8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (15)
#20228881 at 2024-01-12 02:08:29 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #24822: Houthis in Yemen Getting Lit Up Edition
>>20228374
>>>20226554
a Republican board of education member from greenwich used the background from that pic from his profile…
Joe Kelly - who is in the uranium business - what skeletons in his closet?
#14682152 at 2021-09-28 23:53:20 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #18571: Gold shall destroy FED Edition
MN Dimwit Dem. Gov. Walz admin looks to sell 'vacant' $5 million COVID morgue
The Walz administration is reportedly in talks with the St. Paul Port Authority about the sale of the state's $5.6 million COVID-19 morgue, which went unused throughout the pandemic.
The Port Authority's board is scheduled to meet Tuesday to vote on purchasing the warehouse for $5.6 million, its current appraised value, the Pioneer Press reported.
The Walz administration purchased the former Bix produce warehouse in May 2020 for $5.4 million. State documents show that a total of $6.9 million was spent on the project, including renovation costs.
The facility was intended to serve as "a building where we can properly handle with dignity and respect and safety the bodies of Minnesotans who may fall victim to the coronavirus," Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Joe Kelly said at the time of the purchase.
"It's an uncomfortable topic for a lot of people, but we need to have a capability, we need to have a plan for a large number of deaths," he said.
But the facility was never used for the "temporary storage of human remains" because the projected outcome of anywhere between 50,000 to 74,000 statewide COVID-19 deaths never occurred.
Instead, the St. Paul building was repurposed as a storage facility for vaccines, testing supplies, and PPE. It now sits "vacant" and is "not being utilized by the state," according to Port Authority documents.
Several state legislators criticized the lack of transparency involved in the initial purchase, saying it was "a consequence of the emergency powers and the governor not working with the Legislature."
The state was required to offer the property to state agencies before putting it on the market, but "no other state agencies made an offer to purchase."
So now the Port Authority is looking to purchase the unused morgue and would "immediately begin broad marketing efforts" to find an "outright buyer or joint-venture partner by the end of the first quarter of 2022."
"We will have secured such a buyer or partner by way of an executed letter of intent, prior to closing" with the state, the Port Authority says. "The fundamental building components, floor, walls and roof, for a refrigerated space such as this are scarce in the marketplace, particularly at such a logistically desirable location."
Amazon, HelloFresh, and Imperfect Produce are listed as potential buyers.
"The idea is to find a buyer who will bring jobs to the city of St. Paul," Andrea Novak, a marketing manager with the Port Authority, told the Pioneer Press. "There is no specific buyer in the wings. We will market this aggressively."
https://alphanews.org/walz-admin-looks-to-sell-vacant-5-million-covid-morgue/
#11518902 at 2020-11-07 12:12:19 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14707: Night Shift Reads From The Book Of All Times Edition
sudden death Irish tech boss and Vice President of corporate communications at Huawei Joe Kelly, 55, dies in China
https://www.thesun.ie/news/6097401/irish-tech-boss-vice-president-huawei-Joe-Kelly-dies-china/
#11444549 at 2020-11-04 04:24:40 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14617: FOX FINALLY CALLS FLORIDA, BUT INSTANTLY CALLS THE WEST COAST Edition
FOX NEWS: Az called for Pedo Joe!
Kelly FLIPS McSally's Senate Seat
#11012474 at 2020-10-10 15:09:29 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14086: 86 The Deep State's Plans Yet Again Q Do It! Edition
WTF is going on at the massive morgue? Sure is odd that the entire state of Minnesota has only one major medical examiner's office.
Minnesota's $6.9 million COVID morgue converted into
storage facility, MEDIA BARRED from entering
Gov. Tim Walz's administration purchased a warehouse for $6.9 million in May to be used for the "temporary storage of human remains," but the facility was recently converted into a storage space for vaccines and other medical supplies.
The facility was intended to serve as "a building where we can properly handle with dignity and respect and safety the bodies of Minnesotans who may fall victim to the coronavirus," Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Joe Kelly said at the time of the purchase.
"It's an uncomfortable topic for a lot of people, but we need to have a capability, we need to have a plan for a large number of deaths," he said.
As of Monday, Minnesota had a total of 2,083 COVID-19 fatalities, 1,487 of which occurred in long-term care facilities.
Lawmakers learned in June that the warehouse had yet to be used for its intended purpose, which remains the case.
In fact, the "state-owned morgue has been repurposed as a vaccine storage facility," according to a recent letter from three Republican legislators.
State Reps. Jim Nash and Marion O'Neill as well as Sen. Michelle Benson requested a tour of the facility after discovering that the media were prohibited from entering for "security purposes."
"Due to the recent media reports about the status of the facility, it has been brought to our attention that the original plans for the building have currently changed," the three said in a Sept. 23 letter to Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, whose agency currently oversees operations of the warehouse.
They were granted a tour of the facility Wednesday and recorded their experience. According to the video, the building is filled with pallets of testing supplies, medical gowns and related items.
"From my perspective, the citizens of Minnesota bought something that we didn't need," Nash says in the video.
"This building is not being used for its intended purpose," adds Benson. "The purchase wasn't transparent to the Legislature and the decisions being made aren't transparent. This is a consequence of the emergency powers and the governor not working with the Legislature."
Sauce: https://alphanewsmn.com/minnesotas-6-9-million-covid-morgue-converted-into-storage-facility-media-barred-from-entering/
#8954710 at 2020-04-29 01:52:53 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #11461: INFORMATION WARFARE Edition
>>8954674
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Liberation_Front
The members of the Seattle Seven were Lerner, Michael Abeles, Jeff Dowd, Joe Kelly, Susan Stern, Roger Lippman and Charles Marshall III.
Lerner, the founder of SLF, eventually became the editor of Tikkun and an advisor to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
#8742205 at 2020-04-10 03:51:12 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #11193: Fake News Gets The Hammer Edition
Is Huawei 'Gifting' PPE In Exchange for 5G Contracts?
Huawei has gifted "millions of protective masks and gloves to Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Greece and Switzerland,"as Reuters reported. But there's more to this generosity than meets the eye, as asserted by Congressman Mark Green (R-TN), who told Fox News this week: "In France, we were told yesterday on a conference call that [French President Emanuel] Macron was talking to [Chinese President] Xi and Macron asked for a billion masks, and Xi said, 'We'll give them to you if you implement 5G with Huawei.' That's who China is and it's time the world wake up and recognize it."
To skeptics, Huawei's efforts illustrate an attempt to secure lucrative 5G contracts amidst new January EU guidelines - which block Huawei from developing critical infrastructure networks. In response to the accusations, Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly said, "a small minority may have misunderstood our motives, which are simply to help people when and where we can." Quick to defend Huawei's generosity, the European Union's Industry Chief, Thierry Breton, condemned public accusations of any supposed ulterior motive replying: "Now the epicenter of the pandemic is in Europe... of course we welcome the fact that the Chinese government is saying 'how can we return the help.'"
It now appears Breton spoke too soon. Huawei is a telecommunications equipment giant and the world's second-largest smartphone supplier behind Samsung. Founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, Huawei today employs nearly 200,000 people across the globe. Mr. Ren Zhengfei himself belongs to China's Communist Party and served as a military officer in the People's Liberation Army for nine years. According to Huawei, "When Ren Zhengfei was a young man, you needed to be a Communist Party member to have any position of responsibility." Therein lies the problem. To be a successful businessman in China, you have to toe the party line.
Reviews conducted by the Wall Street Journal corroborate the speculated Huawei-Beijing alliance. Starting out as an unknown phone switch vendor, Huawei has metamorphosized into the world's largest telecommunications equipment company in the blink of an eye. Facilitated by grants, credit facilities, tax breaks, and other forms of financial assistance, Huawei's rise stemmed from generous government backing. Analysts report that Huawei's charitable financing terms "undercut rivals' prices by some 30%" Huawei's allegiance to Beijing is particularly alarming considering the Chinese Communist Party's egregious human rights record.
In the Xinjiang province, China's imprisons much of its minority Muslim population. According to The Hill, "within Xinjiang, Chinese authorities have built a system of unmatched surveillance and social control facilitated by facial recognition scans, voice biometric data, DNA collection, and artificial intelligence for racial profiling." Recently, reports have surfaced tying Huawei to the CCP's repression efforts. According to United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, Huawei poses "massive security and privacy risks." Fearful of Huawei's desire to dominate the global 5G network and thus infiltrate our allies' countries, Pompeo warns: "With 5G capabilities, the CCP could use Huawei to steal private or proprietary information or use kill switches to disrupt critical future applications like electrical grids and telesurgery centers." Attorney General William Barr also sounded the Huawei alarm during a speech he gave at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in February stating: "Much of the discussion on the dangers of allowing China to establish dominance in 5G has been focused on the immediate security concern of using communications networks that China can monitor and surveil. That is, in fact, a monumental danger."
https://thenationalpulse.com/commentary/huawei-ppe-europe-5g-contracts/
#8504145 at 2020-03-21 18:31:35 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #10888: What's In Your Drawers? Edition
>>8504061
Corona rep by
Kamala and Dianne
Famous people: (wiki)
Travis Barker - drummer for Blink-182, Boxcar Racer, The Transplants, and +44
Vontaze Burfict - football linebacker for Oakland Raiders
Ken Calvert - United States Representative
Richard Dornbush - figure skater[45]
Heath Farwell - football linebacker
Cirilo Flores - Roman Catholic bishop
Troy Glaus - former baseball player Los Angeles Angels[46]
Larissa "Bootz" Hodge - reality television participant, Flavor of Love 2, Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School
Tyler Hoechlin - actor, baseball player
Candy Johnson - dancer and singer in 1960s AIP "beach" movies
Matt Kalil - football offensive lineman who is currently a free agent
Ryan Kalil - football offensive lineman for the New York Jets
Joe Kelly - Major League Baseball starting pitcher[47]
Kerry King - guitarist for Slayer[48]
Denny Lemaster - MLB pitcher
Nikki Leonti - singer-songwriter, actress[49]
Crystal Lewis - Christian music singer, TV actress[50]
Jason Martin - MLB outfielder
Taylor Martinez - former quarterback for Nebraska Cornhuskers
Taryne Mowatt - All-American softball pitcher for Arizona Wildcats and two-time ESPY Award winner
Ricky Nolasco - Major League Baseball pitcher for Los Angeles Angels
Michael Parks - actor, Kill Bill, Red State, The Happening and other films
Lonie Paxton - former NFL player for New England Patriots and Denver Broncos
Asia Monet Ray - dancer, recording artist, former Dance Moms cast member
Shawn Ray - former professional bodybuilder and author
Jenni Rivera - vocalist, songwriter of banda music
Chance Sisco - baseball player for Baltimore Orioles
D.J. Strawberry - professional basketball player
Jodie Sweetin - actress known for her role as Stephanie Tanner on television sitcom Full House[51]
Brice Turang - baseball player for Milwaukee Brewers[52]
Gary Webb - investigative journalist
Marcus Alan Williams - football safety for the New Orleans Saints[53]
#7422328 at 2019-12-04 02:16:29 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9492: CodeMonkey and @LimTheNick FTW Edition
>>7421539 lb
U.S. judge disqualifies Huawei lawyer from fraud, sanctions case
A U.S. judge on Tuesday disqualified James Cole, a Washington lawyer for China's Huawei, from defending the telecommunications equipment maker against charges of bank fraud and sanctions violations. Judge Ann Donnelly of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, issued her order after federal prosecutors argued that Cole's prior work at the Department of Justice created conflicts of interest.
Cole served as the deputy attorney general, the No. 2 official, at the Justice Department between 2011 and 2015. "There is a 'substantial risk' that Cole could use 'confidential factual information' obtained while serving as DAG to 'materially advance' Huawei's current defense strategy," the U.S. prosecutors said in a May court filing.
Cole, a partner at the law firm Sidley Austin, said he had no recollection of matters referenced as the basis for his disqualification. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge's decision.
"We are disappointed in the court's decision, which we believe violates Huawei's Sixth Amendment right to counsel of its choice," Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly said in a statement. "We reserve our right to appeal this decision when appropriate." In the May court filing, the government argued that, as deputy attorney general, Cole "personally supervised and participated in aspects of" a related investigation, but said the details were classified. A redacted version of Donnelly's decision to disqualify Cole will be made public by Jan. 10, the judge said in her order.
The criminal case against Huawei accuses the company of conspiring to defraud HSBC Holdings Plc and other banks by misrepresenting its relationship with a company that operated in Iran. Prosecutors said Huawei put the banks at risk of penalties for processing transactions that violated U.S. sanctions. Cole entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Huawei and its U.S. subsidiary in March.
The company's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei's founder, is fighting extradition from Canada, where she was arrested last December for her role in the alleged fraud. Meng has said she is innocent.
Michael Levy, another lawyer for the company, argued in court in September that the effort to stop Cole from representing Huawei was another tactical step in a broader U.S. government campaign against the Chinese company.
#6850495 at 2019-06-27 01:25:02 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8761: Off To Save The Free World! Edition
Huawei employees worked with China military on research projects
(Reuters) - Huawei Technologies Co employees worked on at least 10 research projects with Chinese armed forces personnel over the past decade, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, collaborations the Chinese company said it was not aware of.
Huawei workers teamed up with members of various organs of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) in projects spanning artificial intelligence to radio communications, Bloomberg said.
"Huawei is not aware of its employees publishing research papers in their individual capacity," Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly told Reuters, adding that the company does not have any research and development collaboration or partnerships with PLA-affiliated institutions.
"Huawei only develops and produces communications products that conform to civil standards worldwide, and does not customise R&D products for the military."
Huawei has come under mounting scrutiny for over a year, led by U.S. allegations that "back doors" in its routers, switches and other gear could allow China to spy on U.S. communications.
The company has denied its products pose a security threat.
The U.S. government last month effectively banned its agencies from buying Huawei telecommunications equipment and put severe restrictions on U.S. companies doing business with Huawei.
The research projects are part of a few publicly disclosed studies, Bloomberg said, adding it culled the papers from published periodicals and online research databases used mainly by Chinese academics and industry specialists.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-china-military/huawei-employees-worked-with-china-military-on-research-projects-bloomberg-idUSKCN1TS02V?
#6604678 at 2019-05-28 01:04:49 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8445: "Ate for 45" at Our Cookouts Edition
Exclusive: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei is reviewing its relationship with FedEx Corp after it claimed the U.S. package delivery company, without detailed explanation, diverted two parcels destined for Huawei addresses in Asia to the United States and attempted to reroute two others. Huawei told Reuters on Friday that FedEx diverted two packages sent from Japan and addressed to Huawei in China to the United States, and attempted to divert two more packages sent from Vietnam to Huawei offices elsewhere in Asia, all without authorization, providing images of FedEx tracking records. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the records. Shown the images of the tracking records, FedEx declined to make any comment, saying company policy prevented it from disclosing customer information.
Huawei said the four packages only contained documents and "no technology," which Reuters was unable to independently confirm. Huawei declined to elaborate on why it thought the packages were diverted. Reuters was given no evidence the incident was related to the U.S. government's move to place Huawei and its affiliates on a trade blacklist in mid-May, effectively banning U.S. firms from doing business with them on security grounds.
"The recent experiences where important commercial documents sent via FedEx were not delivered to their destination, and instead were either diverted to, or were requested to be diverted to, FedEx in the United States, undermines our confidence," Joe Kelly, a spokesman for Huawei, told Reuters. "We will now have to review our logistics and document delivery support requirements as a direct result of these incidents," the spokesman said. Huawei acknowledged to Reuters that one package originating in Vietnam was received by Friday, and the other was on its way, according to FedEx tracking records provided by Huawei.
FedEx spokeswoman Maury Donahue told Reuters the packages were "misrouted in error" and that FedEx was not requested to divert them by any other party. "This is an isolated issue limited to a very small number of packages," said FedEx, referring to the four parcels affected. "We are aware of all shipments at issue and are working directly with our customers to return the packages to their possession." The U.S. Department of Commerce did not reply to a request for comment on whether the incident might be related to its move on May 16 to add Huawei to the so-called "Entity List," preventing it buying certain items from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-fedex-exclusive/exclusive-huawei-reviewing-fedex-relationship-says-packages-diverted-idUSKCN1SX1RZ
#4737368 at 2019-01-13 14:52:59 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6045: Sunday Narrative Edition
Huawei Fires Employee Arrested in Poland on Spying Charges
BEIJING - The Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has fired an employee who was arrested in Poland on charges of spying for the Chinese government, saying in a statement late Saturday that the worker had brought "disrepute" to the company.
Huawei said that the alleged actions that the employee, Wang Weijing, had been accused of had nothing to do with the company.
"In accordance with the terms and conditions of Huawei's labor contract, we have made this decision because the incident in question has brought Huawei into disrepute," a company spokesman, Joe Kelly, said.
The Polish authorities announced the arrests of Mr. Wang and a Polish telecommunications worker on Friday. That move came at a time of growing concern among the United States and its allies about Chinese technology suppliers, and after the December arrest in Canada of Huawei's chief financial officer and the daughter of the company's founder.
Europe has been an important market for Huawei. Largely shut out of the United States, the company has found many eager customers in Europe, both for its smartphones and for its telecommunications equipment.
As cellular providers around the world prepare to build networks using fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless technology, Huawei has tested new equipment with a number of major European carriers.
Full article here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/12/world/asia/huawei-wang-weijing-poland.html
#3030151 at 2018-09-15 05:34:35 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #3834: No-Name-Special Edition
Repost from Joe Kelly on September 13, 2018
"I just received this pair of nike's in the mail that I special ordered over a month ago for one of our sons…. now I could care less about whatever agenda whichever indoctrinated puppet is pushing….. but I must say that this logo on the inside of the lip is new and alarmingly in your face. I think it's official that nike has embraced satanism.
Update: These are the Kyrie Irving model of Nike ID shoes. They come with this logo on them and logos cannot be customized. This logo is not shown when ordering unless zooming far in. Custom shoes at Nike ID can only have color, style and a few letters or numbers customized, nothing else.
Look carefully and choose a different shoe company.
Posted by my good friends Travis Amy Lehman. You're a BLESSING."
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2248196955456426&set=a.1501920606750735&type=3&theater
#1656782 at 2018-06-07 04:57:50 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2084 Coming In The Air Tonight Edition
Chinese phone maker Huawei says it didn't take Facebook data
Chinese phone maker Huawei, a firm flagged by U.S. intelligence officials as a national security threat, on Wednesday said it neither collected nor stored user data Facebook provided as part of a partnership with the social media giant.
Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly said the arrangement was about making Facebook's services more convenient for users, particularly for older phones.
The recent revelation that Facebook has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including telecom equipment firm Huawei, founded by former Chinese military officer Ren Zhengfei, is drawing sharp criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Members of the Senate Commerce Committee said CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to them earlier this year that he would improve security practices - but he failed to tell them his firm had data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device manufacturers.
"The bottom line is these revelations are yet another example of questionable business practices by Facebook that could undermine basic consumer privacy," Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, said Wednesday on the Senate floor. "Remember, less than two months ago, Mr. Zuckerberg appeared in front of our committee and apologized for his company's negligence and pledged to do better."
The latest reports, Mr. Nelson added, made it "hard to know what's true anymore. And now we learn that Facebook gave Chinese companies believed to be national security risks access to user data. What in the world is next and what in the world is going to protect Americans' personally identifiable private information?"
On Tuesday, Facebook's vice-president of mobile partnerships, Francisco Varela, disclosed that the Silicon Valley-based firm has data-sharing partnerships with Chinese firms Huawei, Lenovo, OPPO and TCL.
"Huawei is the third largest mobile manufacturer globally and its devices are used by people all around the world, including in the United States. Facebook along with many other US tech companies have worked with them and other Chinese manufacturers to integrate their services onto these phones," Francisco Varela, Facebook's VP of mobile partnerships, said in a statement.
Huawei and its Shenzhen-based rival ZTE have been the subject of security concerns in the U.S. for years. In May, the Pentagon banned the sale of Huawei and ZTE phones on military bases, months after AT&T dropped a deal to sell a new Huawei smartphone.
Facebook has also spent months in the spotlight - initially for failing to stop a wave of Russian propaganda from abusing the social media platform during the 2016 presidential election - then for the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The now defunct British political research firm collected personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users and allegedly used it to attempt to influence voter opinion in elections. The ensuing controversy forced Mr. Zuckerberg to testify before Congress in April.
Earlier this week, Senate Commerce Committee chairman John Thune, South Dakota Republican, and Mr. Nelson, the committee's ranking Democrat, demanded answers from Mr. Zuckerberg in a letter written in response to a New York Times report that the manufacturers who shared user data were able to access "user friends data" even if the friends had denied giving permission to share info with third parties.
In their letter, the senators asked if Facebook audited any of the data-sharing partnerships under a 2011 consent order imposed by the Federal Trade Commission, which required the firm to secure consumers' "express consent" before sharing personal data with third parties. They also asked if Mr. Zuckerberg wanted to revise his testimony before the committee.
Meanwhile in London Wednesday, the former head of Cambridge Analytica clashed with British lawmakers investigating the use of Facebook data in election campaigns.
Alexander Nix told the U.K. Parliament's media committee that while he was embarrassed at having been caught on camera boasting that he could entrap political figures by compromising them with bribes and Ukrainian women - he denied his firm acted unethically and insisted he was entrapped by unscrupulous, undercover journalists.
