetings must be exempted from Freedom of Information release.”
“The Prime Minister is now not only the ‘final arbiter’ of National Cabinet confidentiality, his decisions on that are subject to enforcement under the secrecy provisions of the Commonwealth’s Criminal Code Act 1995.”
”The Premiers may well need to get legal advice before they speak publicly, or even talk to their state ministerial colleagues, about what goes on in National Cabinet. An unauthorised disclosure of National Cabinet deliberations, that is unauthorised by the Prime Minister, could potentially trigger an Australian Federal Police investigation – even if the disclosure took place within a State Cabinet meeting.”
“One wonders why the Premiers agreed to subordinate themselves to such a regime, though the likely impact of the COVID-19 crisis on state revenues leaves them with little option other than to go cap in hand to the Commonwealth for increased financial support. With financial dependence comes deeper political dependence.”
“As the National Cabinet agenda expands beyond COVID-19 to cover all those things previously dealt with at COAG, the Premiers will be all the more beholden to the Prime Minister and subordination of state leaders to National Cabinet secrecy could well undermine responsible government within the States.”
“National Cabinet is unquestionably a major power grab by the Scott Morrison and the Commonwealth bureaucracy behind him”, Senator Patrick said. “It is likely to be seen as a major milestone in the decline of Australian Federalism.”
“All this bodes ill for the smaller States such as South Australia and Tasmania which have been able to use the more public, consensus-based decision making of COAG to better protect the interests of their people. COAG might have been cumbersome and frustrating in its operation, but it did give the smaller states more leverage in the affairs of our nation than would otherwise be the case.”
“SA Premier Steven Marshall is unlikely to enjoy much advantage negotiating for South Australia on issues such as manufacturing, energy, water and the Murray-Darling Basin, in a closed, secretive Federal Cabinet process – a forum controlled by a Prime Minister with political interests firmly focused on the eastern Australia seaboard.”
“In these circumstances South Australia will have to rely all the more on our Senate representation – on Senators who put South Australia first and who are not afraid to press hard, using whatever legislative leverage is available, to secure for the best deals for our state.”
“Centre Alliance is the only South Australian party, free from wider political entanglements and conflicts of interests, that is free to put South Australia first. SA will need more of that sort of representation in the future."
SCOTT MORRISON Dictatorship under #NationalCabinet
"Federal Cabinet Handbook, states that PM is ‘the final arbiter’ of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee membership, agenda, processes and decisions."
rex.centrealliance.org.au/media/releases
#auspol2020
All the Prime Minister’s Premiers: Scott Morrison's New National Cabinet Power Grab Likely To Be A Raw Deal For The States
1 June 2020
Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick today cautioned that Prime
Minister Scott Morrison’s National Cabinet, which brings State Premiers
together underneath him rather than alongside him, will significantly
weaken the position of the Australian states while also expanding
government secrecy and undermining responsible government.“While National Cabinet has served Australia well in coordinating COVID-19 decision making, it is likely to have a pernicious longer-term effect on the Australian Federation,” Senator Patrick said. “The influence of the smaller states such as South Australia is likely to be further diminished in the new highly secretive National Cabinet process.”
On 13 March 2020 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to Prime Minister Morrison’s proposal to establish a National Cabinet to coordinate Federal, State and Territory responses to the COVID-19 crisis. On 29 May 2020 the Prime Minister announced that COAG was abolished, to be replaced by National Cabinet as a permanent forum, the centrepiece of a broad shakeup of federal-state relations.
“By securing the agreement of the Premiers to abolishing the leading intergovernmental forum of COAG, the Prime Minister has shifted Federal power balance to the significant advantage of the Commonwealth and the clear disadvantage of States and Territories.”
“Although few commentators have paid much attention, it is highly significant that National Cabinet operates within the framework of the Federal Cabinet. The Prime Minister has made this clear as early as 15 March, saying that National Cabinet had been ‘established formally under the Commonwealth government's cabinet guidelines’.”
In a submission to the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet further explained that National Cabinet is actually constituted as a “Cabinet Office Policy Committee” and operates in accordance with established Federal Cabinet rules of collective responsibility, solidarity and confidentiality.
The Federal Cabinet Handbook, the latest edition approved by Prime Minister Morrison, states that the Prime Minister is ‘the final arbiter’ of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee membership, agenda, processes and decisions. In “exceptional circumstances where a collective decision is not possible the Prime Minister’s view is authoritative.’
Asked at the Senate Select Committee about the secrecy of National Cabinet, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Secretary Philip Gaetjens confirmed that ‘the deliberations of the [National] cabinet and the decisions are protected.’ Last Friday, the Prime Minister reiterated that National Cabinet “operates under the Federal Cabinet's rules and that relates to the security of documents, process, procedure.’
“This is a profound shift in the operation of Federal-State relations”, Senator Patrick said.
“Unlike COAG where the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers all enjoyed equal status, in National Cabinet the Premiers are the Prime Minister’s invited guests to a Federal Cabinet Committee.
“Whatever agreements may be reached between the Prime Minister and the Premiers, it is the Prime Minister who sets the agenda, has the last word and decides what can and cannot be said about those deliberations. In recent times the Prime Minister has sought to further expand Federal Cabinet secrecy, even having his Department argue that the dates of Cabinet meetings must be exempted from Freedom of Information release.”
“The Prime Minister is now not only the ‘final arbiter’ of National Cabinet confidentiality, his decisions on that are subject to enforcement under the secrecy provisions of the Commonwealth’s Criminal Code Act 1995.”
”The Premiers may well need to get legal advice before they speak publicly, or even talk to their state ministerial colleagues, about what goes on in National Cabinet. An unauthorised disclosure of National Cabinet deliberations, that is unauthorised by the Prime Minister, could potentially trigger an Australian Federal Police investigation – even if the disclosure took place within a State Cabinet meeting.”
“One wonders why the Premiers agreed to subordinate themselves to such a regime, though the likely impact of the COVID-19 crisis on state revenues leaves them with little option other than to go cap in hand to the Commonwealth for increased financial support. With financial dependence comes deeper political dependence.”
“As the National Cabinet agenda expands beyond COVID-19 to cover all those things previously dealt with at COAG, the Premiers will be all the more beholden to the Prime Minister and subordination of state leaders to National Cabinet secrecy could well undermine responsible government within the States.”
“National Cabinet is unquestionably a major power grab by the Scott Morrison and the Commonwealth bureaucracy behind him”, Senator Patrick said. “It is likely to be seen as a major milestone in the decline of Australian Federalism.”
“All this bodes ill for the smaller States such as South Australia and Tasmania which have been able to use the more public, consensus-based decision making of COAG to better protect the interests of their people. COAG might have been cumbersome and frustrating in its operation, but it did give the smaller states more leverage in the affairs of our nation than would otherwise be the case.”
“SA Premier Steven Marshall is unlikely to enjoy much advantage negotiating for South Australia on issues such as manufacturing, energy, water and the Murray-Darling Basin, in a closed, secretive Federal Cabinet process – a forum controlled by a Prime Minister with political interests firmly focused on the eastern Australia seaboard.”
“In these circumstances South Australia will have to rely all the more on our Senate representation – on Senators who put South Australia first and who are not afraid to press hard, using whatever legislative leverage is available, to secure for the best deals for our state.”
