QResear.ch

#16320270 at 2022-05-22 05:29:41 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #22: THIS IS NOT ANOTHER 3-YEAR ELECTION Edition

>>16320263

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Zoe Daniel, a former ABC journalist, knocked off assistant minister Tim Wilson in Goldstein after a bitter campaign that included human excrement being smeared on signs.

"What we have achieved here is extraordinary. Safe Liberal seat, two-term incumbent," Ms Daniel told her celebrating supporters on Saturday night.

Goldstein had never been won by anyone other than the Liberal Party. If you include the earlier period when it was called Balaclava, it had been Liberal since 1945.

Mr Wilson, for his part, blamed his troubles on an "unholy alliance" between GetUp!, the Labor Party and the Greens, among others.

Kylea Tink took North Sydney from another moderate Liberal MP, Trent Zimmerman, marking the first Time the Liberals haven't held the seat since 1996.

On election night, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said Mr Zimmerman was the vicTim of a "contagion effect" and was being "punished" for the views of other candidates.

He was quite obviously alluding to Katherine Deves, the controversial Liberal candidate in neighbouring Warringah, whose extreme views on transgender people plagued her colleagues throughout much of the campaign.

And Kate Chaney claimed the WA seat Curtin, once held by Julie Bishop, unseating conservative MP Celia Hammond after a single term.

Curtin was previously held by an independent, Allan Rocher, for just one term between 1995 and 1998. Otherwise it had been Liberal since 1949.

Ms Chaney is another example of an independent from a Liberal family, incidentally; her grandfather, Fred Chaney, was a minister in the Menzies government and her uncle was a senator.

Her impressively funded campaign included a $350,000 donation from Simon Holmes a Court's Climate 200 organisation.

'Stick it up your jumper'

Speaking of Mr Holmes a Court and his financial support for the teal independents, the millionaire popped up during Channel 9's election night coverage, speaking to the network's panel from Kooyong.

This was somewhat awkward, because one of Nine's panellists was Liberal Senator Jane Hume, whom Mr Holmes a Court confronted at a pre-poll location last week, ignoring requests to leave her alone.

"Do you regret the scenes at the pre-poll booth in the last week of the campaign involving one of our panellists here, Jane Hume?" asked anchor Alicia Loxley.

"Look, Jane has for a long Time spread lies and mistruths about me. I've asked her publicly to withdraw, and she won't," Mr Holmes a Court said.

"I asked her in a public forum. Probably wasn't the place to do it, but I'm looking forward to that retraction of lies from Jane Hume."

"That didn't answer the question. Do you regret the scenes?" Loxley pressed.

"Unfortunately. Those who have seen the full video will see really what went on. I think, as I've said to Jane, I gave my apology. I don't think that was an appropriate place for it, but I hope we can get a resolution and she can withdraw the lies as we come out of this election," he responded.

Ms Hume called his apology "a 'sorry, not sorry'".

"If you see the full video, it was a set-up. Simon, it was pretty disgraceful behaviour. I hope it took some paint off your celebrations tonight," she told him.

"Looking forward to getting your full apology, thanks, Jane," Mr Holmes a Court shot back.

"Stick it up your jumper," Ms Hume said.

https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/the-six-giant-killer-independents-who-destroyed-scott-morrisons-government/news-story/8807346fc22ccceddb5b63898fd1e395

https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1527970559690153986

#16313597 at 2022-05-21 01:17:59 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #22: THIS IS NOT ANOTHER 3-YEAR ELECTION Edition

>>16313588

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The Prime Minister, who if re-elected would move ahead of legendary Labor warTime leader John Curtin as the 12th longest-serving prime minister on Monday, said he "absolutely" believed the Coalition could win.

"Elections in Australia are always close," he said. "It's very rare that you get big, big changes. That happens occasionally. But in my experience elections are always very close.

"This isn't an election about me or Mr Albanese for that matter; it's about you and what your aspirations are. It's about what you're hoping to achieve.

"It's about putting what's ?happened with the pandemic well behind us as we emerge strongly and we secure the opportunities that are ahead of us, and those opportunities are there, but we cannot take them for granted."

With Labor MPs scarred by the 2019 election defeat, Mr Albanese cautioned that the path to victory remained "a mountain to climb".

"Labor's only won government three Times from opposition since the Second World War," the Opposition Leader said. "And we knew that this election was going to be close, but I say that people have a real choice here.

"They have a choice for a better future with our measures to deal with the cost of living, with cheaper childcare, cheaper energy prices, cheaper medicines, our plan for more secure work, our plan to strengthen Medicare, our plan to make more things here, and our plan to end the climate wars, and in addition, our plan to fix politics by having a national anti-corruption commission."

Amid expectations that Labor will pick up seats in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia, Mr ?Albanese said the prospect of a "boy from Camperdown" becoming prime minister would make his late mum "proud as punch".