The firm filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after former employees alleged that it used personal information harvested from Facebook accounts to target voters during Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Mr. Nix's testimony comes just days after U.K. Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham told the European Parliament she was "deeply concerned" about the impact on democracy of the misuse of social media users' personal information. She said legal systems had failed to keep up with the rapid development of the internet.
https:// www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/6/chinese-phone-maker-huawei-says-it-didnt-take-face/
#1041351 at 2018-04-14 18:06:06 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1298: Prime Time
>>1041263
The Intellectual property for "I Kill Giants" belongs to Joe Kelly who created the original comic book series and that is definitely a pedo symbol worth investigation….
https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Kill_Giants
https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Kelly_(writer)
https:// www.imdb.com/title/tt4547194/
8chan/8kun QResearch AUSTRALIA Posts (52)
#20428556 at 2024-02-17 11:20:04 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition
>>20422699
WA boat arrivals reignite political contest over border protection
Joe Kelly, PAIGE TAYLOR and DIAN SEPTIARI - FEBRUARY 17, 2024
1/2
A group of about 30 asylum-seekers from Pakistan and Bangladesh who arrived by boat from Indonesia and wandered through crocodile-inhabited mangroves before being discovered near a ?remote Indigenous community have reignited the political contest over Australia's border-?protection regime.
The group - the second to have reached the Australian mainland since November - was discovered at 10am (AWST) in 32C heat ?seeking shade in the bushes by a road outside the small town of Beagle Bay, a former church mission with a population of 348.
By noon on Friday, three Australian Border Force officials had arrived from Broome - 128km south of the settlement - and were "processing" the arrivals, with Peter Dutton accusing the government of having "lost control of our borders".
The Opposition Leader linked the arrival to Labor's handling of the High Court's landmark NZYQ decision in November, ?declaring that the people-?smugglers could "pick out a weak leader, a weak prime minister and a weak minister, and this is what they have done".
"We have warned about this for some time, releasing the 149 criminals, watering down Operation Sovereign Borders - that sends a clear message to the people smugglers," Mr Dutton said. "I think clearly the government has not taken border protection seriously."
The government faces a further legal problem, with a refugee lawyer saying on Friday that a significant portion of the people who remained in long-term detention could be released if the government lost a key case before the High Court.
Residents of Beagle Bay provided the latest boat arrivals with water and took them to shade. One of the arrivals spoke a little English and told the residents the group was from Pakistan.
About eight of the men were exhausted and some were sitting or lying on the ground as nurses from the local clinic dressed their wounds. One of the men spoke limited English and said he was from Bangladesh. He chatted to a local Catholic priest, to nurses and Border Force officials - at one point about cricket - as arrangements were made for the group to be transported to Broome.
When asked where the boat was that had dropped them off, some of the men shook their heads and smiled.
Some had scratches and puncture wounds on their legs and feet from walking through the mangroves and the stretch of coast they traversed is home to many saltwater crocodiles.
There was no sign of a boat near Beagle Bay when the men were found, leading to speculation they were dropped off by Indonesian fishermen. This is how authorities suspect a group of 12 asylum seekers reached the Australian mainland in November. That group was found near the World War II Truscott airfield between Derby and Kununurra and was swiftly taken to Nauru.
Since the election of the ?Abbott government in 2013, it has been highly unusual for either the government or border force authorities to confirm the arrival of asylum seekers.
As immigration minister, Scott Morrison said the government did not discuss "on-water matters" and Labor has adopted this strategy in government. But the latest arrival forced Australian Border Force to issue a rare statement. "The ABF is undertaking an operation in the northwest of Western Australia. As this operation is ongoing, no further information will be provided," it said.
New Operation Sovereign Borders commander, Brett Sonter, issued a statement on Friday night saying that the agency's mission remained "the same today as it was when it was established in 2013".
"Protect Australia's borders, combat people smuggling in our region, and importantly, prevent people from risking their lives at sea," Rear Admiral Sonter said.
(continued)
#20344791 at 2024-02-02 09:24:00 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition
>>20098526
>>20261642
>>20311675
UN aid agency 'saving Gazan kids', says Penny Wong
BEN PACKHAM and Joe Kelly - FEBRUARY 1, 2024
Penny Wong has signalled she wants to quickly reinstate funding to the UN's aid agency in Gaza accused of aiding Hamas's October 7 massacre of Israelis, declaring it is "the only organisation" delivering assistance to 1.4 million desperate Palestinians.
The Foreign Minister said the allegations against UNRWA needed to be urgently investigated and "those responsible" held to account. But she said Australians needed to consider the plight of Gazan civilians.
"We have reports from the UN that 400,000 Palestinians in Gaza are actually starving and a million are at risk of starvation," she said.
Her comments came as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the agency the "backbone" of Gaza aid, after several countries suspended funding over Israeli claims that 12 UNRWA staffers participated in Hamas' October 7 attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday AEDT said the UN agency had been "totally infiltrated" by Hamas, and "we need to get other UN agencies and other aid agencies replacing UNRWA".
Senator Wong approved a further $6m in funding for the UN agency on January 16 - less than a month after Jewish community and business leaders warned her to halt support to UNRWA because of evidence it helped Hamas carry out its October 7 terrorist attacks.
The Australian has obtained a letter sent to the minister just weeks after Labor's election victory warning that UNRWA promoted educational content glorifying the killing of Israelis, jihad and martyrdom for the purpose of perpetuating conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
"Our central concern is that UNRWA as an institution is inherently structured to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem rather than solve it," he said.
The letter said the UNRWA, over the previous two years, had produced Palestinian school textbooks that replicated the curriculum of the Palestinian Authority and inculcated "attitudes among Palestinian children inimical to any kind of peace with Israel."
It referred to a report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, which found UNRWA's education material contained anti-Semitic passages that labelled Jews "inherently treacherous".
"A poem included in the educational content glorifies the killing of Israelis, portraying dying as martyrs by killing Israelis as a 'hobby'," the letter said.
Revelations that UNRWA staff were involved in the massacres led the Australian government - along with the US, Britain and Canada - to temporarily pause assistance to the agency, which employs about 13,000 mostly Palestinian workers in Gaza.
On 2GB radio on Thursday, Peter Dutton said Senator Wong's position would be "untenable" if it was revealed she had received earlier advice suggesting funding for the organisation could be used for purposes that "wasn't intended by the government".
"If she's knowingly sent that money to a terrorist organisation, then I think that's an outrage," he said. "And I think Penny Wong and the Prime Minister have more questions than answers in relation to this particular issue."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/un-aid-agency-saving-gazan-kids-says-penny-wong/news-story/a4582f7e4b3179ec92772b8e76f774dc
#20287622 at 2024-01-23 08:07:30 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition
>>20281751
Key Liberals lend support to an Indigenous governor-general
Joe Kelly and SIMON BENSON - JANUARY 23, 2024
Former Coalition Indigenous Australians spokesman Julian Leeser has endorsed an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander as ?the nation's next governor-general, suggesting Tom Calma, Ken Wyatt, Marcia Langton and Patrick Dodson as viable options.
With David Hurley not ?expected to have his term as ?Governor-General extended beyond July, Professor Calma - a leading Indigenous rights campaigner and co-architect of the voice to parliament - told The Australian on Monday it was time to appoint a qualified and capable Indigenous person as the King's representative.
Mr Leeser said Anthony Albanese should consult with Peter Dutton to ensure bipartisanship over a suitable Indigenous appointment and ?ensure it would assist the nation on its "path of reconciliation".
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Price said race should not be considered in appointing a governor-general. "It should be based on finding the right candidate for the job, who is qualified and has the best interest of all Australians as their sole focus, regardless of their background," she said.
"Australians have made it clear they do not want to be divided along the lines of race, yet the activist class continues to push for identity and race-based politics, undermining trust in our institutions and setting back the causes they claim to champion."
Former prime minister John Howard did not make the case for an Indigenous appointment but said it was important that whoever took on the role was well qualified.
Former NSW Liberal premier Barry O'Farrell threw his support behind calls for a first Indigenous head of state, saying Professor Calma had "given voice to an idea whose time has come". Mr O'Farrell, recently Australia's high commissioner to India, said there had "always been an element of symbolism in federal and state vice-regal appointments, whether Doug Nicholls as the first Indigenous governor, Quentin Bryce as the first woman appointed or Isaac Isaacs as our first Australian-born governor-general".
"As with Tom Calma's call, these appointments sent strong messages nationally and internationally about the character of Australia. There's no shortage of eminent Indigenous Australians who could be considered," he said.
Mr Leeser, who argued for the next governor-general to be an Indigenous Australian on the day of the King's coronation, said this was a "natural step in the evolution of the role of the crown in our country".
"First, the person must be qualified," he said. "The governor-general will take office before a general election. If the result is uncertain, the governor-general will be the umpire. So it is important he or she has extensive experience in government or in the law.
"Second, the person must be a unifying figure. That is the informal test that is applied to this role and it is even more important given this can be a step on our pathway to reconciliation.
"I also believe the Prime Minister should heed the lesson of the referendum - and that was the importance of consultation. Though not required by law, I believe (he) should consult with the Leader of the Opposition and make this a bipartisan moment."
Mr Leeser said a number of Indigenous leaders would be qualified and were unifying figures. "Tom Calma, Ken Wyatt, Marcia Langton and, if health allowed, Pat Dodson all immediately spring to mind," he said.
Mr O'Farrell said professors Calma and Langton would make strong candidates and there were options from the political sphere, including Labor MPs Marion Scrymgour and Linda Burney and former Liberal MP Ken Wyatt, while "outstanding Australians" like Noel Pearson or Jackie Huggins could "make significant contributions as head of state".
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/indigenous/key-liberals-lend-support-to-an-indigenous-governorgeneral/news-story/08aca9366221e3949aa9321bf4d85171
#20281751 at 2024-01-22 08:14:14 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition
Voice architect Tom Calma leads call for Australia's first Indigenous governor-general
Joe Kelly - JANUARY 21, 2024
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One of the nation's most respected Indigenous rights campaigners, Tom Calma, has backed in the appointment of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person to be the next governor-general, with the King's current representative - David Hurley - due to wind up his five-year term by the middle of this year.
Professor Calma - one of the co-architects of the Indigenous voice to parliament which was comprehensively defeated at last year's referendum - acknowledged suggestions he could be in the running for the role but did not put himself forward or deny interest in the job, saying any decision would be for the government.
With the wide expectation that General Hurley's term will not be extended beyond July, leading political academic John Wanna said it was likely Anthony Albanese had already sent his shortlist of preferred vice-regal candidates to Buckingham Palace.
Professor's Calma's endorsement of a qualified and capable Indigenous person as governor-general of Australia was supported by other prominent Aboriginal Australians, including Referendum Working Group member and leading voice campaigner Thomas Mayo.
Labor MPs, including Tiwi woman Marion Scrymgour in the Northern Territory seat of Lingiari and Graham Perrett in the ?Brisbane seat of Moreton, also supported the idea of an Indigenous Australian being appointed governor-general as a step forward for the nation.
In the mid-1990s, Aboriginal campaigner and inaugural chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Lowitja O'Donoghue was discussed as a contender for the role, but prime minister Paul Keating opted to ?appoint Sir William Deane.
Professor Calma, the 2023 senior Australian of the year and former race discrimination comm?issioner, told The Australian on Sunday: "I would think it is time for an Aboriginal person.
"We've had an Aboriginal governor (of South Australia) in pastor Doug Nicholls. But there hasn't been an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person as governor-general. So why not?
"I think it is time. We shouldn't shy away from considering an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person. A person who is amply qualified to do the job on merit is what we would be looking for," he said. "Not a token appointment. Someone who has the capacity."
Asked if he would be interested in the role, Professor Calma - a co-architect of the voice with Marcia Langton - said he hadn't "really given it any thought" but acknowledged people had suggested he was a viable option.
"I know that has been suggested," he said. "People have said (that) to me. But that's up to the government to determine. They will do it through whatever process they use."
Professor Calma also noted that Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney has been raised as a potential governor-general.
Mr Mayo told The Australian that the appointment of an Indigenous Australian as governor-general could give great pride to the country. "We all know and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have made significant contributions in Australian society," Mr Mayo said. "If the appointment is one such person, with a great work ethic and excellent statesmanship, I'm sure many Australians would be as proud as I would be to see a well overdue first."
Ms Scrymgour told The Australian: "I think it would be great to have an Indigenous governor-general." She also said she thought a woman would also be a great choice, saying former governor-general Quentin Bryce "did the job really well" and showed "class, intellect and sophistication".
She was unsure whether former prime minister Julia Gillard would be interested in the job.
Mr Perrett told The Australian it was time for an Indigenous Australian to take on the role of governor-general and hoped it could also be a Queenslander. He suggested a number of Queensland sporting heroes.
"I think Cathy Freeman is a good start or Johnathan Thurston ... and Ash Barty," he said.
(continued)
#19769156 at 2023-10-20 12:19:05 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19739995
>>19745124
Jacinta Price's plan for Aboriginal child abuse royal commission savaged by Indigenous leaders
Joe Kelly and PAIGE TAYLOR - OCTOBER 20, 2023
1/2
Nearly 100 of Australia's leading Indigenous figures and organisations have condemned the ?Coalition's call for a royal commission into child sex abuse in Aboriginal communities, breaking the "week of silence" and opening a national fracture on Indigenous policy five days after Saturday's referendum defeat.
A joint statement issued by the alliance - which includes the ?Coalition of Peaks, Reconciliation Australia, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and Professor Marcia Langton - warned the Coalition the safety of children "should not be politicised or used as a platform to advance a political position."
Former prime minister and leading No campaigner Tony Abbott offered his own interpretation of the referendum defeat, arguing the result should be respected by abandoning or scaling back "recent concessions to separatism, such as flying the Aboriginal flag co-equally with the national one as if Australia is a country of two nations".
Writing in The Australian, Mr Abbott said Australia should abandon or wind back "routine acknowledgement of country by all speakers at official events, as if those whose ancestry here stretches beyond 1788 are more Australian than everyone else."
Anthony Albanese on Thursday rejected a push by Peter ?Dutton and his Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Price for the government to support a royal commission and an audit into Indigenous spending programs in the parliament, labelling it a "political stunt" designed to "whip up outrage" and saying he would refuse to make child abuse a partisan issue.
The Opposition Leader, attempting to suspend standing orders, argued that Australians had voted on Saturday for a new way forward and the public was "demanding action" but were "not getting it because this Prime Minister is weak (and) indecisive".
"It is absolutely unbelievable that this government would reject now, yet again - by not even taking this motion to discuss it before the parliament - the prospect of finding a pathway forward to helping young Indigenous kids in communities like in Alice Springs, like in Tennant Creek and elsewhere - these are the most vulnerable of children in the country," he said.
Mr Dutton said Indigenous children risked a lifetime of mental scarring because of physical abuse and "police need to act on it, and the agencies in the Northern Territory need to act, and the fact is that they are being hamstrung by the authorities in the Northern Territory to the shame of the Chief Minister".
"And that this Prime Minister would be complicit in that ignorance, and in the inability to act, to save those young children is a damning indictment on this Prime Minister," he said.
The push for a suspension was defeated by 81 votes to 52, with all four Greens and four teal MPs - Kylea Tink, Zoe Daniel, Kate Chaney and Monique Ryan - voting with the government.
Speaking in question time, Mr Albanese said every member of parliament should find child sexual abuse "abhorrent", and noted that it did not occur in "just one group" or in one place. "What we won't be doing is agreeing to stunts which are designed to whip up outrage somehow as if this is a partisan issue," he said.
(continued)
#19749368 at 2023-10-17 09:29:30 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19739995
>>19745124
Price pushes bipartisan action plan
The face of the No campaign will push the government towards policies aimed at 'bringing Indigenous Australians into the fabric of this nation'.
Joe Kelly - October 15, 2023
1/2
Jacinta Price says there can be no return to the status quo in Indigenous policy following the referendum defeat and will seek to push the Albanese government towards a bipartisan effort aimed at "bringing Indigenous Australians into the fabric of this nation".
The Opposition Indigenous Affairs spokeswoman and face of the No campaign told The Aus?tralian that "if the government doesn't want to undertake that responsibility you can expect that this is what I will challenge them on at the next election. I know that, throughout this process, I have had the support of my Coalition colleagues and I have their support going forward to ... bring about a much more unified country."
She said the premise for the ?referendum was "supposedly about doing something different".
"We should not be doing the same things we have done for ?decades ... we can't accept that."
Acknowledging that people were suffering from "referendum fatigue", Senator Price also revealed that her preference was not to take a second referendum for constitutional recognition to the next election as previously committed to by Peter Dutton.
She stressed this would be determined by the Liberal and Nationals through their partyroom processes, but suggested that "what the partyroom will likely want to do is to respect the will of the Australian people".
"I've spoken to Mr Dutton and, I think, given the result of this ?referendum, I think Australians, the preference from Australians would be to just let this be for now.
"I guess that's something you'd have to test the appetite for later on down the track," she said.
Reflecting on her priorities following the referendum, Senator Price said she intended to focus on policy development with her ?Coalition colleague Kerrynne ?Liddle and revealed she was "here for the long haul" in politics.
Responding to the defeat of the Yes campaign on Saturday, Senator Price said it meant the dawn of a "new era in Indigenous policy" based on a rejection of the politics of grievance, with the Opposition Leader arguing that efforts needed to be redoubled to close the gap.
Mr Dutton recommitted the Coalition to implementing a royal commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities and an audit into spending on ?Indigenous programs.
Speaking to The Australian on Sunday evening, Senator Price said her message to those deeply disappointed by the referendum result was that "not all is lost".
She said a greater focus would need to be placed by governments on treating Indigenous Australians "as though they are Australians citizens".
This meant governments doing a better job in seeking to allow "traditional owners in remote communities to be job creators and not having to rely on the public service to bring about jobs and employment".
"I'd be seeking this government to initiate this kind of work straight away," she said.
(continued)
#19745129 at 2023-10-16 06:52:01 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19739995
>>19745124
Voice referendum result heralds 'new era,' says Jacinta Price
Joe Kelly - OCTOBER 15, 2023
The Coalition and the No campaign, piloted by Jacinta Price, have promised a "new era in Indigenous policy" that rejects the politics of grievance following the comprehensive defeat of the voice to parliament.
Mr Dutton said efforts should be redoubled to support and improve Indigenous Australians "in those disadvantaged communities and to close the gap."
He recommitted the Opposition to implementing a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities and an audit into spending on Indigenous programs "so we can get the money to where it's needed."
Speaking after Anthony Albanese acknowledged the defeat of a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament, Mr Dutton said the result meant listening "less to activists" and more to people living in remote communities.
Mr Dutton also said the referendum result needed to lead to a reorientation of national politics back to bread-and-butter issues such as the cost-of-living, reducing power prices and boosting national security.
Senator Price, the Opposition's Indigenous Australians spokeswoman, said the result meant that Australians had "said No to grievance and the push from activists to suggest that we are a racist country."
She argued the defeat of the referendum offered a new opportunity for Australians to show that "we are one of the, if not the, greatest nation on the face of the earth - and it is time for Australians to believe that once again, to be proud to call ourselves Australian."
"Because until we can be proud, we can't form a position where we can be strong to tackle our tough issues within our country," she said.
"For those of you who voted Yes, please know that we as a Coalition have always got the best interests of all Australians at heart. We want to make sure that we are fighting for a better future for all Australians."
Senator Price said that "much work needs to be done" to reunite the country and that efforts needed to be focused on those who were most marginalised in society.
Mr Dutton said efforts needed to be made to redouble efforts to support and improve Indigenous Australians "in those disadvantaged communities and to close the gap."
"That includes an urgent need to boost law and order, to increase school attendance and employment in many remote communities. And that means listening less to activists and more to people in those communities and those who champion them."
Mr Dutton said that, as Opposition Leader, he believed the nation needed to "come together to tackle challenges, to help families struggling with the cost of living."
"We need to give young Australians hope that they can buy their own home. We need to fix the mess of the energy policy, so that we can deliver electricity that's affordable and reliable as well as clean," he said.
"We need to support, not to oppose our small businesses and boosting our national security to prepare Australia for a very uncertain world … For the past year, the Prime Minister and the government has been consumed by this referendum and they've focused on the wrong priorities."
Mr Dutton said there was now a need to "turn the page, to unite and to address the many challenges facing our country."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/voice-referendum-result-heralds-new-era-says-jacinta-price/news-story/30afec1379e3af84fedde70feb82af7b
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnBcUTxXKH0
#19740312 at 2023-10-15 11:02:54 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19739995
>>19740235
Voice referendum result sees 'recognition refused for the true owners of Australia'
Joe Kelly - OCTOBER 15, 2023
1/2
Indigenous leaders across Australia who supported the voice have lamented the defeated referendum as a "bitter irony" in that newcomers who had been on the continent for 235 years would "refuse recognition to the true owners of Australia".
"The referendum was a chance for newcomers to show a long-refused grace and gratitude and to acknowledge that the brutal dispossession of our people underwrote their every advantage in this country," the leaders said.
"For more than six years, we have explained to our nation why the voice was our great hope to achieve real change for our families and communities."
The statement was shared online by the Central Land Council, which represents 24,000 Indigenous people in some of the most remote communities in the Northern Territory, the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and by Yes23 co-chair Rachel Perkins.
However, The Australian has been told that an even broader collective of Indigenous leaders endorse it including all land councils in the northern territory and members of the Uluru Dialogue. One person familiar with the creation of the document said it has "widespread Indigenous endorsement".
The statement declared that it was now a "time for silence, to mourn and deeply consider the consequence of this outcome''.
It called for a week of silence from Saturday night to "grieve this outcome and reflect on its meaning and significance".
"Much will be asked about the role of racism and prejudice against Indigenous people in this result. The only thing we ask is that each and every Australian who voted in this election reflect hard on this question," the statement said.
"We will not rest long. Pack up the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Fly our flags low. Talk not of recognition and reconciliation.
"Re-gather our strength and resolve, and when we determine a new direction for justice and our rights, let us once again unite. Let us convene in due course to carefully consider our path forward."
Another source said the names of individuals was not included on the document to give leaders time to regroup and think about the way forward.
"Right now there is a very visceral feeling that millions of Australians hate them," the source said.
Yes23 campaign chief Dean Parkin earlier in the night declared supporters of an Indigenous voice to parliament weren't able to cut through to Australians because of the "single largest misinformation campaign this country has ever seen".
The extraordinary claim came as fellow leading Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo blasted the "disgusting" No campaign following an emphatic defeat of the voice referendum pushed by Anthony Albanese and Indigenous leaders.