“Centre Alliance is the only South Australian party, free from wider political entanglements and conflicts of interests, that is free to put South Australia first. SA will need more of that sort of representation in the future."
***...so there you go...not that I have any real confidence in Rex, but he raises some very valid and concerning points here...(he also asks some critical questions, eg, why would the State surrender so much power, and apparently so willingly?, are there funding bribes and/or threats involved?-Ed)...well quite, why? why hand over power, and particularly Tassie and SA who needed COAG to maintain some semblance of balance and equality? have they done this 'cos they're Liberal Premiers and are clearly more loyal to their Federal Party than to their State constituents?...(what now for the Murray Darling Basin Plan and potential disastrous fall-out for SA?-Ed)...indeed, I hadn't got that far with my own dissection of this Fascist farce, but Rex is absolutely right about how SA will suffer if it's to the benefit/maintenance of Eastern States wants and/or needs...and not just the highly contentious and critically endangered and fundamentally important Murray River, needed not just for SA irrigation/agriculture, but also the source of the vast majority of Adelaide's water, etc, does this also mean more SA State-wide black-outs when Victoria and/or New South Wales need the electricity and the Interconnectors are shut-down?...(why do I feel like we're in free-fall but haven't bothered to invest in a parachute?-Ed)...because that's a perfectly appropriate response to this extraordinarily concerning situation...it looks like we, SA, are absolutely screwed...(and only slightly less than Democracy in Australia-Ed)...well 'We're All In This Together', mate...(go Team Australia!-Ed)...
And this is how Democracy dies in Australia, with barely a whimper...
Tomorrow: All About Me And My COVID19 Ironies
And just listening today to Home Affairs Minister Peter 'Angry Potato' Dutton in Parliament yet again using the extraordinary hypocrisy of the 'We Must Stop Paedophiles' Trojan horse excuse/justification to again argue for even more and increased surveillance powers for Australia's 'security services' to be able to monitor Oz citizens...(it's his favourite li'l manipulative hypocrisy isnt' it? he regularly uses it to justify Australia's multiple and ongoing Human Rights breaches against Refugees and Asylum Seekers, breaches that have and continue to include children, eg, the single family on Christmas Island-Ed)...absolutely, there's nothing an LNP Minister loves more than spewing-out a screeching hypocrises whilst ignoring and/or cynically misrepresenting the reality of their own conduct...(and this is where we do the joke about how it's a pity that those kids aren't au-pairs for Liberal Party donors, 'cos then they'd have good ol' Sturmfuhrer Pete gettin' them visas lickety-split-Ed)...indeed, and if y'all don't know what we're on about, just Interweb Dutton and au-pairs to read all about Petey's dodgy deals-for-mates corruption with those visas...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
And this is how Democracy dies in Australia, with barely a whimper...
Tomorrow: All About Me And My COVID19 Ironies
And just listening today to Home Affairs Minister Peter 'Angry Potato' Dutton in Parliament yet again using the extraordinary hypocrisy of the 'We Must Stop Paedophiles' Trojan horse excuse/justification to again argue for even more and increased surveillance powers for Australia's 'security services' to be able to monitor Oz citizens...(it's his favourite li'l manipulative hypocrisy isnt' it? he regularly uses it to justify Australia's multiple and ongoing Human Rights breaches against Refugees and Asylum Seekers, breaches that have and continue to include children, eg, the single family on Christmas Island-Ed)...absolutely, there's nothing an LNP Minister loves more than spewing-out a screeching hypocrises whilst ignoring and/or cynically misrepresenting the reality of their own conduct...(and this is where we do the joke about how it's a pity that those kids aren't au-pairs for Liberal Party donors, 'cos then they'd have good ol' Sturmfuhrer Pete gettin' them visas lickety-split-Ed)...indeed, and if y'all don't know what we're on about, just Interweb Dutton and au-pairs to read all about Petey's dodgy deals-for-mates corruption with those visas...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Saturday, June 6, 2020
Fascism Will Come Wrapped In The Flag And Bearing A Cross
This saying is often attributed to Nobel-award winning author Sinclair Wilson, but there are others who reckon it was James Waterman Wise...I've Interwebbed this but still dunno' exactly who's done what, but anyhoos, it describes perfectly what is happening with Donald Trump and Scott Morrison at the moment, and where both the USofA and Australia are headed politically...(if not already there-Ed)...indeed, and there can be no better example than Donald Trump's li'l effort this week, when he,
1) hid in the White House bunker to avoid "intense but relatively peaceful" protestors, and then,
2) stung by the resultant appropriate criticism, used militaristic-armed police and other 'security
forces' to attack and pepper spray/pepper gun/tear gas peaceful protestors, the media and even
some priests/church staff so as to,
3) violently force them all away from that church so that he, li'l Donny, could,
4) pompously stride across the road to stand in front of said church and wave a bible about for,
5) what was clearly a self-promoting photo-opportunity.
These are not the intelligent Nation Healing actions of a highly respected 'Leader of the Free World', this is the maniacally narcissistic lunacy of a tin-pot dictator, of a petulant despot...(and then he's bleating about how he didn't hide in the bunker, no, it was only an "inspection" visit for "a tiny little short period"-Ed)...really? a "tiny little short period"? sounds like a kindergarten kid furiously denying something with every word in their toddler vocabulary...(indeed it does-Ed)...and yet is still one of his more coherent sentences...and has anyone done a joke yet about how Donny was just nipping-off for a round of golf, like he's been known to do during a crisis...(what, like because someone said 'bunker' so he thought it was golf time?-Ed)...yeah, anyone done that joke yet?...(probably not, 'cos anyone who knows anything about the Orange Roughy's propensity for cheating at golf and shamelessly lying about his world-beating handicap, etc, etc, they know that li'l Donny's such a phenomenal golfer that he's never been in a bunker in his life!-Ed)...taboomtish...(thankyou thankyou, yes, if his own conduct re golfing isn't orgasmically hilarious enough, hopefully we've got y'all there with that li'l effort-Ed)...and I'm luvin' that the #BunkerBoy is trending widely, that'll be driving him nuts...
(Well I love the thing that's trending about going somewhere you've never been before and holding-up a book you've never read, just so you can have your photo taken doing that-Ed)...indeed, as a scathing commentary on the above disgracefully Fascist conduct of the Orange Roughy...(and for clarification dear availees, yes the Orange Roughy is li'l Donny, but it's also a particularly 'unattractive' fish, just Interweb it, the similarity is both disturbing and hilarious-Ed)...and it is the gift that keeps on giving, 'cos the Orange Roughy comes from the Slimehead family of fishes...(mate, you couldn't make this shizzle up!-Ed)...indeed, but now, enough of this post-script preamble, here's the actual post...