Conceding defeat from Yes23's referendum night function, held in the Prime Minister's inner-west Sydney electorate of Grayndler, Mr Parkin said he hoped Australians found peace in themselves and towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
"To those who voted No, people of goodwill but who had doubts about what this meant, we did all we could," Mr Parkin said.
"We did all we could to alleviate those doubts. We did all we could to ensure that the proposal was strong. We believe that the proposal remained strong. We believe that the proposal is legally safe.
"We cast the net wide across the political spectrum and the legal spectrum to ensure that what we proposed was strong, but it is clear from the result that we were not able to reach you through that.
"We were not able to reach you and cut through what has been the single largest misinformation campaign that this country has ever seen."
(continued)
#19740031 at 2023-10-15 09:25:06 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19739995
Voice referendum result reveals Australia's city-country divide
Joe Kelly - OCTOBER 15, 2023
1/2
The voice referendum has exposed the chasm between the nation's inner-city electorates and the outer suburbs and regions, with the key metropolitan seats in capital cities defying the national trend by voting to embrace change.
Despite the decisive national defeat of the voice, the proposition has exposed geographic divisions reflecting a major gulf in attitudes between those living in the heart of the nation's capital cities and those in the rest of the country.
The divide also reflects key differences in opinion between those living in more wealthy areas who were more likely to vote Yes, and opponents of change in the outer suburbs where cost of living pressures were more keenly felt.
The Northern Territory - where Indigenous Australians represent about 30.8 per cent of the population according to the 2021 census - was on Saturday night returning a strong vote against the voice to parliament, with about 65 per cent of people voting No.
In the Labor seat of Lingiari, more than 60 per cent of people were voting No while, in the Labor held seat of Solomon, which is home to Darwin, about 64 per cent of people were voting No.
In Victoria - the state with the highest Yes vote - the Greens-held seat of Melbourne was recording a Yes vote of close to 80 per cent, while the nearby Labor seats of Cooper and Macnamara were recording results of about 70 per cent.
The Labor held seat of Wills was recording a Yes vote of nearly 70 per cent, while the seat of Higgins - which was won from the Liberals at the last election - was also returning a Yes result of more than 60 per cent.
Bill Shorten's seat of Maribyrnong was returning a Yes vote of nearly 60 per cent, as were the Labor seats of Fraser and Gellibrand.
Similarly, the "teal" seat of Kooyong - held by independent MP Monique Ryan after she defeated Josh Frydenberg at the 2022 election - was returning a yes vote of more than 60 per cent, as was the seat of Goldstein held by teal independent Zoe Daniel.
But the further from the centre of Melbourne, the weaker the results for the Yes case with Richard Marles' Geelong based-seat of Corio returning a No result of 52 per cent. The neighbouring seat of Corangamite held by Labor MP Libby Coker was also returning a No result of 53 per cent.
To the south-east of Melbourne, the Labor held seat of Bruce held by Julian Hill was returning a No result of about 56 per cent while Holt was returning a No vote of 52 per cent.
But the regional Victorian seats were all comfortable No votes, flipping the result in the inner-city electorates. The Liberal held seat of Wannon was returning a No vote of nearly 65 per cent, while the Nationals held seat of Mallee was returning a No vote of nearly 80 per cent.
In the east of the state, Gippsland was returning a No vote of more than 70 per cent.
The seat of Indi, held by independent MP Helen Haines, was returning a No vote of about 66 per cent.
(continued)
#19720294 at 2023-10-12 09:36:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19699368
>>19706419
Anthony Albanese reaches out to Jewish community following terror attack
Joe Kelly and BEN PACKHAM - OCTOBER 12, 2023
1/2
Anthony Albanese has declared that anti-Semitism and hateful prejudice have "no place in ?Australia" and announced plans to evacuate hundreds of Australians from Israel on special government-organised flights from ?Friday after the Jewish homeland was attacked by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
The Prime Minister met members of the Jewish community on Wednesday evening, addressing the St Kilda Hebrew Congregation in Melbourne following harsh criticism his government's response was too soft on the pro-Palestine protests at the Sydney Opera House on Monday night where the Israeli flag was burned and anti-Semitic slogans were chanted.
With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing a war of ?retaliation on Hamas and amid reports that 40 babies were slaughtered in a massacre at the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, Mr Albanese said his government would begin "the assisted departure of Australians who want to leave Israel" after 66-year-old grandmother, Galit Carbone, was revealed to be the first Australian citizen killed in the attack.
"Many of you will fear a rise in anti-Semitism here at home," Mr Albanese said. "I want to assure you, that kind of hateful prejudice has no place in Australia. Our country is better than that - and our country is a better place because of you and your community. And my government is committed to keeping the community safe.
"Over thousands of years, Jewish people have summoned tremendous courage and resilience in the face of trauma. It must feel almost unbearable to have to draw on those strengths again. But I want to say very clearly: you are not alone."
The synagogue visit is believed to be the first significant contact Mr Albanese has had with senior members of the Jewish community since Saturday's attack on Israel. On Wednesday evening, Mr Albanese was yet to speak to Mr Netanyahu although it's understood the Prime Minister's office requested a call on the weekend.
Labor frontbenchers including Tanya Plibersek and Clare O'Neil strongly denounced pro-Palestinian protests in Australia, a day after senior western Sydney Labor MPs came under pressure for failing to full-throatedly condemn local anti-?Israel preachers.
Ms O'Neil, the Home Affairs Minister, revealed she had triggered a national co-ordination mechanism in response to the unfolding conflict between Israel and Palestine, bringing together relevant agencies to co-ordinate the federal government's response.
She said the national co-?ordination mechanism had "not been triggered to an event like this ?before," as Israel declared it was ?releasing "all restraints" on its combat troops ahead of a massive ground offensive on the Gaza Strip.
With Joe Biden condemning the "pure, unadulterated evil" unleashed by Hamas terrorists on the Jewish State, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the nation would soon extract vengeance on the Hamas terrorist group for its brutal attack that has killed at least 1200 people. "Whoever comes to decapitate, murder women, Holocaust survivors - we will eliminate him at the height of our power and without compromise," Mr Gallant told soldiers.
Pope Francis on Wednesday night called for the immediate ?release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and expressed his concern for the Palestinians in the enclave.
Ms O'Neil will meet Jewish leaders and security experts on Thursday alongside Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to discuss what further steps the commonwealth could take to provide support to the Jewish community in Australia. She urged people not to attend any further protests that sought to celebrate or justify the attacks on Israel, arguing there were "real concerns that people in the Jewish community hold about the safety of their children and the safety of their homes and the safety of their synagogues".
Former Labor deputy leader, Ms Plibersek branded the attacks by Hamas as abhorrent and urged Australians to "behave appropriately, de-escalate any violence here, respect the law". "It is important to say there is no place for hatred or vilification or any sort of threats here in Australia," she said.
However, Ms Pilbersek's office also confirmed that part-time electorate staffer Will Simmons had attended the pro-Palestine rally on Monday, despite Mr Albanese urging people not to attend.
It is understood Mr Simmons left before any of the scenes at the Opera House steps and was not part of any of the incidents. There is also no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Mr Simmons, with a spokeswoman for Ms Plibersek saying the minister found out after the event and called Mr Simmons as soon as she found out.
"He knows this is absolutely unacceptable - he should never have been there," she said.
(continued)
#19706457 at 2023-10-10 09:44:32 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19699368
Bob Carr attacked for Palestine posts
Joe Kelly - OCTOBER 9, 2023
Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council national chair Mark Leibler has condemned former foreign minister Bob Carr for saying Palestinians had a right to resist an illegal occupation and would suffer a "disproportionately huge retaliation" from Israel.
Mr Carr, a key critic of Israel and prominent supporter of Palestinian recognition, responded to the Hamas terrorist attack in which more than 700 Israelis have been killed - including more than 250 people at a music festival in southern Israel - by saying Hamas had won a "tactical ?success".
"Will be very short-lived. It will draw disproportionately huge retaliation directed at civilians and indifferent to children," he posted on X. "Between the suicidal instincts of Hamas and the dominance of Israeli air power the losers will be long-suffering Palestinians in what is the world's largest refugee camp. Palestinians have a right to resist an illegal occupation, the spread of settlements all illegal and apartheid laws - but resist peacefully. Mainstream moderate Palestinians committed to a negotiated solution deserve world attention and support, now more than ever."
Mr Leibler responded, asking: "Bob - just how far does your hatred for Israel and the Jewish people go? You did not even condemn the sickening attack by Hamas against Israel's civilian population. Shame on you!"
Anthony Albanese told 2GB radio Hamas' actions were "unprecedented ... completely unacceptable".
"The idea that you would have people launching essentially indiscriminate shooting at random, just trying to cause as much harm as possible, is just an atrocity that deserves condemnation," the Prime Minister said.
Mr Albanese also said a pro-Palestine protest march planned for the Opera House on Monday evening should not go ahead, and urged people not to attend "just out of respect for the loss of life".
He said Israel had a "right to defend itself and in these circumstances it will".
Foreign Minister Penny Wong also defended her language after she was criticised by the Coalition for saying "Australia urges the exercise of restraint".
"I think it is always the right thing for Australia to urge restraint and the protection of civilian lives," Senator Wong said. "Are people suggesting that we ought not be in any conflict calling for the protection of civilian lives? Of course we should."
Peter Dutton said the Coalition would not ask Israel to show restraint, arguing it was "completely and utterly the wrong time for that sort of language".
"When the attacks took place in New York and across the US in the 9/11 attacks, John Howard ... prime minister at the time, stood shoulder to shoulder with President Bush in the United States. It wasn't a time for restraint. It was a time to make sure that, firstly, people are secure and further attacks can be prevented."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/bob-carr-attacked-for-palestine-posts/news-story/86520350dfe4282f90b76f7c9671d507
https://twitter.com/bobjcarr/status/1710939485725495470
https://twitter.com/LeiblerMark/status/1710945032843543037
https://twitter.com/bobjcarr/status/1711498445423566890
#19699323 at 2023-10-09 08:51:22 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19699247
Corporate Australia has 'misread national mood' on voice
One of the largest donors to the No campaign has warned that conservative viewpoints are being deliberately stamped out of the nation's boardrooms, as the gulf widens between corporate Australia and the average person.
Joe Kelly - October 9, 2023
1/2
Simon Fenwick - one of the top five donors to the No campaign - has hit out at corporate Australia for misreading the national mood on the Voice to parliament, warning that conservative viewpoints were being deliberately stamped out of the nation's boardrooms.
The 53-year-old who left Brisbane in the mid-1990s for London and New York where he helped start up the multibillion-dollar fund management firm International Value Advisers has voiced alarm at what he believes is a growing gulf between corporate Australia and the average Australian.
He warned there was a double standard, where wealthy donors to progressive causes did not face the same stigma or backlash as conservative donors and that start-ups he was working with had been targeted because of his stance on the referendum.
"Mike Cannon-Brookes is willing to donate to fashionable causes. He finds little or no backlash in most of the mainstream media. However, if you donate to conservative causes, there is an aggressive backlash and the progressives are very aggressive and cunning at targeting this," Mr Fenwick said.
"Where it gets more concerning is where small businesses, where I am on the board, are being targeted ... The claim being that I'm against the Voice, therefore I am anti-Aboriginal therefore you should cancel working with them," Mr Fenwick said.
Speaking publicly about his decision to donate $750,000 to the No campaign, Mr Fenwick said he was deeply concerned the Voice to parliament would divide the country, "creating a permanent grievance industry which is something I witnessed in the US".
Mr Fenwick - who also sits on the board of free-market think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs - told The Australian he had made three separate donations of $250,000 since April towards the Fair Australia campaign and argued it was important to speak out given the lack of support for the No case from big business donors.
"In terms of the CEOs of the publicly listed ASX 200, I don't believe there's a single No," Mr Fenwick said.
"How could so many CEOs read the temperature so badly (on the Voice)? What gives them the right to think they speak for the shareholders, customers and staff? I would say it's hubristic.
"I hope this is the start of a ?process to get back to focusing on bread-and-butter issues and running their companies."
(continued)
#19685520 at 2023-10-07 14:21:49 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19685067
Indigenous voice to parliament division was predicted by former High Court chief justice Harry Gibbs
Joe Kelly - OCTOBER 7, 2023
A three-decade old warning sounded by former high court chief justice Harry Gibbs on the dangers of enshrining special rights for ?Aboriginal people in the Constitution has been seized upon by the Coalition as evidence a successful referendum next Saturday would permanently divide the nation.
Gibbs, chief justice from 1981 to 1987, was deeply concerned about the potential for the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians to split the nation along racial lines.
He predicted in the early 1990s that "the constitutional debate in Australia is only beginning" and warned of the need to protect the nation's founding document from any future changes based on "self-interest, political expediency, mere fashion or sentimentality".
As founding president of the Samuel Griffith Society, established in 1992, Gibbs wrote Australia Day messages to members and, in 1993, one year after the Mabo case, he expressed alarm that even a simple statement ?recognising Indigenous Australians in the Constitution could have far-reaching consequences.
"The most dangerous change that could be made would be to ?include in the constitution a provision giving special rights to the Aboriginal people," he said.
"One proposal seems to be to include in the constitution a provision recognising the Aboriginal people as the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, or providing for a treaty with them; but anyone who has seen how constitutional courts appear to be able to conjure great constitutional principles from thin air will know that even simple and innocuous words, intended to do no more than improve the relations between the Aboriginal people and other Australians, could be held to be the basis of substantial rights and liabilities - as perhaps some of the advocates of a change of this kind are well aware."
Gibbs warned that "nothing could do more to divide the Australian nation than a constitutional change that gave the Aboriginal people special rights and privileges based solely on race".
"The Aboriginal people, like all other peoples in Australia, are not a uniform group. Some have successfully integrated into 20th ?century society; others are successfully living a traditional mode of life, albeit a modified one; ?others unfortunately are greatly in need of help, which various governments have tried without much success to give them," he said. "Those in need should be succoured, but that does not mean that all those who are of Aboriginal race should be given special constitutional rights which would not be enjoyed by other Australians, even by those in equal need."
Gibbs, who died in 2005, said it was important to "ensure that any change that is made benefits Australia, and that arguments based on self-interest, political expediency, mere fashion or sentimentality are exposed and rejected".
The comments made when Paul Keating was prime minister have been seized upon by the ?Coalition as a prescient warning of the current polarisation caused by the voice.
Despite the warning from Gibbs about constitutional recognition, the Coalition has pledged to take the nation to a second referendum to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution if the voice fails and Peter Dutton wins the next federal election.
Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman, Michaelia Cash, told The Weekend Australian that Gibbs' insights were as ?"relevant today as they were 30 years ago".
"He explicitly warned how granting constitutional rights on the basis of race would permanently divide our country," she said. "He recognised that we should aid our Indigenous brothers and sisters on the basis of need, but should reject division on the basis of race.
"His comments could not be clearer: there is nothing simple or modest about the proposal for a voice. It is precisely the type of change that is 'most dangerous' to our system of government."
Senator Cash also said it was "sad that Harry Gibbs' insights have been lost on those advocating for yes. But I have tremendous faith in the Australian people, and hope that they recognise the wisdom of his approach on referendum day."
The Yes campaign was contacted for comment.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/indigenous-voice-to-parliament-division-was-predicted-by-former-high-court-chief-justice-harry-gibbs/news-story/dcea3bde90713ef6cd0669cdf7d4e661
#19650029 at 2023-10-02 09:07:38 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19606805
Voice campaign gets ugly as early voting begins
GREG BROWN and Joe Kelly - OCTOBER 1, 2023
Special Minister of State Don Farrell has urged anyone who feels threatened during the voice referendum to contact police, as Yes and No campaigners trade barbs over which side has more extremists.
Ahead of pre-polling commencing on Monday, No campaigners have written to the Australian Electoral Commission complaining their volunteers were worried about their safety standing at booths.
But a Labor spokeswoman described the Advance Australia letter as a "cynical attempt by the No campaign to distract from the extreme and dangerous far-right influencers they've attracted".
"If Advance Australia are aware of threatening or criminal behaviour they should report it to the police," the spokeswoman said. "The No campaign only focus on creating fear, they offer no solutions and no progress."
The Albanese government last week accused far-right influencers of hijacking the No campaign after a member of the Proud Boys and neo-Nazi Tom Sewell attended their rallies.
Senator Farrell said no one should feel unsafe on a polling booth. "Threats or intimidation towards anyone engaging in their democratic rights is completely unacceptable," he said.
"Australia has a strong democracy and conducts elections and referenda in safety and security.
"If people that are engaging in democratic activity feel threatened they should contact the police."
In the letter to the AEC, obtained by The Australian, Advance Australia executive director Matthew Sheahan raised concerns about No events being "marred by aggressive and, in some cases, violent protesters".
Mr Sheahan asked the AEC to detail measures it was taking to protect volunteers on booths.
"The vitriol and hostility directed at our volunteers has been deeply unsettling," he wrote.
"Many of our volunteers have conveyed ... apprehensions about participating in the democratic process of pre-poll and election day campaigning, fearing potential confrontations with hostile individuals or groups of individuals.
"Such fears are antithetical to the democratic ethos of our country and our collective belief in the right to participate in the democratic process without fear or hindrance."
A spokesman for the AEC said it had "engaged with law enforcement agencies regarding upcoming polling activities".
With 1.5 million people so far applying to vote via post, pre-polling will begin on Monday in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Early voting will commence on Tuesday in NSW, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT.
The Australian understands the Yes campaign expects to "significantly outnumber" the No side with pre-poll volunteers, able to tap into the 50,000 people who signed up to support a constitutional voice.
Yes23 campaign director Dean Parkin said the voice would act as an "independent advisory committee that will give advice on matters affecting Indigenous Australians in areas such as education, health, housing and jobs".
"I encourage Australians to look closely at the question they are being asked," he said. "As early voting opens, Australians should be aware of the choice. A Yes vote is our best shot at better outcomes for Indigenous Australians ... a No vote will mean more of the same."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/voice-campaign-gets-ugly-as-early-voting-begins/news-story/6c887bb3afdee3354e60d79cfebd9935
#19548487 at 2023-09-14 10:27:14 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19529127
No alternative: Jacinta Price's Indigenous voice to parliament pitch
Joe Kelly and ROSIE LEWIS - SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
1/2
Jacinta Price hopes a No vote at the referendum will mean governments take greater accountability for improving the lives of First ?Nations people, warning a voice will only become "yet another ?battle ground for many Aboriginal voices to disagree, fall out and ?create division".
In a draft version of her speech to the National Press Club in Canberra obtained by The Australian, the opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman will on Thursday say a voice to parliament will "undermine the importance of the Aboriginal members of parliament" who are "fighting to affect real change via the democratic structures by which they were elected".
The No campaign's leading spokeswoman laid out her vision of what a referendum defeat should mean for Australia, after a two-day political storm over claims from Marcia Langton ?opponents of the voice were being fed arguments steeped in "base ?racism ... or just sheer stupidity".
Using Professor Langton's own words to attack her, Senator Price declared that "what would be ?racist, is segmenting our nation into 'us' and 'them'."
"You have to say it would also be stupidity to divide a nation when it has been growing ever more cohesive. To split it along fractures of race rather than try to bring it closer together," she said. "My hope is that, after October 14, after defeating this voice of division, we can bring accountability to existing structures, and we can get away from assuming inner-city activists speak for all Aboriginals, and back to focusing on the real ?issues: education, employment, economic participation and safety from violence and sexual assault."
Pointing to the Victorian ?experience with the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Senator Price also argued that Indigenous "truth-telling commissions" had "no desire to tell history in the round". "They desire to misrepresent Aboriginal life prior to the arrival of the British as some form of Pasconian paradise," she said. "And they want to demonise colonial settlement in its entirety and nurture a national self-loathing about the foundations of the modern Australian achievement."
The address from Senator Price on Thursday comes after footage emerged of Professor Langton speaking at the University of Queensland on July 7 this year in which she suggested that 20 per cent of the population voting at the referendum were "spewing ?racism". Professor Langton also doubled down on her assertion No campaign arguments in the voice referendum were "frankly stupid and racist" and confusing voters, ramping up her attack by hitting out at tactics she said were ?imported from overseas and damaging democracy.
"The No case has caused severe damage to our social fabric and to our democracy by importing overseas tactics using a call bank that automatically generates numbers and sending these messages out to millions of Australians. This is deeply damaging to our democracy," Professor Langton told ABC radio on Wednesday.
"There's a lot of work to do both with people who have legitimate concerns that need to be ?addressed and clarified and also those people who are simply confused by the very base and frankly stupid and racist claims being made by the No campaign to frighten Australians into believing that the referendum will result in damage to the Australian social and democratic fabric."
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney refused to condemn Professor Langton's comments in parliament after being asked by deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley if the remarks were in accord with her request for people involved in the referendum to act respectfully and with care.
"There is no room for racism in Australia. The pain of racism is real for those people who have experienced it. It is something that should not be used for political purposes," Ms Burney said.
(continued)
#19548476 at 2023-09-14 10:17:04 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19529127
>>19534980
>>19534996
Indigenous voice to parliament: Marcia Langton has form in 'racism' attacks
Joe Kelly - SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
Prominent Indigenous campaigner for the voice to parliament, Marcia Langton, has previously described Jacinta Price and her mother Bess as the "coloured help" for conservative think tanks and accused one in every five voters at the upcoming referendum of "spewing racism".
In an article published in the Saturday Paper on August 25, 2018, Professor Langton said Senator Price and her mother - a former member of the NT parliament - had appeared to be "sincere in their comments about the impact of violence on their own lives". But she said their "failure to extend sympathy to other Aboriginal victims raises questions about their motives".
"Leaving aside appearances on mainstream television, many of Bess Price's speaking engagements have been at the invitation of the rightwing think tanks," Professor Langton wrote.