Howdy dear availees in Germany, France, Turkmenistan, and Austria, welcome to TMGI...starting again where we left-off with the last post about the Criminal Cabal that is the Liberal/National Party Coalition, and the current/ongoing march/slide/stampede into Fascism in Australia...I do reckon I know more about politics in this country than many people, but I'm still a relative amateur, and there's plenty who are more specifically knowledgeable than I, but dead-set, you'd have to have been living under the proverbial rock to not see the LNP's agenda for Total Control and Zero Accountability...(well, under a rock or just wilfully ignorant, ya' know, "there's none so blind as those that refuse to see", and all that-Ed)...fair enough, and I s'pose there's also those who still 'trust' the pathetically pro-LNP complicit Main Stream Media and ABC and therefore believe the dross and/or do not see the deliberate omissions, etc...(yep, and omissions are often as telling as the lies and bias and deliberate misrepresentations-Ed)...sure, and carefully mis-told truths are equally manipulative...("mis-told truths"?-Ed)...yeah, take the ABC's reportage of the recent admission by the LNP that the deliberately vicious and punitive bastardry of Robodebt was a 'mistake', in fact, that can be out first paragraph...
1) hid in the White House bunker to avoid "intense but relatively peaceful" protestors, and then,
2) stung by the resultant appropriate criticism, used militaristic-armed police and other 'security
forces' to attack and pepper spray/pepper gun/tear gas peaceful protestors, the media and even
some priests/church staff so as to,
3) violently force them all away from that church so that he, li'l Donny, could,
4) pompously stride across the road to stand in front of said church and wave a bible about for,
5) what was clearly a self-promoting photo-opportunity.
These are not the intelligent Nation Healing actions of a highly respected 'Leader of the Free World', this is the maniacally narcissistic lunacy of a tin-pot dictator, of a petulant despot...(and then he's bleating about how he didn't hide in the bunker, no, it was only an "inspection" visit for "a tiny little short period"-Ed)...really? a "tiny little short period"? sounds like a kindergarten kid furiously denying something with every word in their toddler vocabulary...(indeed it does-Ed)...and yet is still one of his more coherent sentences...and has anyone done a joke yet about how Donny was just nipping-off for a round of golf, like he's been known to do during a crisis...(what, like because someone said 'bunker' so he thought it was golf time?-Ed)...yeah, anyone done that joke yet?...(probably not, 'cos anyone who knows anything about the Orange Roughy's propensity for cheating at golf and shamelessly lying about his world-beating handicap, etc, etc, they know that li'l Donny's such a phenomenal golfer that he's never been in a bunker in his life!-Ed)...taboomtish...(thankyou thankyou, yes, if his own conduct re golfing isn't orgasmically hilarious enough, hopefully we've got y'all there with that li'l effort-Ed)...and I'm luvin' that the #BunkerBoy is trending widely, that'll be driving him nuts...
(Well I love the thing that's trending about going somewhere you've never been before and holding-up a book you've never read, just so you can have your photo taken doing that-Ed)...indeed, as a scathing commentary on the above disgracefully Fascist conduct of the Orange Roughy...(and for clarification dear availees, yes the Orange Roughy is li'l Donny, but it's also a particularly 'unattractive' fish, just Interweb it, the similarity is both disturbing and hilarious-Ed)...and it is the gift that keeps on giving, 'cos the Orange Roughy comes from the Slimehead family of fishes...(mate, you couldn't make this shizzle up!-Ed)...indeed, but now, enough of this post-script preamble, here's the actual post...
Howdy dear availees in Germany, France, Turkmenistan, and Austria, welcome to TMGI...starting again where we left-off with the last post about the Criminal Cabal that is the Liberal/National Party Coalition, and the current/ongoing march/slide/stampede into Fascism in Australia...I do reckon I know more about politics in this country than many people, but I'm still a relative amateur, and there's plenty who are more specifically knowledgeable than I, but dead-set, you'd have to have been living under the proverbial rock to not see the LNP's agenda for Total Control and Zero Accountability...(well, under a rock or just wilfully ignorant, ya' know, "there's none so blind as those that refuse to see", and all that-Ed)...fair enough, and I s'pose there's also those who still 'trust' the pathetically pro-LNP complicit Main Stream Media and ABC and therefore believe the dross and/or do not see the deliberate omissions, etc...(yep, and omissions are often as telling as the lies and bias and deliberate misrepresentations-Ed)...sure, and carefully mis-told truths are equally manipulative...("mis-told truths"?-Ed)...yeah, take the ABC's reportage of the recent admission by the LNP that the deliberately vicious and punitive bastardry of Robodebt was a 'mistake', in fact, that can be out first paragraph...
RoboDebt Cop-out:...is when the LNP, knowing full-well for years that the RoboDebt scheme was 'illegal' and dysfunctional and causing massive trauma and harm in the community, suddenly turns around last Friday afternoon (29th May 2020) and, following-on from a recent Court decision and in the looming shadow of a massive and likely successful Public Class Action against RoboDebt and/or the government, Scummo (via Minister Stuart Roberts) suddenly announces that it's all been a bit of an unfortunate 'logarithmic misunderstanding', a 'technical glitch with the program', etc, and actually it was Labor's fault in the first place because 'they started it', etc, etc, and all carefully admitted and reported late on a Friday afternoon so as to try to avoid the main news cycle...(yep, a mere $720million glitch involving approx 350,000 people and 480,000 individual debts, generated by an entirely automated program, on a Reverse Onus of Proof basis, ie, you prove you don't owe us that money we've randomly claimed that you do, without providing you any proof, etc, and then enforced by professional private contracted Debt Collectors, and thusly deliberately causing massive trauma, reportedly including as many as 2,000 suicides-Ed)...and not one of the rancid bastards who deliberately implemented this massively Fascist attack on the poor and vulnerable, not Scummo, not Christian Porter, not Rolex Robbo, not one of them's got the common human decency to apologise...(well why apologise for what you've done deliberately and with the results/traumas that you always intended to inflict?-Ed)...indeed, the born-to-rule shyster grifters that are the LNP...
And when ya' want to look at how the Main Stream Media, including the ABC, is deliberately manipulating the reality of what they are 'reporting', you need to study the language and context...(but you don't need to look too hard, it's pretty obvious-Ed)...indeed, and because this says it perfectly, I've 'borrowed' this from Twitter...apologies that I haven't copied the Twitterer responsible, and sorry to them too, but this point is repeated in many forms across many, many Tweets, and the substance is applicable to the MSM reportage as well...so here 'tis...***
This is disgraceful framing from a public broadcaster. Delete please. Now.
1. They weren't debts. That's what the court found.
2. So they can't have been 'clawed back'. Try 'unlawfully taken'.
3. The scheme wasn't controversial; it was illegal.
Quote Tweet
ABC News
@abcnews
·
#BREAKING: The Federal Government has announced it will refund $721 million dollars worth of debts it clawed back through its controversial robodebt scheme.
***...(yeah, it's appalling, deliberately manipulative language and typical of how the ABC contextualises it's massively pro-LNP biased reportage by framing questions along LNP policy lines and using LNP speaking points as supposedly independent ABC editorialising, and not challenging LNP actions/statements, etc, etc, but I think your missing the main manipulation here-Ed)...how so?...(well what happened literally only minutes before Robbo mate dropped that $720million bombshell in Brisbane?-Ed)...ummm, are you alluding to the Scummo press conference in Canberra where he announced that he was scrapping COAG (Council of Australian Governments) and replacing it with a permanent National Cabinet, as appointed/instigated by Scummo during the early stages of the COVID19 Pandemic, and clearly designed to remove federal Labor from the governing process, an agenda re-enforced by cancelling proper parliamentary sitting times?...(yep, and National Cabinet itself followed on from Scummo declaring himself a One Person Cabinet, and Scummo also unilaterally appointing a group of mining executives as his massively paid COVID Recovery Team, details of which he refuses to discuss/provide-Ed)...it's almost like Scummo's doing everything he can to give himself total control with virtually zero accountability...(it's exactly what he's doing mate, and it's text-book Fascism 101-Ed)...strewth...
Oh wait, I think I see, so you're suggesting that, whilst the timing of the RoboDebt backflip was also about doing it late on a Friday, it was mainly about distracting attention away from the actual main game, which was the implementation of permanent National Cabinet and the implied/actual application of 'Cabinet In-Confidence' secrecy provisions being applied to what was previously COAG's relative transparency...(spot on mate, you've nailed it, the decision itself and the timing of the announcement are rat-cunning manipulations that are entirely about vastly increasing 1) Scummo's personal control, and 2) the secrecy of future government decisions/actions, and 3) doing everything possible to avoid appropriate scrutiny of that original decision and these resultant implications-Ed)...and that right there's the foundations of and/or path to Fascism...and as featured frequently across Twitter, there's this...***
***...(yeah, it's appalling, deliberately manipulative language and typical of how the ABC contextualises it's massively pro-LNP biased reportage by framing questions along LNP policy lines and using LNP speaking points as supposedly independent ABC editorialising, and not challenging LNP actions/statements, etc, etc, but I think your missing the main manipulation here-Ed)...how so?...(well what happened literally only minutes before Robbo mate dropped that $720million bombshell in Brisbane?-Ed)...ummm, are you alluding to the Scummo press conference in Canberra where he announced that he was scrapping COAG (Council of Australian Governments) and replacing it with a permanent National Cabinet, as appointed/instigated by Scummo during the early stages of the COVID19 Pandemic, and clearly designed to remove federal Labor from the governing process, an agenda re-enforced by cancelling proper parliamentary sitting times?...(yep, and National Cabinet itself followed on from Scummo declaring himself a One Person Cabinet, and Scummo also unilaterally appointing a group of mining executives as his massively paid COVID Recovery Team, details of which he refuses to discuss/provide-Ed)...it's almost like Scummo's doing everything he can to give himself total control with virtually zero accountability...(it's exactly what he's doing mate, and it's text-book Fascism 101-Ed)...strewth...
Oh wait, I think I see, so you're suggesting that, whilst the timing of the RoboDebt backflip was also about doing it late on a Friday, it was mainly about distracting attention away from the actual main game, which was the implementation of permanent National Cabinet and the implied/actual application of 'Cabinet In-Confidence' secrecy provisions being applied to what was previously COAG's relative transparency...(spot on mate, you've nailed it, the decision itself and the timing of the announcement are rat-cunning manipulations that are entirely about vastly increasing 1) Scummo's personal control, and 2) the secrecy of future government decisions/actions, and 3) doing everything possible to avoid appropriate scrutiny of that original decision and these resultant implications-Ed)...and that right there's the foundations of and/or path to Fascism...and as featured frequently across Twitter, there's this...***
1:02 PM · May 27, 2020Twitter for iPhone
...and as you can see, that list/definition is accredited to Laurence W. Britt, and the Interweb seems to agree, but again, check for y'allselves as to the actual author/credit...more to the point is that each and every point there-in has cases-in-point with the conduct of the Scummo LNP, and whilst I'm sure that regular availees will be readily able to supply their own examples/experience of these, here's just a few examples...
1) Scummo's relentless Nationalistic jingoism around "we're all in this together" and constantly referencing "ANZAC" at every opportunity, and 'Border Security', and press conferences with multiple Oz flags, and "Team Australia", etc:*
2) "Stop The Boats" and appalling treatment of Asylum Seekers/Refugees and bragging about it...vastly increased 'police powers' to monitor/search/interrogate/detain without charge Oz citizens:
3) Again, describing Refugees/Asylum seekers as "Illegal Boat Arrivals" and demonising "leaners" and anyone on Social Security...also attacking China, usually as a Nationalistic distraction from their own corruption:
4) ANZAC ANZAC ANZAC...massive and irrational expenditure on fighter jets and outdated submarines...increased militarisation of police:
5) Sexism in the LNP? if I need to explain this one to ya's, well...:
6) The Oz media is almost entirely LNP controlled and/or willingly complicit, with the criminally corrupted Murdoch Media, Sky News, The Australian, etc, Channels 7 and 9, and most critically the woefully broken LNP lap-poodles at the ABC...time and again it is Twitter that breaks and reviews the actual news; AFP (Aus Federal Police) raids on journos homes and/or workplaces:
(*Scummo's done it again yesterday, lengthy weasel-wording some association between 'sacrifices' people had to make re not attending ANZAC Day due to COVID19 restrictions, as his justification for telling people not to march for Black Lives Matter...(and New South Wales has 'banned' that protest, but recently allowed 'Anti-Isolation/Anti-Vaxxer/Anti-5G' protests, and next week is allowing rugby crowds back, but it's not about Official Rascism or anything-Ed)...and NSW has schools back and has been openly abusing Queensland for not opening borders, etc, but BLM can't happen because of public Health concerns, but it's not about Official Rascism or anything...)
7) Again, Border Force and "Stop The Boats" and increasing Surveillance Powers, and heavily-armed police at airports, fencing-off Parliament House, etc:
8) Pentecostal over-load in the LNP, especially in Federal Parliament, as led by a wannabe b-grade Televangelist...I've repeatedly stated my hopes that Scummo is just a cynical pseudo-Pentecostal sucking-up for the votes, because it is far more concerning if he is a genuine Rapture-seeking fundamentalist nutter; also Marriage Equality and Religious Discrimination hypocrisies...
9) Just standard LNP operational procedure, eg, first step of COVID support was $700m(?) to QANTAS, $$$m to Twiggy Forrester via Indue Welfare Card, $65m to Murdoch for Foxtel and regional papers, protecting banks, appointing mining execs to COVID Recovery Team, etc:
10) Again, basic LNP modus operandi, attacking Unions and wages and workers rights and welfare recipients, etc:
11) No Minister for Arts or specific department; Arts workers not covered by Jobkeeper; massive de-funding of CSIRO; ignore proven science on Climate Change and bushfires, etc:
12) 'African Gangs'; refugees are "Illegal Boat Arrivals" and are all drug dealers and paedophiles and terrorists; massive increase in ASIO powers:
13) Where to start?...(where does it stop you mean-Ed)...fair enough, the LNP is a proven Criminal Cabal defined by a litany of Institutionalised Corruption and Insider Trading and Nepotistic appointments, etc, and as routinely 'protected' by a wholly complicit AFP...eg, Barnaby Joyce and Vicki Campion's 'jobs' with Matt Canavan; literally anything related to Angus Taylor, eg, Clover Moore forged documents, or with Barnaby (Watergate), Grassgate; Matthias Cormann and Joe Hockey with HelloWorld; there are literally dozens of examples, it would be quicker to identify that which isn't corrupt dealings:
14) And that Institutionalised Corruption is particularly apparent with fraudulent behaviour around elections; how Scummo rorted pre-selection to even get into Parliament; Sports Rorts and many other election-focussed 'Pork-Barrelling Rort Grant Programs', eg, Regional Development Fund; multiple unresolved LNP Sec44 Citizenship breaches; Gladys Liu and Josh Freydenburg using Aus Electoral Commission purple livery at polling booths to tell Chinese voters to vote Liberal, etc.