"It is important to communicate with all Australians on this issue, as I have a number of times myself, but speaking at the Bennelong Society or the Centre for Independent Studies to the exclusion of other organisations raises the suspicion that Bess and Jacinta have become the useful coloured help in rescuing the racist image of these conservative outfits."
In her 2018 piece, Professor Langton said Senator Price "legitimises racist views by speaking them against her own people".
Senator Price told The Australian Professor Langton "can't understand that some people, ?especially other Aboriginal people, might have a different view to her". "She and too many other voice advocates resort to emotional blackmail and attacks because they are unable to argue the merits of their own divisive voice proposal," she said.
Professor Langton was contacted by The Australian about her 2018 article, asking whether she stood by the piece, but did not respond by deadline.
On Wednesday, she also doubled down on her claim made on Sunday at a public forum in Bunbury, Western Australia, that the No campaign could be reduced to "base racism" or "sheer stupidity", in an extensive interview on ABC radio. "What I was saying was that the claims made by the No campaign are based in racism and stupidity," she said.
At the event on Sunday, Professor Langton declared: "Every time the No case raises one of their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism - I'm sorry to say it but that's where it lands - or just sheer stupidity."
Pressed on whether she was branding no voters racist and stupid, Professor Langton told the ABC: "I deny it absolutely."
However, footage of Professor Langton speaking at the University of Queensland on July 7 this year was broadcast a short time later on Sky News in which she suggested a large number of No voters and 20 per cent of the population were "spewing ?racism".
"The only poll that matters is the poll on voting day," she said.
"Yes. We have a lot of work to do. And I am hoping - and I hope I am right - that the surge of racist nonsense is confined to a minority of Australians. I do hope I am right about that.
"And that ordinary Australians are thinking, yes, of course I am voting for the voice and that would be say 48-49 per cent; about 20 per cent of people saying, 'I'm not sure how I vote. I'm a bit confused. I need more information.' And then there's the hard No voters. And I am hoping that they are about 20 per cent and they are the ones who are spewing the racism."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/indigenous-voice-to-parliament-marcia-langton-has-form-in-racism-attacks/news-story/400b7e5acdb895a9f524aa5526c5e725
—
The folly of Jacinta Price
Marcia Langton - August 25, 2018
https://web.archive.org/web/20190921071949/https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2018/08/25/the-folly-jacinta-price/15351192006752
#19534980 at 2023-09-12 10:17:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19529127
Claims made by No voice case based on racism, stupidity: Marcia Langton
Joe Kelly and ROSIE LEWIS - SEPTEMBER 12, 2023
Indigenous leader Marcia Langton says No campaigners in the voice referendum are using racist tactics but she doesn't believe the majority of Australians are racist, after comments she made at the weekend sparked outrage.
The Bunbury Herald reported on Tuesday that Professor Langton told a forum on Sunday: "Every time the No cases raise their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism - I'm sorry to say that's where it lands - or sheer stupidity."
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley demanded Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney condemn the comments, which she said "accused No voters of opposing the referendum because of 'base racism ... or sheer stupidity', but Professor Langton told Nine newspapers she was not calling No voters racist and stupid.
"I'm saying the claims being made by the No case are based in racism and stupidity - and appeal to racism and stupidity," Professor Langton told Nine.
"And they are appealing to Australians to frighten them into adopting highly racist and stupid beliefs.
"I am not a racist, and I don't believe that the majority of Australians are racist. I do believe that the no campaigners are using racist tactics."
The Australian has obtained a recording of the forum, in which Professor Langton says: "Every time the No case raises one of their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism - I'm sorry to say that's where it lands - or sheer just stupidity."
The Bunbury Herald reported that the forum was attended by a crowd of about 100 people at the ECU South West campus and that Professor Langton was joined by Labor state MP, Don Punch.
ECU has informed The Australian that the voice referendum open forum held at the university's South West campus on Sunday was not an ECU event.
The Australian has been told it was instead co-ordinated by Mr Punch's office.
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Price - a leading campaigner for the No case - said the comments provided an "insight into the mindset and agenda of the Aboriginal activists pushing the divisive voice."
She warned the remarks from Professor Langton would be highly offensive to about half the nation.
"Whichever way the referendum goes, the result looks like it will be extremely close and any suggestion no voters who are unpersuaded by their proposed voice are siding with racism or stupidity is highly offensive to at least half the country."
The comments from Professor Langton clashed with Noel Pearson who told ABC radio in Hobart on Tuesday that it was imperative to answer questions from opponents of the voice with "respect" in a bid to win over undecided and soft No voters.
"There's a great swag of Australians who still are undecided or soft in their No or soft in their Yes," Mr Pearson said. "I'm finding that as long as we treat their questions and concerns with respect and we attend the outstanding questions they have in their minds I find that people are willing to listen to the answers and people are willing to contemplate changing their position once they have a greater understanding, a clear understanding of what we're doing with this referendum. So, it's ours to win."
But Mr Pearson also said the referendum would be "a test of our democracy, because the real question, I think the big question is, can hope and belief and optimism triumph over fear and anger?"
"You know, that's a real question for us in this social media age, in the modern democratic age, can a campaign of positivity for the future prevail against a headwind, an absolute raging storm of fear and anger."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/no-voters-branded-racist-stupid-by-prominent-voice-campaigner-marcia-langton/news-story/62a442a2903abb9a5b7e2ee377f1d4e7
#19511755 at 2023-09-08 14:04:48 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
>>19355508 (pb)
>>19487613
Qantas flights for Indigenous voice to parliament opponents urged in 'spirit' of fair go
Joe Kelly - SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
Incoming Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson is being urged to restore the airline's damaged reputation by ensuring the national carrier matches its "offer to the Yes camp with free flights for No supporters".
Former deputy prime minister John Anderson - a long-serving transport minister in the Howard government and leading critic of the voice to parliament - warned that Qantas had played a key role in dividing the nation by straying into the realm of social and political activism.
Mr Anderson called on Ms Hudson to go back to the drawing board and extend the same hospitality for Yes campaigners - who are receiving free flights that Qantas expects to cost up to $500,000 - to supporters of the No campaign.
"As a long-serving Australian aviation minister who is still ?frequently asked for his views on Qantas, I am concerned to see the deep reputational damage this well-known Australian company is suffering," Mr Anderson said.
"For some years now Qantas has been seen as deeply enmeshed in social and political issues, which are often divisive.
"I believe that there has been serious overreach and that this is a significant contributor to the current plight of the airline.
"I believe that the board and the new CEO should give very serious consideration to an initial down payment on repairing that reputational damage by matching its offer to the Yes camp with free flights for No supporters in the interests of a truly informed ?debate."
Appearing alongside then Qantas boss Alan Joyce at Sydney Airport on August 14 to celebrate the airline's decision to display special Yes23 livery on three of its aircraft, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised the company.
"Qantas has a long history of doing its bit to carry the nation, to lift all of us a little bit higher, both literally and figuratively," Mr Albanese said. "There is no company in Australia that immediately says Australia, like this brand of Qantas.
"And it is in the spirit of Australia, that statement about Qantas, which defines the way that we are being uplifted."
Mr Joyce said Qantas had taken the decision on the Yes campaign "because we believe a formal voice to government will help close the gap for First Nations people in important areas like health, education and employment".
"These aircraft will send a message of support for a Yes vote as they travel the country."
But Mr Anderson questioned whether the Qantas motto, "Spirit of Australia", remained an accurate reflection of the airline.
"Surely the true 'spirit of Australia' would recognise that Australians really do value a fair and balanced debate," he said.
"Extraordinarily, the Yes team acknowledged some time ago that support from elites was not playing well and indicated that they would change tack.
"Somehow much of the ?corporate sector seems to have missed this memo as evidenced by 14 out of the 20 biggest ASX companies contributing support and money.
"I believe this is contributing to the serious divisions we are now seeing in Australia ?generally, and the deep divide over the referendum in ?particular."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/qantas-flights-for-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-opponents-urged-in-spirit-of-fair-go/news-story/71547523b6bbbe46e99631b034efeb89
#19487536 at 2023-09-04 10:08:17 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
#31 - Part 37
Indigenous Voice To Parliament Referendum - Part 8
>>19303148 Video: Yes campaign relieved as WA set to scrap controversial heritage laws - An obstacle appears to have been cleared from the path of the Yes campaign with the Western Australian government expected to scrap controversial Aboriginal heritage laws that had become a flashpoint in the Voice referendum. Reports of the move to ditch the laws were welcomed by the Yes campaign and Voice advocates at the Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land yesterday, after the federal Coalition sought to link the two issues and suggested the WA measures were a precursor to broader national changes that could infringe on property owners' rights.
>>19308103 'Not focused on hypotheticals': PM not considering other forms of Indigenous recognition if Voice fails - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned no other forms of Indigenous recognition will be on the table if the Voice referendum fails. He told ABC's Insiders program, filmed at Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land, he will not back down from constitutional recognition in the form of a Voice to Parliament because that was the specific request First Nations people made in the Uluru Statement. "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity," he said.
>>19308109 Labor in no-man's land, not wanting to promote a treaty while also unable to say it won't happen - "Anthony Albanese has launched a media blitz to reboot the failing campaign for a voice to parliament, warning there will be no second chance for constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians if the referendum fails. Amid the glow of an uplifting Garma festival of indigenous Australians, and against the idyllic backdrop of Arnhem Land, the Prime Minister is using his "spear of strength" to simultaneously promote the indigenous voice to parliament, warn there will be no watered-down versions of recognition, and to distance himself and the commonwealth from the Uluru Statement commitment to a treaty." - Dennis Shanahan - theaustralian.com.au
>>19308112 Video: 'Complete lie': Jacinta Price rejects claims No campaign using fake images of Indigenous people - No campaigner Warren Mundine and Country-Liberal senator Jacinta Price have knocked back "racist" allegations they have used AI-generated images of Aboriginal people to encourage people to oppose the Indigenous voice. Former NAIDOC co-chair and journalist John Paul Janke on Sunday told ABC Insiders that voice opposers had created the AI-generated images "to try to look like it is an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign". "Online, the No campaign have multiple social media pages. Some of them are now using AI with a Blak Indigenous character to try to look like it is an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign," he said, speaking from the Garma festival.
>>19314716 'Nothing to fear from Makaratta', Anthony Albanese says after Garma boost for voice referendum - Anthony Albanese says there is nothing to fear from the second stage of the Uluru Statement from the Heart - a proposed Makarrata commission often referred to as treaty for short - because any agreement making would be mutual, not imposed. After weeks of trying to separate the voice referendum from a Makaratta Commission, the Prime Minister said no Australian could deny the "struggle" of Indigenous Australians and that the commission would bring people together.
>>19320661 Video: WA Premier Roger Cook announces repeal of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Laws - WA Premier Roger Cook has confirmed his government will scrap its controversial Aboriginal cultural heritage legislation. The laws have been in effect for only five weeks, and had been designed to avoid a repeat of Rio Tinto's destruction of 46,000-year-old culturally significant caves at Juukan Gorge in 2020. But Mr Cook now says those laws went too far, were too complicated and placed unnecessary burdens on property owners. "I understand that the legislation has unintentionally caused stress, confusion and division in the community and for that I am sorry," he told a press conference this morning.
>>19320682 WA backtrack on heritage laws is a reminder the Indigenous voice to parliament can't be scrapped - "The "forever" nature of Anthony Albanese's constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament has been put up in lights by the West Australian retreat over introduction of Indigenous cultural heritage laws. This is the obvious point: there can be no backdown over a voice to parliament that has been cemented into the Constitution. If the voice proves unpopular, something goes wrong with the advisory body or there are unintended consequences, the entity cannot be scrapped. While bad governments can be voted out and bad laws can be repealed, the voice is permanent." - Joe Kelly - theaustralian.com.au
#19487533 at 2023-09-04 10:07:14 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition
#31 - Part 35
Indigenous Voice To Parliament Referendum - Part 6
>>19283925 Labor's national platform reveals treaty to be pursued this term of government - Labor has vowed to take steps towards a treaty with Indigenous Australians in this term of parliament in the latest draft of its national platform, as Anthony Albanese refuses to link a Makarrata commission and agreement-making with the referendum. The Prime Minister and Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney are facing increased pressure from the Coalition to explain if they still support a treaty and the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full - after Mr Albanese declared on 2GB last month the voice was not about treaty - with senior Liberals questioning Ms Burney's ability to remain minister.
>>19283990 Indigenous voice to parliament: Why Anthony Albanese can no longer say he supports a treaty - "Why can't Anthony Albanese provide a simple answer to the question - "do you support a treaty?" The reason is the politics of the voice referendum have forced the Prime Minister into concealing the extent of Labor's agenda on treaty and truth-telling. This is not a tenable long-term position. With support for the voice trending down, Albanese does not want his constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament to become entwined in the public mind with a complex process of agreement making between governments and Indigenous Australians over the legacy of European settlement." - Joe Kelly - theaustralian.com.au
>>19284007 Inflexible Linda Burney doing more harm than good to Indigenous voice to parliament - "Anthony Albanese and the Labor government are trying desperately to separate the troubled proposal for an Indigenous voice to parliament from the even more controversial and politically damaging ideas of a treaty and truth-telling to rescue the referendum. It is a dismal failure because, as Indigenous Australians Minister and the government face of the campaign, Linda Burney is incapable of the task. Her parliamentary responses to perfectly reasonable requests for information about either the voice or, more recently, Labor's own $5.8m Makarrata commission - which she announced - to oversee treaty and truth-telling, is embarrassing." - Dennis Shanahan - theaustralian.com.au
>>19289915 Indigenous voice to parliament Yes side insists treaties decades away - The Yes campaign has insisted treaties take decades to finalise as it seeks to distance the process from the voice referendum and Anthony Albanese rules out the commonwealth pursuing agreements with Indigenous Australians in this term of parliament. The Prime Minister said states were leading treaty negotiations but left open the possibility of the federal government playing a role, while refusing to say if he personally supported a treaty.
>>19297168 Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton trade barbs over an Indigenous voice to parliament - Peter Dutton has broadened the No campaign's attack against ?Anthony Albanese and the Indigenous voice to parliament, attempting to link the Prime Minister's competency and management of the referendum to ?delivering government services and cost-of-living relief. After a week in which the ?Coalition continued to pressure the government over voice and treaty, Mr Albanese accused opponents of the advisory body of "confected outrage" and undermining Indigenous Australians to gain political advantage.
>>19297215 Albanese is now presiding over repeated tactical failures on the voice - "Labor has a well-publicised commitment to delivering the Uluru statement in full. This involves treaty and truth telling, with the voice being the first priority. There is nothing new in this. But the government's apparent lack of a strategy to deal with inevitable attempts to link the voice to treaty is bewildering. As one senior Labor source said Thursday, as the Coalition continued to entrap the government into talking about the voice: "If the voice isn't close to dead after this week, it's got to be on life support."" - Simon Benson - theaustralian.com.au
>>19297296 Indigenous voice to parliament: Claims of 'no say' on AUKUS nuclear subs torpedoed by referendum adviser - A member of Anthony Albanese's referendum advisory group says the AUKUS nuclear submarine project has the potential to impact Indigenous communities, signalling she backs the voice to parliament advising government on the key pillar of Australia's defence policy. Artist Sally Scales said Aboriginal communities should be consulted on aspects of the nuclear subs deal, including where they will be docked. "I don't care about the nuts and the bolts of the submarines. But what do I care about? Where's that nuclear waste going to go for (those) submarines?" Ms Scales told an event at the Australian National University on Wednesday night.
#19487398 at 2023-09-04 09:17:36 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
#31 - Part 37
Indigenous Voice To Parliament Referendum - Part 8
>>19303148 Video: Yes campaign relieved as WA set to scrap controversial heritage laws - An obstacle appears to have been cleared from the path of the Yes campaign with the Western Australian government expected to scrap controversial Aboriginal heritage laws that had become a flashpoint in the Voice referendum. Reports of the move to ditch the laws were welcomed by the Yes campaign and Voice advocates at the Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land yesterday, after the federal Coalition sought to link the two issues and suggested the WA measures were a precursor to broader national changes that could infringe on property owners' rights.
>>19308103 'Not focused on hypotheticals': PM not considering other forms of Indigenous recognition if Voice fails - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned no other forms of Indigenous recognition will be on the table if the Voice referendum fails. He told ABC's Insiders program, filmed at Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land, he will not back down from constitutional recognition in the form of a Voice to Parliament because that was the specific request First Nations people made in the Uluru Statement. "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity," he said.
>>19308109 Labor in no-man's land, not wanting to promote a treaty while also unable to say it won't happen - "Anthony Albanese has launched a media blitz to reboot the failing campaign for a voice to parliament, warning there will be no second chance for constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians if the referendum fails. Amid the glow of an uplifting Garma festival of indigenous Australians, and against the idyllic backdrop of Arnhem Land, the Prime Minister is using his "spear of strength" to simultaneously promote the indigenous voice to parliament, warn there will be no watered-down versions of recognition, and to distance himself and the commonwealth from the Uluru Statement commitment to a treaty." - Dennis Shanahan - theaustralian.com.au
>>19308112 Video: 'Complete lie': Jacinta Price rejects claims No campaign using fake images of Indigenous people - No campaigner Warren Mundine and Country-Liberal senator Jacinta Price have knocked back "racist" allegations they have used AI-generated images of Aboriginal people to encourage people to oppose the Indigenous voice. Former NAIDOC co-chair and journalist John Paul Janke on Sunday told ABC Insiders that voice opposers had created the AI-generated images "to try to look like it is an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign". "Online, the No campaign have multiple social media pages. Some of them are now using AI with a Blak Indigenous character to try to look like it is an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign," he said, speaking from the Garma festival.
>>19314716 'Nothing to fear from Makaratta', Anthony Albanese says after Garma boost for voice referendum - Anthony Albanese says there is nothing to fear from the second stage of the Uluru Statement from the Heart - a proposed Makarrata commission often referred to as treaty for short - because any agreement making would be mutual, not imposed. After weeks of trying to separate the voice referendum from a Makaratta Commission, the Prime Minister said no Australian could deny the "struggle" of Indigenous Australians and that the commission would bring people together.
>>19320661 Video: WA Premier Roger Cook announces repeal of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Laws - WA Premier Roger Cook has confirmed his government will scrap its controversial Aboriginal cultural heritage legislation. The laws have been in effect for only five weeks, and had been designed to avoid a repeat of Rio Tinto's destruction of 46,000-year-old culturally significant caves at Juukan Gorge in 2020. But Mr Cook now says those laws went too far, were too complicated and placed unnecessary burdens on property owners. "I understand that the legislation has unintentionally caused stress, confusion and division in the community and for that I am sorry," he told a press conference this morning.
>>19320682 WA backtrack on heritage laws is a reminder the Indigenous voice to parliament can't be scrapped - "The "forever" nature of Anthony Albanese's constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament has been put up in lights by the West Australian retreat over introduction of Indigenous cultural heritage laws. This is the obvious point: there can be no backdown over a voice to parliament that has been cemented into the Constitution. If the voice proves unpopular, something goes wrong with the advisory body or there are unintended consequences, the entity cannot be scrapped. While bad governments can be voted out and bad laws can be repealed, the voice is permanent." - Joe Kelly - theaustralian.com.au
#19487395 at 2023-09-04 09:16:00 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
#31 - Part 35
Indigenous Voice To Parliament Referendum - Part 6
>>19283925 Labor's national platform reveals treaty to be pursued this term of government - Labor has vowed to take steps towards a treaty with Indigenous Australians in this term of parliament in the latest draft of its national platform, as Anthony Albanese refuses to link a Makarrata commission and agreement-making with the referendum. The Prime Minister and Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney are facing increased pressure from the Coalition to explain if they still support a treaty and the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full - after Mr Albanese declared on 2GB last month the voice was not about treaty - with senior Liberals questioning Ms Burney's ability to remain minister.
>>19283990 Indigenous voice to parliament: Why Anthony Albanese can no longer say he supports a treaty - "Why can't Anthony Albanese provide a simple answer to the question - "do you support a treaty?" The reason is the politics of the voice referendum have forced the Prime Minister into concealing the extent of Labor's agenda on treaty and truth-telling. This is not a tenable long-term position. With support for the voice trending down, Albanese does not want his constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament to become entwined in the public mind with a complex process of agreement making between governments and Indigenous Australians over the legacy of European settlement." - Joe Kelly - theaustralian.com.au
>>19284007 Inflexible Linda Burney doing more harm than good to Indigenous voice to parliament - "Anthony Albanese and the Labor government are trying desperately to separate the troubled proposal for an Indigenous voice to parliament from the even more controversial and politically damaging ideas of a treaty and truth-telling to rescue the referendum. It is a dismal failure because, as Indigenous Australians Minister and the government face of the campaign, Linda Burney is incapable of the task. Her parliamentary responses to perfectly reasonable requests for information about either the voice or, more recently, Labor's own $5.8m Makarrata commission - which she announced - to oversee treaty and truth-telling, is embarrassing." - Dennis Shanahan - theaustralian.com.au
>>19289915 Indigenous voice to parliament Yes side insists treaties decades away - The Yes campaign has insisted treaties take decades to finalise as it seeks to distance the process from the voice referendum and Anthony Albanese rules out the commonwealth pursuing agreements with Indigenous Australians in this term of parliament. The Prime Minister said states were leading treaty negotiations but left open the possibility of the federal government playing a role, while refusing to say if he personally supported a treaty.
>>19297168 Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton trade barbs over an Indigenous voice to parliament - Peter Dutton has broadened the No campaign's attack against ?Anthony Albanese and the Indigenous voice to parliament, attempting to link the Prime Minister's competency and management of the referendum to ?delivering government services and cost-of-living relief. After a week in which the ?Coalition continued to pressure the government over voice and treaty, Mr Albanese accused opponents of the advisory body of "confected outrage" and undermining Indigenous Australians to gain political advantage.