...(and both 13 & 14 includes the rampant use of non-elected officials and/or 'consultants' and appointments like the C19 Recovery Team, or using Phil Gaetjens to 'excuse' Sports Rorts, etc-Ed)...
And this is just a few scattered examples, dear availees will undoubtedly be able to write long lists of your own with multiple other examples that prove the point...and as I said, that list's courtesy of Twitter, or at least via Tweeters, etc, and here's another one...these Tweets/memes say exactly what I want to say about this situation, and sometimes even better than I could articulate, so's I'm cut-n-pasting these two, with appropriate credit...***
1) Scummo's relentless Nationalistic jingoism around "we're all in this together" and constantly referencing "ANZAC" at every opportunity, and 'Border Security', and press conferences with multiple Oz flags, and "Team Australia", etc:*
2) "Stop The Boats" and appalling treatment of Asylum Seekers/Refugees and bragging about it...vastly increased 'police powers' to monitor/search/interrogate/detain without charge Oz citizens:
3) Again, describing Refugees/Asylum seekers as "Illegal Boat Arrivals" and demonising "leaners" and anyone on Social Security...also attacking China, usually as a Nationalistic distraction from their own corruption:
4) ANZAC ANZAC ANZAC...massive and irrational expenditure on fighter jets and outdated submarines...increased militarisation of police:
5) Sexism in the LNP? if I need to explain this one to ya's, well...:
6) The Oz media is almost entirely LNP controlled and/or willingly complicit, with the criminally corrupted Murdoch Media, Sky News, The Australian, etc, Channels 7 and 9, and most critically the woefully broken LNP lap-poodles at the ABC...time and again it is Twitter that breaks and reviews the actual news; AFP (Aus Federal Police) raids on journos homes and/or workplaces:
(*Scummo's done it again yesterday, lengthy weasel-wording some association between 'sacrifices' people had to make re not attending ANZAC Day due to COVID19 restrictions, as his justification for telling people not to march for Black Lives Matter...(and New South Wales has 'banned' that protest, but recently allowed 'Anti-Isolation/Anti-Vaxxer/Anti-5G' protests, and next week is allowing rugby crowds back, but it's not about Official Rascism or anything-Ed)...and NSW has schools back and has been openly abusing Queensland for not opening borders, etc, but BLM can't happen because of public Health concerns, but it's not about Official Rascism or anything...)
7) Again, Border Force and "Stop The Boats" and increasing Surveillance Powers, and heavily-armed police at airports, fencing-off Parliament House, etc:
8) Pentecostal over-load in the LNP, especially in Federal Parliament, as led by a wannabe b-grade Televangelist...I've repeatedly stated my hopes that Scummo is just a cynical pseudo-Pentecostal sucking-up for the votes, because it is far more concerning if he is a genuine Rapture-seeking fundamentalist nutter; also Marriage Equality and Religious Discrimination hypocrisies...
9) Just standard LNP operational procedure, eg, first step of COVID support was $700m(?) to QANTAS, $$$m to Twiggy Forrester via Indue Welfare Card, $65m to Murdoch for Foxtel and regional papers, protecting banks, appointing mining execs to COVID Recovery Team, etc:
10) Again, basic LNP modus operandi, attacking Unions and wages and workers rights and welfare recipients, etc:
11) No Minister for Arts or specific department; Arts workers not covered by Jobkeeper; massive de-funding of CSIRO; ignore proven science on Climate Change and bushfires, etc:
12) 'African Gangs'; refugees are "Illegal Boat Arrivals" and are all drug dealers and paedophiles and terrorists; massive increase in ASIO powers:
13) Where to start?...(where does it stop you mean-Ed)...fair enough, the LNP is a proven Criminal Cabal defined by a litany of Institutionalised Corruption and Insider Trading and Nepotistic appointments, etc, and as routinely 'protected' by a wholly complicit AFP...eg, Barnaby Joyce and Vicki Campion's 'jobs' with Matt Canavan; literally anything related to Angus Taylor, eg, Clover Moore forged documents, or with Barnaby (Watergate), Grassgate; Matthias Cormann and Joe Hockey with HelloWorld; there are literally dozens of examples, it would be quicker to identify that which isn't corrupt dealings:
14) And that Institutionalised Corruption is particularly apparent with fraudulent behaviour around elections; how Scummo rorted pre-selection to even get into Parliament; Sports Rorts and many other election-focussed 'Pork-Barrelling Rort Grant Programs', eg, Regional Development Fund; multiple unresolved LNP Sec44 Citizenship breaches; Gladys Liu and Josh Freydenburg using Aus Electoral Commission purple livery at polling booths to tell Chinese voters to vote Liberal, etc.
...(and both 13 & 14 includes the rampant use of non-elected officials and/or 'consultants' and appointments like the C19 Recovery Team, or using Phil Gaetjens to 'excuse' Sports Rorts, etc-Ed)...
And this is just a few scattered examples, dear availees will undoubtedly be able to write long lists of your own with multiple other examples that prove the point...and as I said, that list's courtesy of Twitter, or at least via Tweeters, etc, and here's another one...these Tweets/memes say exactly what I want to say about this situation, and sometimes even better than I could articulate, so's I'm cut-n-pasting these two, with appropriate credit...***
@BilliFitzSimons
·
A Bible, tear gas and riot police: Donald Trump's most shameful photo opportunity.
mamamia.com.au/donald-trump-b
***...and that's just one of many such scathing condemnations from various 'religious leaders'...(I like the one from the Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, she's a beaut-Ed)...indeed, and it's available on the Interweb, just search her name and 'Trump, it's well worth the effort...(and didn't the OR double-down by doing it again the next day?-Ed)...yeah, he went to some Pope's shrine or church, whatevs, I really couldn't care less, but the media coverage of that second photo op is less than glowing, and particularly Twitter is hilariously irreverent and insightfully accurate...(yeah, also lotsa' people saying they reckon that, if that even is actually Melania, she's displaying 'Battered Wife Syndrome'-Ed)...indeed, but we're not gettin' into that stuff now, suffice to say that both of these have been repeatedly alleged for years, and not least of all because of Trumps abusive and narcissistic comments/bragging about assaulting women, and his public derogatory and bullying behaviour towards female reporters, etc...
Tomorrow: My COVID19 Ironies
Given that it's supposedly all but over, the COVID19 pandemic that is, it's probably well-past time I actually posted this piece I started 2 months ago...and whilst I'm absolutely stoked to be back at gym, I'm also really hoping that we haven't jumped the gun a bit and aren't headed to C19 Wave II...(well here's hoping, but there continues to be fresh 'clusters', particularly some relating to schools-Ed)...yeah, it's likely to be with us until a vaccine is widely available, so in the meanwhilst, proper social distancing and personal hygiene protocols are still incredibly important, so for the wellbeing of everyone, please be aware of this stuff and act appropriately...