>>19297215 Albanese is now presiding over repeated tactical failures on the voice - "Labor has a well-publicised commitment to delivering the Uluru statement in full. This involves treaty and truth telling, with the voice being the first priority. There is nothing new in this. But the government's apparent lack of a strategy to deal with inevitable attempts to link the voice to treaty is bewildering. As one senior Labor source said Thursday, as the Coalition continued to entrap the government into talking about the voice: "If the voice isn't close to dead after this week, it's got to be on life support."" - Simon Benson - theaustralian.com.au
>>19297296 Indigenous voice to parliament: Claims of 'no say' on AUKUS nuclear subs torpedoed by referendum adviser - A member of Anthony Albanese's referendum advisory group says the AUKUS nuclear submarine project has the potential to impact Indigenous communities, signalling she backs the voice to parliament advising government on the key pillar of Australia's defence policy. Artist Sally Scales said Aboriginal communities should be consulted on aspects of the nuclear subs deal, including where they will be docked. "I don't care about the nuts and the bolts of the submarines. But what do I care about? Where's that nuclear waste going to go for (those) submarines?" Ms Scales told an event at the Australian National University on Wednesday night.
#19367937 at 2023-08-16 09:38:34 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19222755
>>19340258
Albanese rules out legislating the voice if No campaign prevails
Joe Kelly and SARAH ISON - AUGUST 15, 2023
Anthony Albanese has ruled out legislating a voice to parliament if the referendum is defeated this year, pledging that he will honour a No vote and the decision of the Australian people.
In his most definitive comments to date on the issue, the Prime Minister said that simply legislating a voice, rather than enshrining the advisory body in the Constitution, also was not the outcome Indigenous leaders had asked of the Australian people.
"The Australian people - we are giving them a say," he told an extended podcast with 3AW's Neil Mitchell. "The idea that the Australian people vote 'no' and I say, 'well, that's OK, thanks very much for participating in the referendum, we are going to do it anyway'. No. I won't do that."
Mr Albanese made clear there was no point legislating a voice that could not be enshrined in the Constitution because "that is not what they (Indigenous Australians) have asked for".
He said putting the voice in the nation's foundational document was "such a modest request".
"What's happening with the voice here and this constitutional change is that Indigenous Australians - in spite of what has occurred to them - are putting out their hand in a gesture of friendship and reconciliation and engagement."
The clarification from Mr Albanese came as Indigenous leader Tom Calma, a voice co-architect, called out the No campaign for "total inconsistency" after Warren Mundine, one of the leading opponents of the voice, reaffirmed his ongoing support for the treaty process.
Mr Mundine, a leading a spokesman for the No campaign, told ABC radio on Tuesday he supported "treaties between the First Nations and the commonwealth" and had done so consistently for the past three decades.
The stance puts him at odds with Peter Dutton, who has warned the treaty process would involve "billions and billions and billions of dollars" and "lawyers sitting round tables in Sydney and Melbourne negotiating this".
Professor Calma, the Senior Australian of the Year, said the conflict between Mr Dutton and Mr Mundine showed "total inconsistency".
"It needs to be called out," he told The Australian.
"It's just a distraction from the main game. Getting the referendum up, that's what we are all focused on. The treaty-making process is the next thing to be considered. It's not (being considered) now.
"States and territories are already doing it. We're seeing those discussions on treaty and negotiations. People need to discern between what's happening nationally and at a state level."
Mr Mundine told ABC radio he thought the nation was "going down the wrong track on treaties at the moment", arguing that treaties could only be negotiated between the commonwealth and each individual Aboriginal nation.
"I've always said this, for over 30 years ... I don't back away from that, unlike Albanese, who is sort of running from the treaty process at the moment," he said. "I know some of my supporters don't support that particular thing. But I'm always on principle on these things."
He rejected the idea the No campaign was using the treaty process to wage a scare campaign against the voice, arguing it was a "campaign that is pointing out that there is not enough details about these things".
Mr Mundine also revealed he had kicked two people off the No campaign because of racist comments.
"I don't appreciate racist comments," he said. "I've got rid of them and I don't accept any racist comments from anyone in regard to these issues ... we've got to out these people. And I don't take people on who make comments like this."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/albanese-rules-out-legislating-the-voice-if-no-campaign-prevails/news-story/616ddb799d99adddadb200c483ceced5
#19361889 at 2023-08-15 09:20:19 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19222755
>>19308112
>>19326823
Prime Minister accuses No campaign of spreading AI misinformation
Joe Kelly - AUGUST 15, 2023
Anthony Albanese has accused the No campaign of spreading AI-generated misinformation ahead of the voice referendum, escalating his attack on media commentators opposed to his proposed constitutional change, including Peta Credlin and ?Andrew Bolt.
On WSFM radio with Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones, the Prime Minister said it was ?"pretty scary frankly, some of the No campaign and stuff that's going into people's Facebook posts which is designed to spread misinformation".
"Some of it is AI-generated, some of it generated, of course, by people like the commentators that you have said."
The commentators mentioned by Jones included Sky News hosts Credlin and Bolt, with Mr Albanese arguing on Monday that "some of the media outlets are pretty determined to promote the No campaign."
His claim AI technology was being used to attack the voice was rejected by the No campaign, spokeswoman Jacinta Price accusing the government of a "campaign of misinformation, spin, and outright lies".
"This time using the soft touch media of FM radio to slander the No campaign and media commentators with their divisive untruths around the use of AI," Senator Price said. "I, and many Australians, are in disbelief that the PM seems to be able to speak in great detail about the No campaign, but unable to speak to any of the detail in his divisive voice proposal."
It is the second time the No campaign has been forced to reject accusations it is using AI technology after former ?NAIDOC co-chair and journalist John Paul Janke made the claim on the ABC's Insiders program on August 6.
Janke said the No campaign had used AI to make it appear "like it is an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign".
The video Janke was referring to was made by a group called Constitutional Equality, run by cryptocurrency trader Phillip Mobbs, which has no connection with the No campaign.
Mr Mobbs told the ABC last week he had never had any contact with No campaign spokespeople Warren Mundine or Senator Price.
Bolt told The Australian he challenged Mr Albanese to "identify the misinformation he claims I've spread".
"Many of my pieces have been written to correct his misinformation, including fake claims that the voice would only give advice on matters directly affecting Aboriginals and the voice wouldn't ask the High Court to overrule the government," Bolt said. "That is the misinformation that I think is extremely dangerous and deceitful."
Mr Albanese singled out Credlin for particular criticism after the former chief-of-staff to Tony Abbott said the Uluru Statement from the Heart was a longer document than the 439-word statement made in 2017.
Credlin said the longer document was an "angry manifesto of grievance, separatism, division and compensation".
Speaking on ABC radio on Monday, Mr Albanese said: "Peta Credlin is a smart person. She must know that that's not true.
"She is saying things that she knows is not true. As is Peter Dutton ... no serious person thinks that that's the case."
Credlin told The Australian: "The people wheeled out last week to bolster the PM's claim that it's just a ... one-page poster are all the same people who for six years since Uluru have implored us to read what they regard as the full document of many pages in length.
"It just doesn't stack up, that suddenly what's been true for years is not true now ... As to the slights and the slurs, quite honestly that just says to me we are getting closer and closer to the truth."
While Mr Albanese told the ABC The Australian had provided "substantial coverage of the Yes campaign as well as the No campaign", he has ramped up criticism of journalists who have covered the No campaign.
Speaking in parliament earlier this month, he took aim at both The Daily Telegraph's ?national affairs editor James Morrow and 2GB radio host Ray Hadley.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/prime-minister-accuses-no-campaign-of-spreading-ai-misinformation/news-story/d3c351e1267b7c9802edebdb941ff4ab
#19349726 at 2023-08-13 09:58:08 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19222755
>>19297392
Jacinta Price says 'Australians don't need to be welcomed to their own country'
Joe Kelly - AUGUST 13, 2023
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman, Jacinta Price, has called for an end to welcome to country acknowledgments before every sporting event and public gathering because the practice is "wrong" and dividing the nation.
The attack comes after former prime minister Tony Abbott last week conceded he was "getting a little bit sick" of welcome to country, arguing the nation "belongs to all of us, not just to some of us."
Senator Price, a Warlpiri-?Celtic woman who grew up in Alice Springs and the leading campaign spokeswoman against Anthony Albanese's constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament, said "Australians don't need to be welcomed to their own country".
"There is no problem with acknowledging our history, but rolling out these performances before every sporting event or public gathering is definitely divisive," Senator Price told The Australian.
"It's not welcoming, it's telling non-Indigenous Australians 'this isn't your country' and that's wrong. We are all Australians and we share this great land."
Peter Dutton last week said he thought that welcome to country was a "respectful way to acknowledge the Indigenous heritage of our country" but argued the practice was overdone and often used as an exercise in virtue signalling.
"I do get the point that when you go to a function and there's an MC who I think appropriately can do recognition, you then get the next five or 10 speakers who each do their own acknowledgment to country, and frankly, I think it detracts from the significance of the statement that's being made," he told 2GB. "I think there are a lot of corporates that just do it because they think it's what people want to hear."
An acknowledgment of country is made every sitting day alongside the Lord's Prayer in both the Senate and House of Representatives - a practice that was introduced in 2010.
A number of Coalition MPs on Sunday supported the substance of Senator Price's comments, with Nationals Leader David Littleproud saying that welcome to country had "just gone over the top."
"I think unfortunately what's happened - it's not just sporting events - you can go to a meeting and everyone makes an acknowledgment," Mr Littleproud said. "I think it's gone overboard. It's gone too far. Is it necessary? I think it's a reasonable question to ask."
MP Keith Pitt said the welcome to country was supposed to be "culturally significant."
"If that's the case they should be treated as such, not thrown around on T-shirts, email signatures, video conferences and aircraft arrivals," he said. "I think sensible management would be widely welcomed."
South Australian Liberal senator Alex Antic said the idea a "welcome" should be "constantly extended for Australians to be in their own country is tiresome and divisive".
"Endless acknowledgments of country performed by white middle class professionals before meetings do little more than brick in their credentials in front of an imaginary court of wokeness approval," he said.
"These clashes against Western values only subside when courage culture triumphs over cancel culture and the use of these gestures ceases."
LNP senator Gerard Rennick said the welcome to country should be reserved for special occasions, arguing it was now an example of "virtue signalling that's gone mad".
"It's overkill," he said. "You feel like they are shoving it down your throat."
In a piece for The Australian last November, Senator Price said welcome to country had become "a standard ritual practice before events, meetings and social gatherings" but argued she had received "more than my fill of being symbolically recognised".
"It would be far more dignifying if we were recognised and respected as individuals in our own right who are not simply defined by our racial heritage but by the content of our character," she said.
When he was prime minister, Scott Morrison adopted the practice of giving Australia's veterans equal billing with Indigenous elders "past, present and emerging" when speaking at formal events and ceremonies.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/jacinta-price-says-australians-dont-need-to-be-welcomed-to-their-own-country/news-story/4e682cade18173932bddd51c749509b0
#19320706 at 2023-08-08 10:36:57 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19222755
>>19297392
Indigenous voice to parliament No camp fears rush of the late engagers
GEOFF CHAMBERS and Joe Kelly - AUGUST 8, 2023
1/2
Senior No campaigners have warned of complacency, fears that 20 to 30 per cent of voters will remain undecided on the voice until polls open and a "cooling" in fundraising and volunteer support, according to a leaked memo sent to Australians for Unity board members.
The No campaign, which leads Yes23 in internal and public polling, holds serious concerns it will be outspent and outnumbered in the weeks leading up to the expected October 14 referendum asking Australians to enshrine a voice advisory body in the Constitution.
A leaked memo sent to No campaign board members on Sunday, ahead of a meeting this week, said some senior Coalition figures were threatening the campaign by embracing an "air of inevitability and complacency".
With 20,000 volunteers already signed up, the Yes23 campaign is preparing a big-spending, election-style campaign to win over soft and undecided voters in the weeks leading up to referendum day.
In a coup for Anthony Albanese and Yes23 campaigners, WA Premier Roger Cook is expected to make major amendments to controversial Aboriginal Cultural Heritage laws that have sparked confusion and pushback from farmers, landholders and environmental groups.
The Australian understands the WA Labor government was told by senior ALP figures that its contentious three-tiered system imposing cultural assessments for ground excavation on properties exceeding 1100 sqm was damaging the Yes campaign.
Despite the No campaign extending its dominance nationally in recent months, strategists have privately warned senior Fair Australia figures the Yes campaign's $50m-plus war chest will likely trim their lead.
"There are a number of key influencers in and around the Liberal and National parties that are not seeing the data that we are and this is leading to an air of inevitability and complacency," the memo says. "This is absolutely a threat to the campaign and every effort must be made to counter this narrative. Further, this has led to all fundraising channels 'cooling' over the past four weeks. It remains our position that the Yes campaign will spend in excess of $50m when counting both donations and government advertising.
"The Yes campaign has both enough time and, more importantly, money to mount the biggest spend by a non-party campaign in the history of Australia. This level of market share in the closing weeks of the campaign could have a catastrophic impact on the No campaign."
Yes campaigners recently said their polling showed high levels of soft votes. The No memo says: "While there is consistency with the overall trajectory of voting intention, our internal polling is showing a much stronger trendline of soft and undecided voters.
"Our belief (is) that this is coming from a cohort of voters that still have little or no awareness of the voice and the referendum.
"To be clear - these are not undecided voters in the traditional sense, these are voters who are not engaged on the issue at all. The number of these voters is incredibly high and there is nothing we have seen that suggests our initial projection of 20-30 per cent undecided voters on election day will be wrong."
(continued)
#19320682 at 2023-08-08 10:31:46 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19222755
>>19303148
>>19320661
WA backtrack on heritage laws is a reminder the Indigenous voice to parliament can't be scrapped
Joe Kelly - AUGUST 8, 2023
The "forever" nature of Anthony Albanese's constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament has been put up in lights by the West Australian retreat over introduction of Indigenous cultural heritage laws.
This is the obvious point: there can be no backdown over a voice to parliament that has been cemented into the Constitution.
If the voice proves unpopular, something goes wrong with the advisory body or there are unintended consequences, the entity cannot be scrapped.
While bad governments can be voted out and bad laws can be repealed, the voice is permanent.
The backlash to the WA Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, which entered into force on July 1, shows why governments must sometimes retreat on key policy matters and make corrections when required.
This is part of the ebb and flow of democracy.
The confusion caused by the new WA laws was weakening Labor's political position in the key state that delivered it majority government. It was turning voters against the voice to parliament and jeopardising success of the referendum.
Farmers feared losing control of their own land and those with properties of more than 1100sq m were being drawn into the chaos.
Action was required to stem the political damage.
At the weekend, news of the WA government backdown was welcomed by Yes23 campaign director Dean Parkin, who said it would provide clear air leading into the referendum.
It also provided a sense of relief to federal Labor, which has come under pressure over its rollout of a planned federal framework for cultural heritage protections.
Yet Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney argued on Monday that permanence of a constitutionally enshrined voice was a key strength of the proposal being put to the Australian people.
"The beauty, the absolute beauty, of this proposition is it is protected by the Constitution. So a government cannot get rid of this voice by the stroke of a pen, which has happened too often in the past," she told ABC radio.
The WA example speaks to the risks involved in this approach. The No campaign will use the backdown by the WA government to remind Australians there can be no retreating from the voice.
Remember that Albanese's constitutional amendment guarantees the voice the ability to make representations to parliament and executive government on "matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples".
The amendment guarantees the voice will have input across the policy spectrum. And this cannot be easily changed by future governments with the stroke of a pen.
Australians will need to decide later this year whether this highlights the "beauty" of the voice proposal or its dangers.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/wa-backtrack-on-heritage-laws-is-a-reminder-the-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-cant-be-scrapped/news-story/5c74307e675bd291adc139056c0c5be6
#19297392 at 2023-08-04 17:21:26 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19222755
>>19283925
Anthony Albanese at top voice: no retreat on Indigenous referendum
Joe Kelly - AUGUST 4, 2023
1/2
Anthony Albanese has promised there will be no retreat on the referendum, declaring a constitutionally enshrined voice would bring a "new day" of unity to the nation and act as a "vehicle for progress" in tackling Indigenous advantage.
In his strongest and most ?impassioned defence of the voice, to be delivered at the Garma festival in northeast Arnhem Land on Saturday, the Prime Minister will invoke the spirit and vision of the late Yolngu elder Yunupingu to promote the "coming-together of two worlds".
In a draft of his speech obtained by The Weekend Australian, Mr Albanese says voting Yes is a "once-in-a-generation opportunity for real, overdue and much-needed change" and promises there would be "no delaying or ?deferring this referendum".
"We will not deny the urgency of this moment," he says.
"We will not kick the can down the road."
While he does not nominate a date for the national vote, Mr ?Albanese dissects the meaning of a No result for the country: an ?acceptance of entrenched Aboriginal disadvantage that would guarantee "more of the same".
"An eight-year gap in life ?expectancy, in the home of the fair go," he says. "A suicide rate twice as high, in the lucky country. Shocking rates of disease, in a ?nation with some of the world's best healthcare. Only four out of 19 Closing the Gap targets on track.
"Surely no leader can honestly say this is good enough. Surely no leader can imagine that change is not desperately and urgently needed."
Addressing calls to split the voice to parliament from the issue of constitutional recognition, amid polling showing support for the Yes case trending down, Mr Albanese says he is not for turning. "We will not abandon substance for symbolism or retreat to platitudes at the express of progress," he says. "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been clear. The form of constitutional ?recognition they are seeking is a voice.
"Not our sympathy, not a symbol - a vehicle for progress, a practical tool to make their children's lives better."
A refusal to put the voice in the Constitution would mean "rejecting the form of recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait ?Islander people have requested".
Mr Albanese says a voice to parliament would ensure the "Garma spirit of learning and co-operation and shared progress" would no longer be confined to "this one part of Australia and one group of Australians for four days a year".
"It is shared with our nation, to serve our whole nation," the Prime Minister says. "To ensure that ?Aboriginal and Torres Strait ?Islander people everywhere have the opportunity of a better life.
"So instead of the inspiring success stories we see around us being shining exceptions, like stars in the night sky, there can be a new day."
The address comes as it was ?reported Western Australia's controversial Aboriginal heritage laws, which had loomed as a threat to the voice referendum, are to be scrapped just a month after they were introduced.
WA Indigenous Affairs Minister Tony Buti contacted organisations that represent native title holders on Friday to say he would announce "significant changes" to the laws on Tuesday.
(continued)
#19283990 at 2023-08-02 11:09:17 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19204775
>>19222755
>>19283925
Indigenous voice to parliament: Why Anthony Albanese can no longer say he supports a treaty
Joe Kelly - AUGUST 2, 2023
Why can't Anthony Albanese provide a simple answer to the question - "do you support a treaty?"
The reason is the politics of the voice referendum have forced the Prime Minister into concealing the extent of Labor's agenda on treaty and truth-telling. This is not a tenable long-term position.
With support for the voice trending down, Albanese does not want his constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament to become entwined in the public mind with a complex process of agreement making between governments and Indigenous Australians over the legacy of European settlement.
This became obvious this morning when Albanese was unable to answer a very simple question on ABC radio - did he support a treaty?
This should require a simple answer. But many listeners must have been left confused.
"Look, what is before the Australian people is a referendum which is about voice which is the first part of the Uluru statement from the heart. It's about recognition. It's about listening and it's about better results," he said.
Mr Albanese said that state governments were already pursuing their own treaty processes.
"Do you support a treaty?" Radio National host Patricia Karvelas asked him.
"Well, the processes are occurring," said Albanese.
"But federally you've committed to the Uluru statement," Karvelas said.
"It's not 'a' treaty," Albanese said.
"No, there are potentially many treaties right?" Karvelas said.
"Yeah - that's occurring. That's like saying do you support the sun coming up," Albanese replied. "It's occurring in Victoria ... It's occurring in Queensland. It's occurring in the Northern Territory."
Mr Albanese has repeatedly said in the past that he supports the implementation of the Uluru statement from the heart "in full".
The Uluru statement from the heart calls for the establishment of a Makarrata Commission to oversee a process of agreement-making and truth telling, in addition to the creation of a voice to parliament.
The draft Labor platform commits the government to taking action on all three of these steps within this term of government.
But the Prime Minister will not concede these points. This strategy risks entrenching in the public mind a sense of suspicion that Albanese and the Yes campaign are not being genuine about the voice to parliament and its role in advancing the treaty process.
This looms as a considerable problem with the nation now just months away from a referendum with major implications for the national reconciliation project.
Albanese will not be able to continue dodging questions about Labor's position on the treaty process and the voice.
He needs a new formula.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/why-anthony-albanese-can-no-longer-say-he-supports-a-treaty/news-story/6b59d5259b990d6eac0e0f81aa35769f
#19272518 at 2023-07-31 09:44:59 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19226439
>>19262114
'No hope' of finding ADF servicemen alive: Richard Marles
Joe Kelly - JULY 31, 2023
There is no longer any hope of finding alive the four men aboard the MRH-90 Taipan helicopter when it crashed into the ocean off Queensland's Whitsunday Islands on Friday night, with the government shifting the search and rescue mission to a recovery operation.
Defence Minister Richard Marles on Monday said the nation's fleet of MRH-90 helicopters would be grounded and not flown until a full investigation had been conducted, casting doubt on whether the aircraft would be used again.
"We will not be flying MRH-90s until we understand what's happened," he said. "There will be a full investigation of what has happened. We will come to understand, as a result of that, exactly what has occurred and we will learn the lessons from that."
"The investigation is going to be thorough. We need to understand what occurred. If there are steps which then need to be taken, we need to take those steps. And until all of that has happened the MRH-90s will not fly."
Mr Marles said the "significant wreckage" from the helicopter - which crashed during the joint Australia-US Talisman Sabre military exercise taking place across northern Queensland - had revealed a "catastrophic" incident had occurred.
The comments reveal the government's conviction that the four men on the MRH-90 helicopter on Friday have been killed and could not have survived the crash in what is shaping up as the worst peacetime military accident in Australia in almost 20 years.