Given that it's supposedly all but over, the COVID19 pandemic that is, it's probably well-past time I actually posted this piece I started 2 months ago...and whilst I'm absolutely stoked to be back at gym, I'm also really hoping that we haven't jumped the gun a bit and aren't headed to C19 Wave II...(well here's hoping, but there continues to be fresh 'clusters', particularly some relating to schools-Ed)...yeah, it's likely to be with us until a vaccine is widely available, so in the meanwhilst, proper social distancing and personal hygiene protocols are still incredibly important, so for the wellbeing of everyone, please be aware of this stuff and act appropriately...
And in closing, just another li'l something I've seen doing the Twitter rounds for a coupla' months, in reference to the Orange Roughy, to the tune of Supercalla-fragalistic-expealodocious, or howevs' that's spelled, and it goes a little like this...Trump is a Super Callous Fragile Racist Sexist Nazi POTUS...(spot on mate, spot on-Ed)...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog, cheers and laters...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog, cheers and laters...
Monday, June 1, 2020
Black Lives Matter In Australia Too, Not That You'd Know It
Howdy dear availees, and welcome to a very quick post about the inherent Rascism and Inequality in Australia, and how we'd all do well to get the log outta' our own collective eye before we start slingin' opinionated derision at the USofA and what's happening there at the moment...(at what's been happening for decades, even centuries-Ed)...indeed, as it has been here in Oz...(fair point-Ed)...and because I'll really only scratch the surface in this post, we will return to this topic...also, regular availees will know full well that I'm not just jumping on the Woke Wagon, with my copy of the Black Armband Historical Omnibus tucked neatly under one arm, 'cos I have many times in this 'ere blog identified my position as Privileged First Generation White Australian, who comes to enjoy that 'privilege' because I was born White and a Man in a Stolen Land...and we did steal it, by any standard, be that by the Law of Slaughter and Genocide and Disenfranchisement and Displacement, but also in many circumstances we, us White folk, we made actual Contractual Agreements with the Aboriginal peoples already living in this land, our Contracts under our Laws, and we have failed to fulfil our obligations relative to those/our Contracts...
And I'm simply going to invite y'all, if you're not already aware, to research for ya' good selves the realities of those 'Contracts'...although Wikipaedia refers to the Batman Treaty (183?) as being the sole example of such contracts, that is not strictly true, eg, early Colonists in New South Wales had 'Contracts' with Aboriginal people and in South Australia the Letters Patent that define the 'State' include a clause acknowledging Aboriginal Land Rights, but those 'Rights' have never been honoured in practice...and I'll make my opinionated observation here that the Wikipaedia 'sole example' stuff is very much in the same context as saying things like The Last of the Mohicans, or as we have here, The Last Tasmanian Aboriginal, and that these statements are a heavily legalised agenda of severing rights established by Indigenous Land Title Through Continuous Occupation, my terminology 'cos I don't know the correct legal term, but you get what I mean...(so, by declaring the group/tribe/family as 'extinct', that denies any attempt to claim ILTTCO?-Ed)...exactly, how can Tasmanian Aboriginals claim ILTTCO if it doesn't exist because neither do they, supposedly...(wow, that's some political legal bastardry right there-Ed)...indeed it is, and what's more, it's a lie, 'cos as we all know, there are many Tasmanian Aboriginals and that that ILTTCO has not been extinguished...(and that's despite the official massacres designed to officially eradicate Aboriginals in Tasmania-Ed)...well exactly, part of that process of disenfranchisement and theft was organised 'hunts'...
And like the 'Contracts/Agreements' and many other massacres, etc, this is seldom if ever discussed when we choose to celebrate how great we are as a nation, and is rarely if ever taught in Australian schools...we love to get on our high horses about Nazism and the Holocaust, or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or the Rwandan Genocide, or the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, or Rascism in the USofA, or Chinese Totalitarianism, etc, etc, etc, but we are far less keen to engage with our own history...(and in many instance it's out of pure ignorance, because, as you said, we just don't acknowledge this stuff and don't teach it in our schools, etc-Ed)...that's a fair point, but to what degree does ignorance excuse continuance?...(well good point, but that's a whole other rabbit hole to disappear down, and across so many issues-Ed)...and in the modern technological age where the truth about all this stuff is generally only a few clicks away, at what point does ignorance cease to be an excuse for ignorance?...(wow, now you're gettin' ya'self wedged into multiple rabbit holes-Ed)...indeed, let's return to the main focus of this 'ere post...
In that context, I will identify the appallingly disproportionate rates of Indigenous Incarceration and Deaths In Custody in Australia...but I'm not going to just trot-out a series of statistics and numbers here, because we know these figures if we want to know, and if y'all don't already know you can readily educate ya'self, and I'd politely suggest that we all re-inform ourselves right now, it's all well documented, and just those few clicks away...in fact, as a show of respect and solidarity for Aboriginal people, whether you think you know this stuff or not, I politely request that y'all temporarily discontinue with this post and spend just 30 minutes researching for ya'selves both the current realities of Indigenous Inequality in the Courts/Corrections, etc, and the mind-numbing rates of Deaths In Custody, etc, and perhaps also look at the history of Massacres, etc...and if you do not know these realities and yet choose to not look at this stuff, then that is your conscious decision to live in ignorance and denial...
Anyhoos, the Batman Treaty and similar agreements were officially over-ruled/dismissed in 1835 and 'replaced' with language about how the land was 'vacant' and 'void of life'...(and didn't that choice chunka' Right Wing Nut Jobbery, former LNP Prime Minister Tony Abbott, didn't he recently repeat that? or was it our current God-Botherer RWNJ LNP PM Scott 'Scummo' Morrison, was it him what said that?-Ed)...nah, reckon it was Tony who referred to Oz as "unsettled or partially settled" and on another occasion as "nothing but bush", "an empty land", etc, and referred to West Australian remote Indigenous communities as "lifestyle choices"...(wow-Ed)...oh yeah, and in the context where the WA government was closing some of those communities...(wow, that's a mega-wow-Ed)...yep, but he ain't exactly Robinson Crusoe is he in the LNP, they have a thinly-veiled collective hatred for Aboriginal people...(indeed, the LNP hates Aboriginals nearly as much as they hate the poor, and that's saying something-Ed)...well quite...(I reckon Scummo's attempt to reconstruct history was that he actually wanted to spend $50million plus to renovate the Cook Memorial in Sydney, and better still, do a fully sick lap of honour for ol' Cooky mate with a "re-enactment of Cook's circumnavigation of Australia", something that never actually happened-Ed)...ah yes, classic jingoistic stupidity, but we digress...