"There was a catastrophic incident," Mr Marles said. "And with every passing hour it is now clear that any hope of finding captain Captain [Daniel] Lyon, Lieutenant [Maxwell] Nugent, [Joseph] Laycock and [Alexander] Naggs are lost," Mr Marles said. "As such, the nature of the activities which are being undertaken in the Whitsundays have transferred from being ones of search and rescue to an activity of recovery."
The families of the four men were notified this morning and Mr Marles said he had spoken to each of them.
"I do want to assure them and assure the nation that the determined recovery effort involving hundreds of defence force personnel will continue," he said. "What we do know is that defence exercises are serious. They carry risk and are such they are dangerous. But they are so important. These exercises have played a critical part in providing for the collective security and peace of the region."
"The loss of these four men is as significant and meaningful as the loss of anyone who has worn our nation's uniform. If it is as we imagine it to be, they died on Friday night making a difference."
Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Campbell, said the recovery operation was challenging and was taking place in the waters around the Whitsunday Islands "where there are quite strong currents and tidal movements."
He said the waters moved below the depth of a standard diving operation, meaning sonar equipment was needed to identify pieces of the wreckage and that specialist divers would be required. "This is not an easy operation," he said.
"The investigation ... will scrutinise every aspect of this event. And we will be seeking to recover as much as possible of the (helicopter) and for as long as required."
"There are data recording systems, so that will be of assistance. But the material and mechanical state of the (helicopter) as in other air investigations can be meticulously put back together and hence understood.
"That's for investigators. But it is not time now for careless or speculative comments."
General Campbell provided an assurance that the Talisman Sabre exercises would be continuing, but would be "adjusted or changed" in the vicinity of the crash site "in a way that enables the recovery effort to continue at scale."
Questioned on the history of problems with the Taipan helicopters over a period of years, Mr Marles also provided an assurance that they had been "certified to fly" in the military exercises.
"They won't fly again until we understand what has happened."
No details were provided on who would lead the crash investigation.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/no-hope-of-finding-adf-servicemen-alive-richard-marles/news-story/5fd5075c04090f1a972b954062a1c09f
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0phKUV5dB0o
#19256826 at 2023-07-28 14:36:04 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19160107 (pb)
>>19222755
Farmers' revolt threatens to stifle the Indigenous voice to parliament
Joe Kelly and SARAH ISON - JULY 28, 2023
1/2
The nation's peak agricultural lobby says West Australian farmers are "paralysed with fear" and uncertain "what they can do on their own land" because of new Aboriginal cultural heritage laws that loom as a key threat to the voice referendum and Labor's political dominance in the state.
The National Farmers Federation has sounded an alarm over Anthony Albanese's plan to legislate a stand-alone national framework for Indigenous cultural heritage protections, saying the rollout of separate federal rules could "intensify the confusion in WA with overlapping federal laws".
NFF chief executive Tony Mahar said "the (federal) government needs to learn from the mistakes of WA" following a fierce backlash to the introduction of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act in the state on July 1. "Nobody wants to damage cultural heritage, but at the moment the (state) laws are too open to interpretation. We're hearing from farmers who are paralysed with fear, not certain what they can now do on their own land," he said. "That shouldn't be the case - it should be clear cut."
WA Pastoralists and Graziers Association president Tony Seabrook said the shake-up to heritage laws in WA represented the "greatest attack on private property rights since federation".
He urged the government to scrap them, saying the new cultural heritage laws had eroded support for Labor under Premier Roger Cook and would result in the state voting No in the voice referendum.
"They've rewritten the book on how to do the maximum amount of harm in the shortest amount of time," Mr Seabrook said. "The voice is dead over here. The Premier has absolutely cooked it. If this can be imposed upon us without a Yes vote in the referendum, God save us if the voice gets up."
Speaking in parliament on Nov?ember 24 last year, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek linked the government's plan for a national rollout of cultural heritage protections to the voice - a connection that some Labor figures now believe could undermine the chances of a successful Yes vote.
"We're protecting Indigenous cultural heritage for the same reason we're supporting the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the voice to parliament," she said.
"We are always a better country ... when we give everyone a seat at the table."
One senior WA Labor source told The Weekend Australian that "the voice has dominated the last three months and then that's been conflated here with Aboriginal cultural heritage".
"It's looked like Labor is only focused on those issues which, for most people, are completely niche," the source said.
"I've always thought that the voice was going to go down over here ... people still don't understand what the voice is and why we need to do it. I think the Yes camp and the government has failed to mount a retail argument for how this is going to help anybody."
(continued)
#18252285 at 2023-01-30 08:37:51 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition
>>18252267
Doubters find their voice on recognition: 'fix is destined to fail'
SIMON BENSON and Joe Kelly - JANUARY 30, 2023
1/2
A formal committee advancing the No case for a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice to parliament will be launched on Monday and warns the body would forever change the way Australia was governed while failing to improve results for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Comprised of former and current MPs and prominent Indigenous figures, the No campaign will propose a preamble to the Constitution and a new parliamentary committee to focus on the rights of native title holders under existing legislation.
The six-member committee has enlisted leading Indigenous voices including Country Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and former Labor Party president Nyunggai Warren Mundine. Former Nationals leader John Anderson will also be a key spokesman, and the committee will be administered by former Labor minister and charities commissioner Gary Johns.
Other members include Indigenous Australians Bob Liddle, who owns Kemara enterprises, and Ian Conway, who started Kings Creek Station in the Northern Territory and developed an educational trust for disadvantaged remote children.
The No Case Committee claims it will be the "foundation" group around which the No case will be fought, and is calling its campaign Recognise a Better Way.
Anthony Albanese said on Friday the referendum would be about a vote for "consultation with Indigenous people on matters that affect them. That is simply the principle that is there."
But the No case will contest the idea a federal voice would have a benign influence on Australia's system of parliamentary democracy, with Senator Price saying it could follow in the footsteps of the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, which had its first meeting in ?December 2019.
Describing itself as "the voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait ?Islander peoples in the Treaty Process", the First Peoples Assembly has proposed ideas that Senator Price warned could "split" the country.
These include making "a number of seats" in state parliament open to election exclusively by ?Indigenous Australians; creating a "permanent representative body with meaningful decision-making powers" that it likens to a "black parliament" and delivering "First Peoples oversight of the Victorian government and public service".
The Victorian Labor government has also provided $65m ?towards "fair and equitable" treaty negotiations, something Senator Price warned would become a key focus of a federal voice.
"I think the Prime Minister needs to inform the Australian public of what his intentions are - would he block a model like what's unfolding in Victoria so as not to create another chamber of parliament," Senator Price said. "The current model of the First Peoples Assembly is a model that could ?absolutely be adopted and adopted in our Constitution if this referendum is successful."
Mr Anderson also said that if the proposal was "as modest as the Prime Minister wants us to ?believe, where is the advice from the Solicitor-General? If it were as essentially benign as they say, all my experience tells me we would have had that advice by now," he said.
Writing in The Australian, ?Senator Price, Mr Mundine and Mr Johns said the government's proposal was misplaced and unnecessary. "The Albanese government's proposed voice in the Australian constitution is the wrong way to recognise Aboriginal people, or help Aborigines in need," they said.
"The voice is a second voice, a second bite at the cherry, for one group only.
"The voice proposal smacks of the paternalism of an earlier time, without proof that it will help those in need. It is an insult to the fact that Aborigines are capable of being heard in the public arena."
With Mr Albanese deciding there will be no public funding for either side, the committee has formed a fundraising arm to bankroll its campaign through donations, with significant corporate backing expected for the Yes campaign.
(continued)
#18187115 at 2023-01-21 11:42:20 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition
Australia and China agree to discuss ending trade ban
Joe Kelly and HEIDI HAN -JANUARY 20, 2023
The first meeting of Chinese and Australian trade ministers since 2019 is expected to take place within weeks, offering the Albanese government a clear opportunity to secure progress in easing Beijing's trade sanctions regime.
The breakthrough was reached during Thursday night (AEDT) on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres held a 45-minute meeting with China's Vice Minister of Commerce, Wang Shouwen.
Government sources described the meeting as "productive" and "constructive", with an agreement reached to set up a video meeting between Trade Minister Don Farrell and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao.
While no date has been locked in, Senator Farrell told The Weekend Australian on Friday: "I made it very clear right from the day I took over this job seven months ago that we would much prefer to sort this out with China through dialogue and discussion rather than arbitration through the World Trade Organisation.
"I look forward to discussing this with my colleague in China as soon as practicable."
A spokeswoman for Senator Ayres said he had used the meeting overnight to raise the "importance of co-operation to deliver the outcomes of the World Trade ?Organisation's 12th Ministerial Conference, and the removal of current impediments affecting Australian exports to China".
Senator Farrell made clear late last year the Albanese government was prepared to withdraw two WTO cases against China if Beijing showed "goodwill" in dropping its trade bans against Australia. He said if China overturned its trade bans, it would also send a message to Trans-Pacific Partnership nations not convinced of Beijing's commitment to free trade rules.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua also reported that a video meeting between the two trade ministers would take place "in the near future".
If the meeting goes ahead, it will be the first official conversation between the heads of trade of both countries in more than three years, during which China imposed restrictions and sanctions on Australian exports worth $20bn a year.
Beijing has responded more positively to what it calls the Albanese government's "pragmatic approach" to China, and there are positive signals emerging that the black-listing of some products, such as lobster, could end.
Chinese ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian used a press event in Canberra this month to endorse trade disputes being resolved bilaterally rather than through the WTO, where Australia has lodged complaints against China's tariffs on Australian wine and barley. "I would hope that as we are improving relations, that you have more encouragement to the Chinese economy, to the Chinese customers to come back for a stronger appetite for Australian products," Mr Xiao said.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Friday it was possible for the relationship with China to grow "in a way that is consistent with both of our national interests if we navigate our differences wisely".
"I think it is in China's interests as well as Australia's interests for the barriers to trade, the impediments to trade, to be removed," she told Sky News. "We think it's better for China and Chinese consumers for that to occur. In the meantime, obviously Australia, Australian business, has done a very good job in seeking to diversify its markets.
"That's good. That's about economic resilience and ensuring, in a globalised economy, you're able to export goods and services to a range of export markets."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/australia-and-china-agree-to-discuss-ending-trade-ban/news-story/726de81ee643c454e4e9a11151bdef82
#18115451 at 2023-01-10 08:26:08 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition
>>18108782
Retired admiral sinks Turnbull 'sovereignty' fear
Joe Kelly - JANUARY 10, 2023
Peter Clarke, the only Australian admiral to have commanded both a nuclear and a diesel-electric submarine, has dismissed as "complete nonsense" criticism by Malcolm Turnbull that the trilateral AUKUS agreement to obtain a fleet of nuclear submarines would undermine Australian sovereignty.
Retired Rear Admiral Clarke said Australia "cannot do everything ourselves" and the nation had "alliances, agreements and treaties so we get greater benefit from the amalgamation of skills and knowledge and technical ability of our allies".
He said the AUKUS agreement was aimed at "developing and growing and maintaining" the skills needed to operate and maintain nuclear submarines in Australia.
"It will take a decade to get this sorted out," he said. "It's just ?absolute nonsense to say it would adversely affect Australian sovereignty."
Mr Turnbull took to Twitter on Monday, saying it was completely overlooked in Australia that ?"nuclear-powered submarines to be acquired from the US will not be able to be operated or maintained without the supervision of the US Navy".
The former prime minister added: "AUKUS is a worthwhile and natural enhancement of ?already intimate security and intelligence relationships but the submarine element of the agreement delays vital capabilities and diminishes Australian sovereignty."
The debate over AUKUS has been reignited after the heads of the US Senate armed services committee - Democrat Jack Reed and Republican James Inhofe - advised against supplying Australia with off-the-shelf nuclear-powered submarines in a letter to Joe Biden.
They warned that the AUKUS pact risked stretching the nation's industrial base "to breaking point".
Anthony Albanese said on Monday he was confident the government could deliver a ?submarine capability that "serves Australia's national defence interests" and those of the US and UK.
"That's what the whole point of the AUKUS arrangement is - to recognise that through co-operation in our defence systems we can ... be stronger," the Prime Minister told the ABC's 7.30.
Mr Albanese said he wanted nuclear submarines to be manufactured in Australia, providing an assurance that "Australia's sovereign interest will be protected."
He also said that senior members of the US administration had been "extremely positive" towards the ambition of the AUKUS framework to deliver a nuclear submarine fleet to Australia and that the proposal enjoyed the support of Joe Biden.
Rear Admiral Clarke said while Mr Turnbull's comments were "bizarre" and "unhelpful", the warnings about America's defence industry being stretched showed Australia's quest to obtain nuclear-powered submarines was "not going to be easy".
"Of course it will stretch US industrial capability," he said.
"That's why we need to have this agreement and why we need to work together."
Tom Corben, a research fellow at the US Studies ?Centre, said Australia did not have the "luxury that a great power like the US has in terms of being able to build, maintain and operate all our military capabilities on our own".
"When you are talking about Australian sovereignty in terms of its defence capabilities, it's never going to be absolute," he said.
But Mr Corben said concerns about AUKUS aired in the letter to Mr Biden would be viewed with interest by the President.
"Biden will be taking very seriously the views of two of the leading national security figures in the US congress when it comes to submarines and what it means for AUKUS," Mr Corben said.
"People who expected either explicitly or implicitly that the US would simply give us or sell us a submarine off their production lines with their capacity limited ... didn't really appreciate or weren't aware of the significant strain the US industrial base is under."
Euan Graham, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said arguments that AUKUS would diminish Australia's sovereignty were like saying the ANZUS treaty was a threat to Australia's autonomy.
"The price of gaining access to US and UK nuclear propulsion technology means structural reliance on them as long-term suppliers. That comes with the AUKUS arrangement and ANZUS," he said.
"However, I would not equate that with diminished sovereignty."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/retired-admiral-sinks-turnbull-sovereignty-fear/news-story/f25192f9fcf2950bdd38f38a84e3fe58
#18108718 at 2023-01-09 08:26:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition
>>18087932
>>18087967
Dutton adamant Australia can still buy subs off the shelf
Joe Kelly - JANUARY 8, 2023
Peter Dutton says there is "no question" Australia could still buy two Virginia-class submarines from America by 2030 despite the heads of the US Senate armed services committee advising against it and warning the AUKUS pact risked stretching the nation's industrial base "to breaking point".
The Opposition Leader reaffirmed his view on Sunday that Australia could purchase the nuclear-powered submarines off the shelf from a Connecticut production line and urged Anthony Albanese "to press the case" in his dealings with America.
In June 2022, just weeks after the Coalition lost the election, Mr Dutton revealed that he had been working on a plan as defence minister in the Morrison government to purchase two Virginia-class submarines from the US by the end of the decade - 10 years before their scheduled arrival if they were built in Australia.
"There is no question in my mind that that option is still on the table. The ability to make sure that we can keep our region safe is really dependent on the acquisition of those assets," Mr Dutton said on Sunday.
"I hope that the Prime Minister is able to continue to press the case because when we negotiated AUKUS, when the Coalition negotiated AUKUS, it was clear to us, as it's now clear to the government, that the intelligence is that we live in a very uncertain time, the most uncertain time since the Second World War."
Mr Dutton played down a letter to US President Joe Biden from Democrat Jack Reed and Republican James Inhofe, which called for a "sober assessment" of the AUKUS agreement between the US, Australia and Britain, and explicitly warned against selling Australia submarines off the production line.
They said that despite the US's two-boat-per-year target, "just 1.2 Virginia-class (submarines have been) delivered, on average, per year, over the past five years" and that the AUKUS submarine agreement could become "a zero-sum game" for the allocation of "scarce, highly advanced" US ?nuclear boats.
But Mr Dutton said AUKUS was the "underpinning of our national security for the coming decades" and that there were "understandable questions" now being asked about what capacity the US and UK had within their submarine-building programs.
"I believe very strongly that when we negotiated with the United States and the United Kingdom, there was the option for us to see that submarine built in the United States," Mr Dutton said.
"Representative Joe Courtney, who is a great friend of our country, has made some comments, some positive comments about the prospect of there being headroom within the supply chain."
Mr Courtney, a Democratic congressman who chairs the House armed services subcommittee on sea power and projection forces, said last month that purchasing Virginia submarines was not "off the table" despite growing concern at the idea.
Speaking on the weekend, the Prime Minister said the government would "advance the AUKUS relationship with the United States and the United Kingdom, including the development of Australia having nuclear-powered submarines" during the first quarter of the year.
"We're very positive in the relationships that we've built with the Biden administration," he said.
"We still regard the US relationship as so important, as our most important alliance, and we place great stock in it."
A high-level nuclear submarine taskforce led by navy Vice-Admiral Jonathan Mead is due in March to hand to government its 18-month study to determine how Australia would acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/dutton-adamant-australia-can-still-buy-subs-off-the-shelf/news-story/2702d08b67b1b4e8354dac70a12e5a84
#16729023 at 2022-07-14 07:41:04 (UTC+1)
Q Research Australia #25: My Koala Hates Spam Too Edition
>>16729011
US hasn't given Pacific the support it deserved, Kamala Harris tells forum
Joe Kelly, SARAH ISON and ADAM CREIGHTON - JULY 13, 2022
1/3
US Vice President Kamala Harris has told Pacific Island leaders via a virtual address that America will strengthen the international rules based order and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pacific nations.
The comments, aimed at drawing a contrast with the approach taken by Beijing without directly referencing China, went to the importance of nations conducting their affairs "free from aggression or coercion."
"At a time when we see bad actors seeking to undermine the rules based order, we must stand United," she told the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji.
"We must remind ourselves that (by) upholding a system of laws, institutions and common understandings, this is how we ensure stability and indeed prosperity around the world."
Ms Harris said that relations between the US and the Pacific would take place in the spirit of openness and transparency. She said the future of the Pacific Islands and the US was inextricably linked with their historic bonds "going back generations" through shared fights for "freedom and liberty."
Ms Harris said that America wanted to deepen its partnership with the Pacific, conceding that the Pacific Islands may not have previously "received the diplomatic attention and support that you deserve."
"We are going to change that," she said.
"The US has an enduring commitment to the Pacific Islands which is why President Joe Biden and I seek to strengthen our partnership with you."
The speech is accompanied by a series of new actions being taken by the US to reflect the elevated priority it attaches to the region, with America to establish diplomatic outposts in Kiribati and Tonga while reopening its embassy in Solomon Islands which has signed a new security agreement with China.
The White House has also confirmed the US government will release its first national strategy on the Pacific Islands and appoint a designated envoy to the PIF to "increase our overall diplomatic footprint across the Pacific Islands".
US Peace Corps volunteers will also "soon return to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu", while America also confirmed a re-established US Agency for International Development would "take steps to expand its presence in the Pacific to improve close co-operation with its host country partners".
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama responded to Ms Harris' comments by saying the US had "long been a Pacific power."
"America is prepared to become a Pacific power like never before," he said.
Mr Bainimarama also welcomed the request from the Biden Administration from
congress for up to $60m per year for the next ten years to assist with economic development and ocean resilience in the Pacific, describing it as a powerful commitment.
(continued)
#16481793 at 2022-06-21 10:01:12 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #23: HOUSE OF CARDS Edition
>>16476399
Greens leader Adam Bandt refuses to stand with Australian flag
PAUL GARVEY, Joe Kelly and ALEXANDRA MIDDLETON - JUNE 21, 2022
Adam Bandt's refusal to stand in front of the Australian flag as Greens leader has been labelled divisive and "childish virtue-signalling" by Indigenous community leaders, who say it is contrary to the spirit of reconciliation.
Political opponents of Mr Bandt also questioned why Greens MPs would want to represent Australians in the federal parliament if they were ashamed of their own country.
It comes as the NSW government on Sunday announced that, by the end of the year, the Aboriginal flag would permanently fly alongside the Australian flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Mr Bandt's practice since becoming Greens leader in 2020 has been to remove the Australian flag from behind him when conducting press conferences.
"For many people, this flag represents dispossession and the lingering pains of colonisation," he said. "Through treaty with First Nations' people and by moving to a republic, we can have a flag that represents all of us."
Carol Martin, the first Indigenous woman to be elected to any Australian parliament, said Mr Bandt's decision to remove the Australian flag could cause division at a time when unity was needed to help deliver an Indigenous voice to parliament.
"The question is, what is it going to achieve?" the former Labor member of the WA Legislative Assembly said. "We are having a discussion now about a voice and the Statement from the Heart, and if you want to bring people on board why would you kick them in the goolies?
"It doesn't work.
"If you want to move forward, the way to do that isn't to offend the majority."
Ian Trust, an Indigenous elder who runs employment programs in the Kimberley town of Kununurra and is a longtime advocate for Indigenous children, said Mr Bandt's decision went against the spirit of reconciliation that was central to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.
"Having the three flags together is all part of the reconciliation and that's what we are trying to achieve here," he said.
"You don't achieve reconciliation by removing one of those flags. That goes against the grain of everything it's about."
He described Mr Bandt's move as "shortsighted". "Personally, if I was an Australian -politician, even though I recognise the Aboriginal flag, I would have the Australian flag there as well. That's part of the country you're in," he said.
Hannah McGlade, a lawyer and lifelong advocate for the human rights of Aboriginal women and children and an expert adviser to the UN on the rights of Indigenous peoples, slammed the move. "I went to law school with Adam Bandt, who never showed an interest in Aboriginal issues," she said.
"I was also a Noongar activist supporting elders protecting our heritage sites, and racism and racist violence - he never spoke once to me about our fight for justice.
"Adam Bandt doesn't have any track record on Aboriginal rights in my state, and his comments about the flag reflect symbolism which is rejected by Aboriginal people because we know it's actually rights we want."
At his first press conference as Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese displayed all three flags.
Northern Territory senator-elect for the Country Liberal Party Jacinta Price said the removal of the flag was "very disrespectful to all Australians."