There have been various 'Contracts' or 'Agreements' or 'Statutes', whatevs, for use of the lands that Aboriginals lived in and as a part there-of, and we do not teach our kids about this stuff, and rarely do we educate or even acknowledge the Massacres and the Rapes and the Slavery and the Poisonings and the deliberate Infections, etc, etc, etc...and then we have the Stolen Generations, and only recently, the Howard government Intervention, an Intervention 'justified' by the untruthful denigration of Epidemic Paedophilia and Neglect, etc, but actually motivated by a political desire to literally remove Aboriginal people from those lands so as to make those lands available for Mining Development...(and that's how we continue to treat Aboriginal people in the 21st Century, abuse and denigration and disenfranchisement and seemingly endless suffering-Ed)...and not least of all in the name of White Profit...and I can think of no better example of that than self-congratulating smug shyster and thug, Andrew Forrester, who continuously talks himself up as a great mate of Indigenous people and what great things he's done for them, etc, but the reality is a litany of actions to manipulate and defraud Indigenous landowners...and just this week, actually in Reconciliation Week, Rio Tinto blew-up a stunningly beautiful 46,000 year old sacred site in the Pilbara region of WA...(and with the approval of LNP Minister for Indigenous Affairs Ken Wyatt, himself an Aboriginal man-Ed)...indeed, and then after blowing it all to hell, Rio Tinto apologised...across the board, it's unbe-shreckin'-lievable...
I maintain that any ANZAC War Memorial should acknowledge the bravery and sacrifice of the many Aboriginal warriors who resisted the invasion of their lands and the massacres and enslavement of their people, etc, and especially the National War Museum in Canberra should have an entrance section dedicated to a factually accurate account of these 'wars', an entrance that literally forces people to either be educated and made aware, etc, or to willingly walk past the realities of our collective past...(so, make it impossible to ignore/dismiss/walk past, unless you make a conscious decision to do so?-Ed)...exactly, and no 'memorial' to the sacrifice and suffering of war, no such memorial in this country should be solely dedicated to the subliminal glorification of Empire and/or Nationalism, 'cos that's exactly what we do now...(well certainly at a political level, not all individuals are like that-Ed)...nah, fair call, but you know what I mean, pathological liars and manipulators like Scummo trotting out the ANZAC label to suit his political agenda and ramp-up the jingoistic Nationalism and guilt people into supporting whatevs political bastardry he's trying to promote...(oh absolutely, he's a classic case in point, a soulless manipulating liar who wantonly and continuously acts against the well-being of millions of Australians, routinely using 'ANZAC' to try and give his agenda credibility, and, as you say, simultaneously try to use Nationalism Guilt to force people to support him, that is, if you disagree with him and/or don't support what he's saying/doing, then you're a bad Australian and you insult the memory of our ANZAC descendants, etc-Ed)...
I remind dear availees that Aboriginal men were serving in Australian Armed Services, including at Gallipoli in 2015, and World War II, etc, at a time when they were not legally recognised back here in Oz, and returned from service often to the same bias and discrimination, etc...(and that under Terra Nullius Aboriginals were not even acknowledged as human beings until 1966, they were considered part of the natural flauna-Ed)...indeed, they were good enough as 'men' to go to distant lands and die for good ol' King and Country, but in their own country they weren't even legally human...(and Scummo has used that specific 'ANZAC' manipulation multiple times-Ed)...especially during the COVID19 Pandemic, and coupled it with increasingly militaristic language like "we're at war with an invisible enemy", and "we all have to put our weapons down", etc, and of course all of this under the umbrella term, his pet phrase, "Team Australia"...(and also of course, this militaristic language and Nationalistic jingoism, etc, these are also critical identifiers/agents of Fascism-Ed)...excellent observation Ed, and a great place to conclude today's post, and segue directly into...
Tomorrow: More Scummo/LNP Fascism
Despite their vacuous bleating to the opposite, Scummo and the LNP are definably absolutely hell-bent on dragging us ever further into a USofA-styled quagmire of Racial and Fiscal Inequality and Institutionalised Corruption and Official Political Fascism...and we must resist, that is our one true ANZAC legacy and obligation, our one true act of remembrance and recognition and respect...can't remember who said it first, but it sure-as-shreck bears repeating, 'when your government are the criminals, then it is incumbent of the citizenry to resist and oppose'...(solidarity brother!-Ed)...well quite, I appreciate the sarcasm inferred in your reference to that hilarious scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian, but in my defence, I am only spruiking support for what I've been doing for many years now, and for which I have consequently suffered the Pro-Paedophile Political Retribution of my definably corrupt "bizarre trial"...(yeah, fair call, you've certainly walked the walk-Ed)...indeed, and with my 'case' back in Court in a month, that walk is a long ways from being over...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog, cheers and laters...
PS:...for me, the lasting image I will take from what's all over Twitter and Social Media at the moment, from all of the historic footage of USofA police viciously assaulting black people, and the current stuff about peaceful protestors getting assaulted and the predominantly un-associated riots and looting, often by White men who are coming in from other towns, etc, there is a photo of a lone White cop cornered in a shop front, and the only thing between him and 'the mob' is a line of half a dozen young black men with arms linked, with their backs to the cop, protecting the cop by staring-down 'the mob'...I'll just finish there...
And I'm simply going to invite y'all, if you're not already aware, to research for ya' good selves the realities of those 'Contracts'...although Wikipaedia refers to the Batman Treaty (183?) as being the sole example of such contracts, that is not strictly true, eg, early Colonists in New South Wales had 'Contracts' with Aboriginal people and in South Australia the Letters Patent that define the 'State' include a clause acknowledging Aboriginal Land Rights, but those 'Rights' have never been honoured in practice...and I'll make my opinionated observation here that the Wikipaedia 'sole example' stuff is very much in the same context as saying things like The Last of the Mohicans, or as we have here, The Last Tasmanian Aboriginal, and that these statements are a heavily legalised agenda of severing rights established by Indigenous Land Title Through Continuous Occupation, my terminology 'cos I don't know the correct legal term, but you get what I mean...(so, by declaring the group/tribe/family as 'extinct', that denies any attempt to claim ILTTCO?-Ed)...exactly, how can Tasmanian Aboriginals claim ILTTCO if it doesn't exist because neither do they, supposedly...(wow, that's some political legal bastardry right there-Ed)...indeed it is, and what's more, it's a lie, 'cos as we all know, there are many Tasmanian Aboriginals and that that ILTTCO has not been extinguished...(and that's despite the official massacres designed to officially eradicate Aboriginals in Tasmania-Ed)...well exactly, part of that process of disenfranchisement and theft was organised 'hunts'...
And like the 'Contracts/Agreements' and many other massacres, etc, this is seldom if ever discussed when we choose to celebrate how great we are as a nation, and is rarely if ever taught in Australian schools...we love to get on our high horses about Nazism and the Holocaust, or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or the Rwandan Genocide, or the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, or Rascism in the USofA, or Chinese Totalitarianism, etc, etc, etc, but we are far less keen to engage with our own history...(and in many instance it's out of pure ignorance, because, as you said, we just don't acknowledge this stuff and don't teach it in our schools, etc-Ed)...that's a fair point, but to what degree does ignorance excuse continuance?...(well good point, but that's a whole other rabbit hole to disappear down, and across so many issues-Ed)...and in the modern technological age where the truth about all this stuff is generally only a few clicks away, at what point does ignorance cease to be an excuse for ignorance?...(wow, now you're gettin' ya'self wedged into multiple rabbit holes-Ed)...indeed, let's return to the main focus of this 'ere post...