"It's becoming a little bit childish for leaders to be virtue-signalling about who loves Aboriginal people more," she said.
"There's a lot of Aboriginal people out there who I'm sure like myself can see right through it. Just get on with representing all Australians, that's what we are all elected to do regardless of our backgrounds. It is racist of Bandt to continue to paint Aboriginal Australians as helpless victims in need of rescuing by the likes of privileged woke MP's."
Opposition legal affairs and Indigenous Australians spokesman Julian Leeser said all parliamentarians should have the nation's flag in view. "If it is good enough for Indigenous servicemen to fight under the Australian flag, it should be good enough for our parliamentarians to respect the flag by holding their press conferences in front of it," he said.
Indigenous leader Warren Mundine also branded Mr Bandt's reasoning as "childish and stupid ... We are all trying to bring Australia together. That's why we put the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags together with the Australian flag, so we are seen as one nation."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/greens-leader-adam-bandt-refuses-to-stand-with-australian-flag/news-story/697aac352edbe781d45dba2e54206be6
#16439000 at 2022-06-13 05:14:22 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #23: HOUSE OF CARDS Edition
>>16434639
Richard Marles and Wei Fenghe take first step to Beijing thaw
Joe Kelly - JUNE 13, 2022
1/2
Beijing has ended its diplomatic deep-freeze of Australia after a breakthrough meeting in Singapore between Richard Marles and his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, with "full and frank" discussions focusing on rising tensions in the Pacific and South China Sea.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister said he met for more than an hour with General Wei on Sunday morning on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, arguing it was important to maintain "open lines" of communication to manage new and complex strategic challenges.
Mr Marles said he raised the May 26 incident in which a Chinese J-16 fighter aggressively challenged a RAAF maritime surveillance aircraft in inter?national airspace over the South China Sea, firing flares and "chaff" countermeasures, and the increasing militarisation of the Pacific.
"This was an important meeting between two countries of consequence in the Indo-Pacific region," Mr Marles said. "It's three years since defence ministers of our country have met ... Australia and China's relationship is complex. (It) is precisely because of this complexity that it is really important that we are engaging in dialogue right now."
Conflict between the US and China dominated the weekend ?defence summit, with both nations clashing over their strategies in the Indo-Pacific and General Wei warning that Beijing would "fight to the end" if Washington initiated a confrontation over Taiwan.
"If anyone dares to secede Taiwan from China, we will not hesitate to fight. We will fight at all costs and we will fight to the very end. This is the only choice for China," he said.
Mr Marles described his meeting with General Wei as a "critical first step", with discussions having taken place without either side having imposed conditions. He said several Australian concerns were raised.
"I raised a number of issues of concern to Australia, including the incident involving Australia's P-8 aircraft on the 26th of May and Australia's abiding interest in the Pacific and our concern to ensure that the countries of the Pacific are not put in a position of increased militarisation," Mr Marles said.
He clarified Labor would maintain support for Australia's existing "One China" policy, but would continue to uphold the international rules-based order, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, in the South China Sea.
The comments represent a change in emphasis from the former Coalition government. Last November, former defence minister Peter Dutton said it would be "inconceivable" for Australia - as a US alliance partner - not to join in and assist in a military action in the Taiwan Strait.
Mr Marles said on Sunday that "Australia does not support Taiwanese independence".
"We have good relations with the people of Taiwan. What we don't want to see is any unilateral action on either side of the Taiwan Strait which changes the status quo," he said.
Mr Marles said any solution should be achieved through "peaceful negotiation".
"That's been a longstanding ?bipartisan position within Australia for decades now."
(continued)
#16344039 at 2022-05-26 11:54:38 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #23: HOUSE OF CARDS Edition
Peter Dutton 2.0: I'll be a gentler and caring me
Joe Kelly and SIMON BENSON - MAY 26, 2022
1/2
Peter Dutton has promised that Australians will see another side of his character as opposition leader, arguing the Liberal Party is the natural champion of families, small business and aspirational workers across the ?nation's cities, suburbs and regions.
The former defence minister has confirmed he will nominate for the leadership of the Liberal Party and has campaigned on a platform to unify his colleagues and hold Labor to account in an economic cycle dominated by rising inflation and interest rates.
Mr Dutton said he would reveal a gentler side of his character, arguing that the public had grown accustomed to seeing him in "tough portfolios" like defence and home affairs where his job was to deport drug traffickers and child sex offenders.
Amid the debate over whether the party should shift to the right or the left after the teal revolution saw the Liberals lose up to six inner-city seats to Climate 200 independents, Mr Dutton signalled he would lead from the centre.
"We aren't the Moderate Party. We aren't the Conservative Party. We are Liberals. We are the Liberal Party. We believe in families - whatever their composition," he said. "Small and micro businesses. For aspirational, hard-working 'forgotten people' across cities, suburbs, regions and in the bush.
"I've had tough jobs - firstly as a policeman dealing with serious sexual assaults and murders, to home affairs minister where I deported drug traffickers and child sex offenders.
"Most people have only seen that side of me. I hope now, in moving from such tough port?folios, the Australian public can see the rest of my character, the side my family, friends and colleagues see. The side my community sees, where they have elected me eight times.
"I come from the suburbs and I have never changed my values or forgotten where I come from."
One of Mr Dutton's key challenges will be his ability to appeal to female voters, with Scott Morrison having faced severe criticism over his handling of women's issues, including the response to the alleged rape of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.
Mr Dutton's wife, Kirilly, said her husband was an "amazing ?father and the kids adore him".
The couple has two sons, Harry, 17, and Tom, 16, and daughter Rebecca, 20, from Mr Dutton's first marriage.
"He has a great sense of humour - very dry and witty but he also has an incredible compassion, particularly when it comes to the protection of women and children," Ms Dutton said.
"He hides a lot of his emotion from the public but he gets most upset at reports of children or women being sexually abused or harmed. It obviously stems from his time as a policeman working in that area, but it's also from being the eldest of five kids growing up in the suburbs."
Mr Dutton said Australians needed a prime minister who "won't buckle in hard times and will stand up for our country, and I have proved that in the portfolios I've had".
"My work ethic is second to none and I have the skill and experience, having served five leaders and having learnt from each," he said.
"I have held portfolios in government and in opposition, including defence, home affairs, health, fin?ance, assistant treasurer, sport and employment,
"I was raised by my political mentors John Howard and Peter Costello. I was a minister under John, assistant treasurer under Peter.
"Things are going to be tough under Labor: higher interest rates, cost of living, inflation and electricity prices. Labor talked a big game on the economy.
"They now have to deliver, and we will hold them to account."
(continued)
#16104784 at 2022-04-19 09:58:48 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #22: THIS IS NOT ANOTHER 3-YEAR ELECTION Edition
>>16092209
Greens' defence policy 'insane'
Joe Kelly - APRIL 19, 2022
Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings says the Greens should be given classified briefings on Australia's national security outlook if the minor party wins the balance of power so it can recalibrate its "insane" defence policy.
Mr Jennings said the Greens approach to national security would "effectively turn Australia into a non-aligned neutral (state) with a defence budget about the level of New Zealand's".
"And that would make us ripe for the picking in terms of China's attempts to dominate the region and our island neighbours," he said. "It's crazy stuff but also dangerous in the sense that if the Greens were controlling the balance of power in parliament somewhat, they would have to be educated about this issue."
He said the party should receive classified briefings because "something would have to be done to try and knock them off this fantasyland approach. Anyone who doesn't see China as a threat has clearly not been reading the newspapers."
A Labor campaign spokesman told The Australian the ALP respected "the right of the ?people and the government of the Solomons to make sovereign decisions about its security ... However, Labor is none the less deeply concerned by the prospect of a new security agreement between the government of Solomon Islands and the People's Republic of China.
"Such an agreement would have serious implications for Australia and our shared region.
"Australia should be the partner of choice for our Pacific partners to address shared challenges but the Morrison government's failure to deliver real climate ?action has undermined this." He also said "Labor supports AUKUS and recognises the Defence budget will need to grow".
Labor has committed to Defence spending of at least 2 per cent of GDP.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton said Australia would need to improve its defence capabilities to meet the threat posed by Beijing.
"We've got the Greens out today - who if Mr Albanese is to be prime minister would be in government with the Greens - talking about closing down Pine Gap, stripping billions of dollars from the Australian Defence Force," he said. "It's dangerous at exactly the wrong time.
"As you've seen the Greens out today saying that they see no threat from China militarising ports in the Indo-Pacific - I mean we are going to need more surface fleet vessels. We are going to need more submarines. We are going to need more assets in the sky.
"There's more investment that we're making with industry partners … in drone technology, in autonomous vehicle technology.
"All of that is going to be part of the defence picture over the course of the next few years, the next couple of decades as well."
Senator Steele-John told The Australian that Labor and the ?Coalition were "happy to see Australia treated as an American aircraft carrier", ratcheting up tensions with Beijing. "The Greens absolutely oppose this. We must have an independent foreign and defence policy, which allows us to work with our neighbours to de-escalate," he said.
The senator also said Australia should butt out of the affairs of Pacific states, arguing that they should be free to "defend their territorial boundaries and build relationships" as they saw fit.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/greens-defence-policy-insane/news-story/e8e01fbe99124ca43e0d588f9558f36b
#16080036 at 2022-04-15 08:52:41 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #22: THIS IS NOT ANOTHER 3-YEAR ELECTION Edition
>>16047076
Federal election 2022: Anthony Albanese forced to clarify turnback gaffe
Joe Kelly - APRIL 14, 2022
Anthony Albanese has been forced to clarify that a Labor government would not dismantle offshore processing if he was elected on May 21 in a second major stumble after just four days of campaigning.
With senior Labor figures conceding the first week was already a "write-off" after the Opposition Leader incorrectly guessed the unemployment rate at 5.4 per cent, Mr Albanese on Thursday threw Labor's border protection policy into doubt and opened up a fresh line of attack for Scott Morrison.
Campaigning in the Hunter in NSW, Mr Albanese was quizzed on how he would respond to any attempt by people smugglers to test a new Labor government.
"We will turn boats back," Mr Albanese said. "Turning boats back means that you don't need offshore detention."
The government also questioned whether Mr Albanese was proposing a fundamental rewriting of Australia's existing border protection policies on the fly.
Informed of the comments from Mr Albanese on 2GB radio, Defence Minister Peter Dutton responded by saying: "I doubt he said that."
"That would be a remarkable departure from the Labor Party policy," Mr Dutton said. "That would be a weakening of the policy that even Julia Gillard had ... Maybe he's made a mistake in a press conference again.
"The wheels are falling off the Anthony Albanese bus," he said.
Mr Albanese was forced to clarify his remarks a short time later, saying he was not suggesting that offshore processing would be removed - only that the success of the boat turn-backs meant there were fewer arrivals.
"At the moment, there aren't people who have gone into offshore detention in recent times because the boats have been turned back. It's been effective," Mr Albanese said.
At the 2015 ALP national conference, there was a major factional fight over Bill Shorten's push to embrace boat turn-backs in a bid to neutralise the Coalition attack on border protection.
Mr Albanese voted in person for a Left motion to insert a line into the national platform declaring that Labor "rejects turning away boats of people seeking asylum."
The motion was also supported by Tanya Plibersek and Penny Wong through a proxy vote, but was defeated in a key victory for Mr Shorten.
Mr Albanese explained his position at the time by saying: "I couldn't ask someone else to do something that I couldn't see myself doing.
"If people were in a boat including families and children, I myself couldn't turn that around."
Campaigning in Tasmania on Thursday, the Prime Minister attacked Mr Albanese for initially opposing the Coalition's tough border policy and argued that Australians did not know what the Opposition Leader stood for.
"Anthony Albanese has had every position on border protection," Mr Morrison said. "He has supported everything he has opposed and he has opposed everything that he has supported."
"We have seen that across so many issues. I am not surprised that Australians are confused about what he stands for."
Mr Morrison also promoted his credentials on border protection as the minister who implemented Operation Sovereign Borders in 2013.
"If people want to weigh up and understand these issues of border protection, they can believe someone who came up with it, stood up to the opposition on it - which included Anthony Albanese - implemented it, safely stopped the boats, protected our borders, closed the detention centres and got the children out."
"Or they can listen to Anthony Albanese, who has been a complete weathervane on this issue. Who is this guy?"
The clarification from Mr Albanese followed his day one gaffe where he incorrectly guessed the unemployment rate at 5.4 per cent - well above its actual level of 4 per cent - and could not nominate the Reserve Bank's official cash rate of 0.1 per cent.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/federal-election-2022-anthony-albanese-forced-to-clarify-turnback-gaffe/news-story/7d7aa0dff06decedfefe72ffbe27ac11
#15761198 at 2022-03-02 07:00:28 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #21: MIL-CIV ALLIANCE Edition
Prime Minister Scott Morrison tests positive to Covid-19
Joe Kelly and DEBBIE SCHIPP - MARCH 2, 2022
Scott Morrison has tested positive for Covid-19, revealing he is experiencing "flu-like symptoms" and will spend the next week recovering at home in Sydney.
The Prime Minister made the announcement at 11.30pm in a series of tweets.
"I had tested myself daily since Sunday, including this morning, with all tests returning a negative result," he wrote.
But after developing a fever late on Tuesday, Mr Morrison took another test.
When it was inconclusive, he elected for a PCR test, which came back positive late on Tuesday night.
"I am continuing to follow health guidelines and am isolating at home in Sydney," he said.
"Jenny and the girls have thankfully tested negative, but will isolate for seven days at home as close contacts.
"While in isolation I will continue to discharge all my responsibilities as Prime Minister."
Mr Morrison plans to "virtually" chair meetings of the National Security & Expenditure Review Committees of Cabinet, "focusing on our emergency response to the devastating floods in Qld and NSW, and ensuring we stand with each and every one of the affected communities".
"I will also be focused on our urgent response to the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine and Russia's senseless aggression, staying in regular contact with our security and intelligence officials & our international partners, as well as working with the Treasurer to finalise the Budget."
Defence Minster Peter Dutton has tested negative for Covid after completing a Rapid Antigen Test on Wednesday morning.
Mr Dutton speaking on Sky News reassured Australians that the Prime Minister was going to work from home and he was "determined to help everyone recover from the floods."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/prime-minister-scott-morrison-tests-positive-to-covid19/news-story/d428557e4732391a7c3580c485b831fd
https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1498637160265977856
#15306365 at 2022-01-04 11:24:15 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #20 - INSURGENCY Edition
Japan, Australia to sign defence deal
Joe Kelly - JANUARY 4, 2022
1/2
Japan will sign a landmark defence agreement with Australia this week, upgrading military co-operation, joint exercises and military deployments.
Hailed as a "pivotal moment" in Japanese-Australian relations by Scott Morrison, the new agreement will mark the beginning of a much closer defence relationship between Canberra and Tokyo, but was still being finalised late on Tuesday night.
Japanese and Australian sources were optimistic the deal would go ahead despite Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan being forced to cancel his trip amid the spiralling Omicron outbreak across the world.
The Reciprocal Access Agreement has been under negotiation since 2014 and is the first agreement of its kind that Japan is finalising with another nation, with Tokyo and Canberra moving to strengthen regional security amid a period of heightening strategic uncertainty and tensions in the Indo-Pacific fuelled by a more assertive Beijing.
Before it was cancelled, the trip was to have been the first bilateral visit made by Mr Kishida since he became prime minister in October and a symbol of the tightening relationship with Australia and shared commitment to democratic values, human rights, open markets and the rule of law.
Mr Morrison and Mr Kishida are scheduled to hold a virtual meeting to accompany the signing of the agreement, which will relax entry arrangements for foreign troops and military equipment, slashing red tape as the tempo of joint operations ticks up.
It will be seen in Tokyo as the most significant defence agreement after the US Status of Forces Agreement, signed in 1960, under which America maintains about 45,000 troops in Japan. Japan is also in negotiations for a similar arrangement with Britain, and France has expressed an interest in striking its own arrangement with Tokyo.
Japanese ambassador Yamagami Shingo told The Australian the agreement with Australia would open a "new chapter in our co-operation" and argued that Mr Kishida had established a strong rapport with Mr Morrison on the sidelines of the COP26 meeting in Glasgow late last year.
"We will increase joint exercises in terms of both number, quantity as well as quality," Mr Yamagami told The Australian. "Already we have been conducting such joint exercises of Talisman Sabre, or Southern Jackaroo among our armies or Bushido Guardian between our air forces.
"There are various kinds of joint exercises already conducted between Australia and Japan. I do expect that number will increase significantly. But not only that, perhaps more importantly, we will upgrade the quality of our joint exercises.
"This will certainly increase our interoperability. Already discussions are being made to conduct air-to-air refuelling - that's one of the most difficult operations between air forces. Things like this will open a new chapter in our co-operation."
In an interview with The Australian, Mr Yamagami said Japan was "facing a security environment in which we have to address ever increasing difficulties in areas such as the South China Sea and the East China Sea or throughout the Indo Pacific region".
"In this regard we believe Australia and Japan are in the same boat sharing basic values such as democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and a market economy. Also, more importantly we do share strategic interests. We would like to establish a free and open Indo-Pacific. So, there is a lot we can do together."
(continued)
#15271334 at 2021-12-29 06:42:27 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #20 - INSURGENCY Edition
Defence ticks Chinese lease of Darwin Port
Joe Kelly - DECEMBER 28, 2021
1/2
A Defence review has found there are no national security grounds sufficient to recommend a government intervention to overturn the controversial 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin to Chinese company Landbridge.
The review is understood to have disappointed China hawks who were hoping the review would trigger a reversal of the ?decision and allow the government to unpick the lease arrangement, an outcome that would deepen tensions with Beijing at a critical moment of growing strategic uncertainty and great-power rivalry in the Indo-Pacific.
The Australian has confirmed that the national security committee of cabinet has considered the review it commissioned to ?re-examine the 2015 agreement under which Landbridge won the bid to operate the port in a deal worth $506m.
Given there was no formal recommendation from Defence for a national security intervention, the NSC has taken no action to this point. While the government is still reviewing the matter, the position of the Defence Department makes any decision to overturn the port lease more politically challenging.
Multiple sources informed The Australian that ?Defence had not given the government the justification to liquidate the Chinese holding over the asset in the strategically critical northern reaches of Australia, despite a historic ?deterioration in the bilateral relationship with Beijing and the emergence of new conflicts across the trade, geopolitical and security realms.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton has pushed the review and taken a stronger stand against China than his predecessors, ?recently warning that it would be "inconceivable" for Australia not to join the US if there was a conflict with Beijing over Taiwan.
Speaking in Darwin earlier this year, Scott Morrison said the lease of the Port of Darwin was "undertaken by the former Territory government and it was not a lease that was approved by the federal government - it was not".
The Prime Minister said that as treasurer he made changes to ensure that future transactions would be subject to approval from the federal government given there was, at that time, no basis on which the lease could have been vetoed. He also gave an assurance that his government would only act in relation to the Port of Darwin "if there is advice from the Defence Department or our ?security agencies that change their view about the national ?security implications of any piece of critical infrastructure".
"You could expect me as Prime Minister to take that advice very seriously and act accordingly," Mr Morrison said.
Businessman and former Howard government minister Warwick Smith, who has unparalleled ties into China, warned that any decision to unpick the lease arrangement without the explicit endorsement of Defence would be seen by investors as a "totally and completely gratuitous step".
Mr Smith told The Australian that, over the past 2? years in his capacity as the chair of the international engagement committee of the Business Council of Australia, he had met with the heads of Defence, Home Affairs, ASIO and ASIS, and that none had identified the Port of Darwin as a "high-priority issue".
"It was subject to Defence ?consideration at the time," he said. "They went through it in ?detail. They found a lease ... It was a reasonably good return for what was a basically low level piece of port area.
"My view is that defence have probably come to the right conclusion. National security concerns have changed over the last five years, and I appreciate that. But there's not a lot to be gained by picking apart a port lease like this when there are other ?investments taking place in our country.
"It doesn't gain on the security side. It unpicks a commercial ?arrangement that sends a negative signal. I don't think it's the wisest thing to do right now."
(continued)
#15264936 at 2021-12-28 00:39:26 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #20 - INSURGENCY Edition
Barnaby Joyce questions future of US's global mission
Joe Kelly - DECEMBER 27, 2021
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has questioned the future of America's global mission and whether it will have the capacity to uphold liberty and defend its allies to the same extent in the 21st century.
The Nationals leader warns that the US will look to Australia to solve more of its own problems where its interests remain distinct from those of its great and powerful ally, declaring that Australians must have their "eyes wide open about our future".
Mr Joyce - who has recently returned from Britain and the US where he met with senior ?government members on infrastructure, trade and defence - said he would never "under?estimate the capacity for the (US) economy to morph quickly into the most formidable fighting machine the world has ever known".
But after witnessing the "homeless asleep on concrete paths on the main road into Santa Monica", Mr Joyce raised the prospect of America's capacity to act being compromised by its economic woes, including a "dangerous escalation in inflation and an insurmountable debt" of nearly $US30 trillion.
"When Australian interests are vitally and inseparably intertwined with US interests, then it is in the US national destiny that they take action. But the US will be more inclined to stay out of problems that are just for another country to solve," Mr Joyce writes in The Australian.
Mr Joyce argues that the historic mission of the US captured by president John F Kennedy in his 1961 inaugural address - to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty" - faced new challenges.
"When we rely on the US, we believe that their faith in ?Kennedy's legacy is stronger than their dire needs elsewhere in a budget getting strangled by debt. I still believe that to be the case but I would never take it for granted," Mr Joyce writes.
"I would never buy a ticket against the US in any conflict they put their mind to - they have never lost a war that truly threatened them.
"But in the US bars and lounge rooms as they watch their favourite team on TV, are they focused on the outside world as they once were? They need a very good reason to have more of their sons and daughters buried at Arlington (cemetery).