In that context, I will identify the appallingly disproportionate rates of Indigenous Incarceration and Deaths In Custody in Australia...but I'm not going to just trot-out a series of statistics and numbers here, because we know these figures if we want to know, and if y'all don't already know you can readily educate ya'self, and I'd politely suggest that we all re-inform ourselves right now, it's all well documented, and just those few clicks away...in fact, as a show of respect and solidarity for Aboriginal people, whether you think you know this stuff or not, I politely request that y'all temporarily discontinue with this post and spend just 30 minutes researching for ya'selves both the current realities of Indigenous Inequality in the Courts/Corrections, etc, and the mind-numbing rates of Deaths In Custody, etc, and perhaps also look at the history of Massacres, etc...and if you do not know these realities and yet choose to not look at this stuff, then that is your conscious decision to live in ignorance and denial...
Anyhoos, the Batman Treaty and similar agreements were officially over-ruled/dismissed in 1835 and 'replaced' with language about how the land was 'vacant' and 'void of life'...(and didn't that choice chunka' Right Wing Nut Jobbery, former LNP Prime Minister Tony Abbott, didn't he recently repeat that? or was it our current God-Botherer RWNJ LNP PM Scott 'Scummo' Morrison, was it him what said that?-Ed)...nah, reckon it was Tony who referred to Oz as "unsettled or partially settled" and on another occasion as "nothing but bush", "an empty land", etc, and referred to West Australian remote Indigenous communities as "lifestyle choices"...(wow-Ed)...oh yeah, and in the context where the WA government was closing some of those communities...(wow, that's a mega-wow-Ed)...yep, but he ain't exactly Robinson Crusoe is he in the LNP, they have a thinly-veiled collective hatred for Aboriginal people...(indeed, the LNP hates Aboriginals nearly as much as they hate the poor, and that's saying something-Ed)...well quite...(I reckon Scummo's attempt to reconstruct history was that he actually wanted to spend $50million plus to renovate the Cook Memorial in Sydney, and better still, do a fully sick lap of honour for ol' Cooky mate with a "re-enactment of Cook's circumnavigation of Australia", something that never actually happened-Ed)...ah yes, classic jingoistic stupidity, but we digress...
There have been various 'Contracts' or 'Agreements' or 'Statutes', whatevs, for use of the lands that Aboriginals lived in and as a part there-of, and we do not teach our kids about this stuff, and rarely do we educate or even acknowledge the Massacres and the Rapes and the Slavery and the Poisonings and the deliberate Infections, etc, etc, etc...and then we have the Stolen Generations, and only recently, the Howard government Intervention, an Intervention 'justified' by the untruthful denigration of Epidemic Paedophilia and Neglect, etc, but actually motivated by a political desire to literally remove Aboriginal people from those lands so as to make those lands available for Mining Development...(and that's how we continue to treat Aboriginal people in the 21st Century, abuse and denigration and disenfranchisement and seemingly endless suffering-Ed)...and not least of all in the name of White Profit...and I can think of no better example of that than self-congratulating smug shyster and thug, Andrew Forrester, who continuously talks himself up as a great mate of Indigenous people and what great things he's done for them, etc, but the reality is a litany of actions to manipulate and defraud Indigenous landowners...and just this week, actually in Reconciliation Week, Rio Tinto blew-up a stunningly beautiful 46,000 year old sacred site in the Pilbara region of WA...(and with the approval of LNP Minister for Indigenous Affairs Ken Wyatt, himself an Aboriginal man-Ed)...indeed, and then after blowing it all to hell, Rio Tinto apologised...across the board, it's unbe-shreckin'-lievable...
I maintain that any ANZAC War Memorial should acknowledge the bravery and sacrifice of the many Aboriginal warriors who resisted the invasion of their lands and the massacres and enslavement of their people, etc, and especially the National War Museum in Canberra should have an entrance section dedicated to a factually accurate account of these 'wars', an entrance that literally forces people to either be educated and made aware, etc, or to willingly walk past the realities of our collective past...(so, make it impossible to ignore/dismiss/walk past, unless you make a conscious decision to do so?-Ed)...exactly, and no 'memorial' to the sacrifice and suffering of war, no such memorial in this country should be solely dedicated to the subliminal glorification of Empire and/or Nationalism, 'cos that's exactly what we do now...(well certainly at a political level, not all individuals are like that-Ed)...nah, fair call, but you know what I mean, pathological liars and manipulators like Scummo trotting out the ANZAC label to suit his political agenda and ramp-up the jingoistic Nationalism and guilt people into supporting whatevs political bastardry he's trying to promote...(oh absolutely, he's a classic case in point, a soulless manipulating liar who wantonly and continuously acts against the well-being of millions of Australians, routinely using 'ANZAC' to try and give his agenda credibility, and, as you say, simultaneously try to use Nationalism Guilt to force people to support him, that is, if you disagree with him and/or don't support what he's saying/doing, then you're a bad Australian and you insult the memory of our ANZAC descendants, etc-Ed)...
I remind dear availees that Aboriginal men were serving in Australian Armed Services, including at Gallipoli in 2015, and World War II, etc, at a time when they were not legally recognised back here in Oz, and returned from service often to the same bias and discrimination, etc...(and that under Terra Nullius Aboriginals were not even acknowledged as human beings until 1966, they were considered part of the natural flauna-Ed)...indeed, they were good enough as 'men' to go to distant lands and die for good ol' King and Country, but in their own country they weren't even legally human...(and Scummo has used that specific 'ANZAC' manipulation multiple times-Ed)...especially during the COVID19 Pandemic, and coupled it with increasingly militaristic language like "we're at war with an invisible enemy", and "we all have to put our weapons down", etc, and of course all of this under the umbrella term, his pet phrase, "Team Australia"...(and also of course, this militaristic language and Nationalistic jingoism, etc, these are also critical identifiers/agents of Fascism-Ed)...excellent observation Ed, and a great place to conclude today's post, and segue directly into...
Tomorrow: More Scummo/LNP Fascism
Despite their vacuous bleating to the opposite, Scummo and the LNP are definably absolutely hell-bent on dragging us ever further into a USofA-styled quagmire of Racial and Fiscal Inequality and Institutionalised Corruption and Official Political Fascism...and we must resist, that is our one true ANZAC legacy and obligation, our one true act of remembrance and recognition and respect...can't remember who said it first, but it sure-as-shreck bears repeating, 'when your government are the criminals, then it is incumbent of the citizenry to resist and oppose'...(solidarity brother!-Ed)...well quite, I appreciate the sarcasm inferred in your reference to that hilarious scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian, but in my defence, I am only spruiking support for what I've been doing for many years now, and for which I have consequently suffered the Pro-Paedophile Political Retribution of my definably corrupt "bizarre trial"...(yeah, fair call, you've certainly walked the walk-Ed)...indeed, and with my 'case' back in Court in a month, that walk is a long ways from being over...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog, cheers and laters...
PS:...for me, the lasting image I will take from what's all over Twitter and Social Media at the moment, from all of the historic footage of USofA police viciously assaulting black people, and the current stuff about peaceful protestors getting assaulted and the predominantly un-associated riots and looting, often by White men who are coming in from other towns, etc, there is a photo of a lone White cop cornered in a shop front, and the only thing between him and 'the mob' is a line of half a dozen young black men with arms linked, with their backs to the cop, protecting the cop by staring-down 'the mob'...I'll just finish there...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)