"Americans on the street overwhelmingly have no knowledge of AUKUS, ANZUS, Five Eyes or the Quad. They do see Australia in the broad as a good country and a solid ally. They hold a far greater knowledge of the wars we have fought together in the past rather than the treaties we are in now."
The comments from Mr Joyce come after Scott Morrison secured in September the AUKUS trilateral security partnership with Britain and the US aimed at deepening defence co-operation, integration and intelligence sharing between the three nations.
Under the deal, Australia will receive a new nuclear-powered submarine fleet and strengthen co-operation in critical areas including artificial intelligence, cyber warfare and quantum ?computing.
Last month, Joe Biden's ?national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said that the AUKUS agreement represented a "big bet" by the US on Australia, with the bilateral relationship being grounded on a bedrock of trust.
He also provided a reassurance that Washington was keen on "getting this thing (AUKUS) into place" despite the deal ?igniting a diplomatic row with French President Emmanuel Macron after Australia cancelled its $90bn future submarine contract with France's Naval Group to sign up to the new three-way agreement.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has also been critical of the ?agreement, warning that the region is backsliding into a new cold war, while Chinese Foreign ?Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said earlier this month the ?partnership "poses serious risks of nuclear proliferation and violates the object and purpose of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty".
Mr Zhao said there was "no way" to ensure that Australia would not build nuclear weapons under the trilateral partnership, with China urging the International Atomic Energy Agency to launch a special committee to probe the political, legal and technical issues with the AUKUS agreement.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/barnaby-joyce-questions-future-of-uss-global-mission/news-story/34ff9075c2dc9dfb95e91276b348c26a
#14997607 at 2021-11-14 17:46:32 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #19 - THE ONLY WAY IS THE MILITARY Edition
>>14988949
>>14994995
Australia urged to back Taiwan in China brawl
Joe Kelly - NOVEMBER 14, 2021
Taiwan's Foreign Minister has conceded the territory may need military support in the event of a conflict with China and argued that Beijing had been planning "an invasion of Taiwan for a longtime".
Joseph Wu said that Taipei would never ask Australia, or any country, to "come to war for Taiwan" because "defending Taiwan is our responsibility". However, he conceded that "any kind of help is going to be treasured" and urged Australia to speak out in defence of Taiwan and uphold the "importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait".
Asked if Taiwan would need help if war erupted, he replied: "We might."
The comments were made in an interview with Sky News host Peter Stefanovic for the two-part China Rising program to be aired this Tuesday and Wednesday, with Mr Wu saying that Beijing's expansionism meant the future of democracy was "going to be in danger".
"If Taiwan unfortunately has to be taken by the Chinese government, I think the Chinese government will continue to advance," he said. "I think no one can be immune from the Chinese threat or pressure. And therefore, it is very important for the like-minded partners of the international community to come together, to support each other."
The program will air just days after Defence Minister Peter Dutton told The Weekend Australian it was "inconceivable" that Australia, as an alliance partner of the US, would not join in a military action if America committed forces to defend the territory against a Chinese ?invasion.
"It would be inconceivable that we wouldn't support the US in an action (in Taiwan) if the US chose to take that action," Mr Dutton said. "And, again, I think we should be very frank and honest about that, look at all of the facts and circumstances without pre-committing, and maybe there are circumstances where we wouldn't take up that option, (but) I can't conceive of those ?circumstances."
The comments from Mr Dutton drew a fierce rebuke from the editor-in-chief of China's Global Times, Hu Xijin, who tweeted that Beijing would retaliate against Australia and attack its military facilities if Canberra involved itself in a war over Taiwan.
"If Australian troops come to fight in the Taiwan Straits, it is unimaginable that China won't carry out a heavy attack on them and the Australian military facilities that support them," he said. "So Australia (had) better be prepared to sacrifice for Taiwan ?island and the US."
The discussion over the fate of Taiwan also comes ahead of a virtual summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping after the US President last month appeared to break with the long standing policy of American strategic ambiguity over the Taiwan Strait in a CNN hosted forum.
Responding to a question about whether America would come to Taiwan's defence if attacked by China, Mr Biden said: "Yes. We have that commitment." The White House later clarified there had been no change in policy.
Former prime minister Paul Keating told the National Press Club in Canberra last week that Taiwan was "not a vital Australian interest". He said it was not recognised as "a sovereign state" and Australia should not be drawn into a conflict over the ?island.
But Mr Wu said that, while Australia and Taiwan had no formal diplomatic relations, "we have been able to speak with each other on all kinds of issues".
"You have a representative office over here in Taiwan and we treat it like a real embassy," he said. "And the representative from Australia is being regarded as the de facto ambassador over here and she has been recognised.
"We also have an office in Canberra and our office has also been recognised and respected … And I would like to say that is because we share the same interest, and we share the same values."
Mr Wu also sounded the alarm on Chinese aggression after Beijing last month made a record number of air incursions near the island territory. He said Taiwan believed the Chinese government had been "planning for an invasion of Taiwan for a long time".
"They also conducted endless cyber-attacks against Taiwan and … set up their proxies domestically here," Mr Wu said.
He said Taipei was developing its ability to wage asymmetric warfare so that "China understands that they won't be able to take Taiwan over … in a very short period."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/australia-urged-to-back-taiwan-in-china-brawl/news-story/cb01f3f4ba107a01233e1c533b917532
#14433814 at 2021-08-23 06:26:21 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #18 - Talisman Sabre: MAGIC SWORD Edition
US gives Australia a cold shoulder on vaccines
RICHARD FERGUSON and Joe Kelly - AUGUST 22, 2021
The US has not given the Morrison government any vaccines throughout the course of the coronavirus pandemic, as tension points between the Biden White House and Canberra build.
Despite President Joe Biden promising to give Covid-19 vaccine doses to needy nations, the Health Department this weekend confirmed Australia had neither bought or received any shots from the US.
The vaccine confirmation comes weeks after The Australian revealed Scott Morrison's government made as-yet-unanswered requests to the Biden administration for extra Pfizer doses, despite substantial support from US congress leaders.
The Morrison government was attacked last week by the US's deputy envoy on climate change over its emission reductions policies, and the Prime Minister is yet to speak to Mr Biden about the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Foreign policy experts are warning the Australia cannot expect the US to be the same ally it has been in previous years and must become more self-reliant.
ANU defence and strategic studies analyst Hugh White said on Sunday Mr Biden was "unsentimental" about Australia and Washington was not prepared to help Mr Morrison on vaccines over developing countries.
"The Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, is demonstrating that it is wholly unsentimental about Australia ... We think we're their little mates, but US policy ?towards Australia has always been determined by how much we help their strategic interests," Professor White said.
"Biden's pandemic policy has been pretty coherent in that he wants to send vaccines to developing countries with high Covid-19 rates. Washington is not interested in doing Morrison a political favour because he screwed up early acquisition of jabs."
Mr Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal has been criticised by four former PMs - Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd and John Howard - and there are concerns about the US's ?reliability in the Asia-Pacific.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/us-gives-australia-a-cold-shoulder-on-vaccines/news-story/e9223d86091b95eed88e9a98cabe4535
#13955847 at 2021-06-22 08:54:49 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition
Revolt over China's grip on Port of Newcastle
GEOFF CHAMBERS and Joe Kelly - JUNE 20, 2021
1/2
Fifteen Coalition MPs are demanding Josh Frydenberg impose tougher controls on the half-Chinese owned Port of Newcastle because they fear its monopoly powers could be exploited to impose "punitive costs" to hurt Australian coal exporters.
In a letter to the Treasurer and Scott Morrison, the MPs call for new arbitration measures for the Port of Newcastle, arguing the current regulatory regime gives the "Communist Party of China a geopolitical advantage over the export of Australian coal''.
The Australian can reveal the letter, sent by Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz to the Treasurer and Prime Minister last week, outlines fears the port - half-owned by China Merchants Port Holdings - could lift access charges for Australian coal exporters and they would not have a legal mechanism to challenge it.
The letter, sent by Senator Abetz, followed a Senate estimates hearing this month at which Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims said the world's largest export coal port was a "monopoly" with no regulatory oversight.
The MPs are calling on Mr Frydenberg to declare the port a monopoly under the National Access Regime - set out in the Competition and Consumer Act - which would ensure that, if a user cannot agree on terms to access the port, the competition watchdog could resolve the dispute through arbitration.
The MPs are arguing for an arbitration mechanism to be put in place between the port and NSW coal producers "similar to the ACCC arbitration mechanism for other monopoly assets".
"As you are aware, the Port of Newcastle is a major strategic asset for Australia. It accounts for around 40 per cent of Australia's coal exports and is the largest coal export port in the world," the letter says.
"The port also operates as a monopoly, making it incredibly vulnerable to foreign interference. Most coal producers in NSW have no alternative but to use the Port of Newcastle. It is also half-owned by China Merchants Port Holdings, which is a state-owned corporation under the direction of the Communist Party of China.
"It seems incredulous that a half-Chinese-owned company that controls a monopoly bottleneck in the coal export chain can increase charges at their discretion, forcing up prices for Australian coal overseas and making our second-largest export commodity less competitive." The letter was co-signed by Liberal and Nationals MPs Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan, Bridget McKenzie, James McGrath, Sarah Henderson, Alex Antic, Kevin Andrews, Paul Scarr, Phillip Thompson, Llew O'Brien, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, George Christensen, Gerard Rennick and Susan McDonald.
The Australian has been told more Coalition MPs were expected to sign-up this week.
A spokesman for Mr Frydenberg said the independent National Competition Council had considered on multiple occasions whether the Port of Newcastle should be declared under the National Access Regime and each time had recommended against it.
"The government's decisions have been consistent with this independent expert advice," the spokesman said. "Following the NCC's most recent decision, the Treasurer agreed not to declare the Port of Newcastle." The Port of Newcastle has welcomed Mr Frydenberg's decision, as well as a subsequent review of the timeliness of decisions made under the National Access Regime.
Executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Peter Jennings told The Australian it was clear that "any Chinese company can be subject to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party to meet the party's political objectives".
"This is also underlined by China's national security law, which requires all companies and individuals to assist the Chinese intelligence community if asked to do so. The risk for Australia is that any piece of critical infrastructure which has an element of Chinese ownership is potentially at risk from this type of political behaviour. That is true of the Port of Newcastle, but also for a great deal of the electricity grid and gas infrastructure."
(continued)
#13500714 at 2021-04-24 08:47:24 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #15 - NEVER RETREAT FROM THE BATTLEFIELD Edition
>>13485007
Push to cut more Chinese accords
GEOFF CHAMBERS and Joe Kelly - APRIL 23, 2021
Foreign Minister Marise Payne is being urged to tear up China's Confucius Institute agreements with universities and the Northern Territory government's 99-year Port of Darwin lease with Chinese firm Landbridge under Australia's new foreign arrangements scheme.
Senator Payne's decision to terminate Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative agreements with Beijing under the scheme, which came into effect late last year, has sparked calls for the Morrison government to move against other Chinese deals.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings, a former Defence Department deputy secretary, said the government should take "decisive steps" to end the 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin.
Writing for Inquirer, Mr Jennings said "high on the government's list for consideration must surely be the dozen or so secret agreements bringing Confucius Institutes on to Australian university campuses".
"The way these institutes function is surely an anathema to what should be a central university value for fiercely independent research," Mr Jennings wrote.
"To sustain the funding flow from Confucius Institutes, universities run the risk that courses on Chinese history or international relations cannot discuss Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, the illegal annexation of the South China Sea, human rights and other topics discomforting to Beijing. It's way past time the institutes were closed."
Under the foreign arrangements scheme, Senator Payne has reviewed more than 1000 arrangements between foreign national governments and universities, local and state governments.
In addition to cancelling the BRI agreements on the grounds of working against the national interest, Senator Payne scrapped two other deals involving Iran and Syria.
Mr Jennings argued that ending the Port of Darwin lease would be "well received domestically, by our key allies and in the region, which looks to Australia to play a strengthening role in security during troubled times".
Beijing reacted with fury during the week to the cancelling of its BRI agreements with Victoria. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China reserved the "right to take further actions" against Australia.
He said it was the first time a BRI deal had been torn-up and that the Morrison government had stooped to "political manipulation and bullying", urging Australia to abandon its "Cold War mentality and ideological bias".
Defence Minister Peter Dutton on Friday said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews had done the "wrong thing" in signing the BRI deals and pushed back against criticism from the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Embassy.
"He shouldn't be entering into agreements that aren't in our national interest and I want to make sure that people hear that message very clearly. We are standing up for who we are and we've got very important diplomatic relations with many countries, including China," Mr Dutton said.
"But we aren't going to be compromised by the principles of the Communist Party of China and the government's made that very clear."
Mr Dutton said China's increasingly aggressive behaviour in the region was a "real problem".
"When you look at our part of the world, you look at militarisation of bases, when you look at the cyber attacks, all of that is not the action of a friend," he said.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the Opposition supported the government's Foreign Relations bill but suggested a proper explanation was needed about why Victoria's BRI deals were cancelled when nothing had happened on the Port of Darwin 99 year lease to Landbridge.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/push-to-cut-more-chinese-accords/news-story/7ec74335fe107fa244549f3679a6cbf3
#13485047 at 2021-04-22 07:27:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #15 - NEVER RETREAT FROM THE BATTLEFIELD Edition
>>13485007
Beijing hits back as Marise Payne cancels Daniel Andrews' Belt and Road agreements
BEN PACKHAM and Joe Kelly - APRIL 22, 2021
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Foreign Minister Marise Payne says she expects more deals to be scrapped following the tearing up of Victoria's Belt and Road agreement with China.
Speaking in Wellington alongside her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta, Senator Payne said she anticipated there would be "further decisions" made on agreements between Australian institutions and foreign powers.
"They will be informed by my department on the consistency of all of those arrangements with the relevant legal test as it's set out in the legislation," she said.
She said there was a "fundamental difference" between the governance of New Zealand and Australia.
"We are, of course, a federation so states and territories that enter into those agreements are now required to consult and to advise the commonwealth as they do that. The process that I'm going through now is addressing those that have been made in the past."
Senator Payne spoke of her decision to tear up four agreements entered into by the Victorian government concerning Syria, Iran, and China. "The determination that we have formed is that they are not consistent with Australia's approach to foreign policy and under the legislation will be terminated," she said. "I do expect there will be further decisions to be made in due course."
China hits back over BRI
Earlier, Beijing has hit back after Senator Payne tore up Victoria's controversial Belt and Road agreements with China, warning the "provocative" move could throw relations between the two countries "into the abyss."
In the first use of new powers allowing the commonwealth to unilaterally veto deals it views as contrary to the national interest, Senator Payne revealed on Wednesday night she had cancelled four agreements - all negotiated by Victorian authorities - including a 2004 deal between the state's Education and Training Department with Iran and a 1999 scientific co-operation agreement with Syria.
The two BRI deals include the 2018 Memorandum of Understanding between the Andrews' government and the National Development and Reform Commission of China, and the 2019 Framework Agreement, which built on the earlier deal.
"I consider these four arrangements to be inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations in line with the relevant test in Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020," Ms Payne said.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy said the move was "another unreasonable and provocative move… against China."
He added: "It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations. It is bound to bring further damage to bilateral relations, and will only end up hurting itself."
The Global Times, Beijing's mouthpiece, went further, quoting Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Centre at the East China Normal University that the move marked a "significant escalation that could push icy bilateral relations into an abyss."
The newspaper reported: "The latest move appears to be a calculated and deliberate step taken by Australia against China and could prompt a response from Beijing".
Senator Payne on Thursday said the new powers weren't aimed at "any one country" and that Australia would continue to emphasise its commitment to engaging with China.
"It is most certainly not intended to harm Australia's relationships with any countries," she told ABC AM.
"I hope that if there are any concerns they will be raised with the government."
Senator Payne rejected the assertion that Australian producers should prepare for more retaliation from China - despite wine and barley producers being slapped with tariffs, and seafood, coal and timber facing customs issues last year.
"Australia is operating in our national interests, we are very careful and very considered in that approach," she said.
"It's about ensuring we have a consistent approach to foreign policy."
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#13293813 at 2021-03-25 06:28:33 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #14 - THE ART OF WAR Edition
>>13241638
>>13293622
China official Zhao Lijian's fake news on Manus 'camps'
GEOFF CHAMBERS and Joe Kelly - MARCH 25, 2021
Senior Chinese official Zhao Lijian, who sparked a diplomatic furore last year after posting a fake image of an Australian soldier slitting the throat of a young Afghan girl, has launched a new disinformation campaign falsely claiming the Morrison government is operating "concentration camps" on Manus Island.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry deputy director's claim that "tens of thousands of people from war-torn countries" were being accommodated in overseas detention centres was made despite the Manus Island processing centre closing in 2017 and the Nauru processing centre not currently housing any asylum-seekers.
"The #Australian government built detention centres on the #Manus Island, which 'accommodates' tens of thousands of people from war-torn countries. The concentration camps, as some critics call it, are still in operation," he tweeted.
In a series of tweets posted on Wednesday, Mr Zhao also used a Lowy Institute report to claim "almost one in five Chinese Australians have been physically threatened or attacked in the past year because of their heritage".
The Australian can reveal as of last month, the number of refugees and asylum-seekers in PNG and Nauru had fallen to 240, with 960 people resettled in the US, Cambodia and other countries since 2015.
Of those asylum-seekers and refugees still on the islands, almost all are living in the Port Moresby and Nauru communities.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings described Mr Zhao's social media attacks as "more wolf warrior propaganda".
"I think what's significant about it rather than the content which is just pure polemic, is here we have a country aspiring to global leadership which is just slinging insults and abuse around the place, in the spot where there used to be diplomacy," he said.
"And China wonders why it's losing friends all around the world. I think this is a very dangerous stage that the Communist Party has got itself to. But I regret we are going to be stuck with it for some years, as long as Xi Jinping is in power."
NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday night issued a blunt message to China that its 30 member countries would back Australia in countering Chinese bullying and bad behaviour.
Following the Morrison government's calls for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and Beijing's targeting of Australian exporters, Mr Stoltenberg said "China behaved very badly against Australia".
In November last year, Mr Zhao sparked a major standoff between Beijing and Canberra and plunged Australia-China relations to their lowest level in almost 50 years after posting an offensive tweet of an Australian soldier, attempting to weaponise the findings of the Brereton Afghanistan inquiry.
At the time, Mr Morrison publicly lashed out at Beijing over its use of a "repugnant" and "appalling" fake image.
China's attempted shaming of Australia came as Beijing snubbed Morrison ministers and imposed trade sanctions against local exporters, with Chinese officials slapping tariffs, bans and restrictions on Australian coal, wine and barley.
China this month said it was "deeply concerned" by the Morrison government's operation of offshore detention centres and called for them to be shut.
In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, China said the detention centres "fall short of adequate medical conditions where a large number of immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers have been detained over a long period of time or even indefinitely, and their human rights have been violated".
China's criticism of the offshore immigration centres coincided with Western nations pushing back against Beijing over human rights violations against Uighurs in Xinjiang.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/china-official-zhao-lijians-fake-news-on-manus-camps/news-story/d04531514c26bd2ad53d5deac7477f8f
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Lijian Zhao ??? Tweets
The #Australian government built detention centers on the #Manus Island, which "accommodates" tens of thousands of people from war-torn countries. The concentration camps, as some critics call it, are still in operation.
https://twitter.com/zlj517/status/1374544411413999617
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According to the Lowy Institute, almost one in five #Chinese #Australians have been physically threatened or attacked in the past year because of their heritage.
https://twitter.com/zlj517/status/1374526092589993984
#13195850 at 2021-03-13 05:32:07 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #14 - THE ART OF WAR Edition
OECD top post: And the winner is ... Australia's Mathias Cormann
SIMON BENSON, GEOFF CHAMBERS and Joe Kelly - MARCH 12, 2021
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Australia has pulled off a stunning diplomatic coup with Mathias Cormann set to be announced as secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, delivering the Asia-Pacific region's first head of the Paris-based body.
In a major vindication of Scott Morrison's push to win the influential economic post, sources close to the OECD process confirmed Mr Cormann's appointment, which will be announced as early as Saturday morning.
Mr Cormann, who served in federal parliament from 2007 until his retirement late last year, won the tightly contested contest following an exhaustive process pitting him against the preferred European candidate, Sweden's Cecilia Malmstrom.
Australia's longest-serving finance minister steps into the OECD role despite a campaign questioning his climate change credentials and a push to select the first female secretary-general.
The Weekend Australian understands the Prime Minister played a central role in Mr Cormann's successful OECD bid, calling more than 50 world leaders over the course of the last few months. Mr Cormann, regarded as one of Australia's most accomplished finance ministers, also ran a tireless international lobbying effort to secure the posting, having faced resistance from some European countries.
US support was considered critical to his success. He will replace Angel Gurria of Mexico, with his five-year term commencing on June 1.
As secretary-general, Mr Cormann will lead the OECD Secretariat and Council, which is the organisation's overarching decision-making body composed of ambassadors from 37 member countries and the European Commission.
Mr Cormann described it as "a privilege and an honour to take on the leadership of the OECD."
"It brings together like-minded countries from around the world committed to developing and delivering better policies for better lives," he said, describing himself as "ambitious" for the OECD. "It provides a great platform for international cooperation and best practice policy development, from the foundation of a shared commitment to democracy, human rights, the rule of law, market-based economic principles and a rules-based international order."
Mr Cormann won the job after the initial field of 10 candidates was narrowed to two. Nominated by Sweden, Dr Malmstrom served as European trade commissioner and European home affairs commissioner, as well as minister for EU affairs in the Swedish government between 2006 and 2010. She was also a member of the European parliament between 1999 and 2006.
The last European to hold the job was Jean-Claude Paye in 1996. Mr Cormann's pathway to success was understood to be contingent on winning support from Asia-Pacific and Latin American nations, with help from eastern Europe members.
The last time an Australian headed a major international economic organisation was Sydney-born Sir James Wolfensohn, who was appointed by the US as World Bank group president from 1995 to 2005.
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