Coalition strategists on Friday said they would struggle to reach a majority of 76 seats, with concerns held over about 20 government-held electorates.

The Coalition seats most at-risk or too-close-to-call include Reid, Robertson and Wentworth in NSW; Swan in WA; Brisbane, Leichhardt and Longman in Queensland; Goldstein, Chisholm, Higgins and Nicholls in Victoria; Boothby in South Australia and Bass in Tasmania.

Senior Liberal and Nationals sources said "it's going to be close across the country".

"We still think there's a pathway to victory but it's looking increasingly like a hung parliament," a senior government source said.

"If both the Coalition and Labor get into the 70s, it's a matter of who gets closest."

Labor sources are quietly confident, with hopes rising that Mr Albanese is on track to claim between 76 and 80 seats.

Coalition strategists expect teal independents could pick up one or two seats across the country, with Tim Wilson's Melbourne seat of Goldstein considered most at risk.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/election-2022-scott-morrison-left-to-chase-a-second-poll-miracle/news-story/ff2607d3f51f6599e31173fc866e1f30

#16278239 at 2022-05-15 08:58:27 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #22: THIS IS NOT ANOTHER 3-YEAR ELECTION Edition

>>16278237

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Labor housing spokesman Jason Clare dismissed the plan on the grounds it would throw "fuel on the fire" of the housing market by giving buyers more money and therefore driving up prices.

Industry Super Australia chief executive Bernie Dean mounted a similar argument by esTimating the use of super savings would drive up property prices by 16 per cent in Sydney, 9 per cent in Melbourne, 8 per cent in Brisbane and 14 per cent in Perth.

Morrison said the policy will allow first home buyers to invest "a responsible portion" of their own super into their own home.

"You can already use your super to purchase an investment property. But not your own home. Other countries such as New Zealand and Canada also have policies that allow people to use their retirement savings to help them buy their home. And under a Morrison government you will be able to do that," he said.

The Super Home Buyer Scheme will start by July 2023 and will not be restricted by price caps on the income someone can earn or the value of the property they wish to buy.

It can only be used by people who are buying their first home, have saved at least 5 per cent of the deposit and will live in the home at least one year.

The buyers must apply to the Australian Tax Office for approval and can withdraw up to 40 per cent of their super funds, up to a maximum of $50,000, for the home deposit.

If they sell the home, they must return the cash to their super funds along with a share of the capital gains.

It will be able to be used alongside the Home Guarantee Scheme and the First Home Super Saver Scheme as well as a policy also unveiled on Sunday to allow all Australians over the age of 55 to "downsize" their homes and put up to $300,000 from the proceeds, per person, into their super funds outside the existing super contribution caps.

The downsizing policy creates an incentive for people to sell large homes as they age, potentially increasing supply for younger buyers, but it does not force any sale. Albanese said Labor would match the policy.

The idea of using super for housing has been pushed by Coalition backbenchers including Tim Wilson, the member for Goldstein, and Liberal senator for NSW Andrew Bragg, as well as a suggestion about the change in 2015 from Joe Hockey as treasurer.

Housing Industry Association managing director Graham Wolfe welcomed the scheme on the basis that access to a deposit was the biggest obstacle for Australians trying to buy their first home.

"This scheme builds on the many positive home ownership schemes now in place to support first home buyers achieving their aspiration to own a home," he said.

But the Financial Services Council, which represents retail super funds, warned the move would undermine retirement savings.

"The FSC is concerned the government's proposal weakens the sole purpose of superannuation, which is to provide higher standards of living in retirement," chief executive Blake Briggs said.

"The government has an obligation to do more to boost supply, otherwise unleashing superannuation savings on the housing market risks driving prices higher still."

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/first-home-buyers-could-use-superannuation-under-coalition-government-20220515-p5alh3.html

#13499304 at 2021-04-24 02:42:43 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #15 - NEVER RETREAT FROM THE BATTLEFIELD Edition

>>13499300

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The Premier always defended the BRI deals on the basis that they would create more jobs and economic opportunities for his state. But he has never been able to name a single job or project that was created because of his decision to sign up to the BRI.

Given Andrews' lack of consultation, it was easy to see how Victoria failed to read the tea leaves. After all, a year before Victoria signed the MOU, the federal government reached its own BRI agreement with the Chinese government. While this deal only applied to the participation of Australian firms in third party countries, it remains an embarrassment within senior ranks of the federal government and DFAT. It is the deal that dare not be mentioned.

And back in 2017, the federal government was sending out mixed messages on BRI. In May of that year, then-trade minister Steven Ciobo, prior to attending the first Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, said: "Australia supports the aims of initiatives such as the Belt and Road that improve infrastructure development and increased opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region." It also allowed a 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese-owned company in 2015 - a move that would be unthinkable today.

The federal government was, itself, slow to wake up to the existential threat posed by China's growing assertiveness. In 2017, it was forced to back down on a controversial extradition treaty with Beijing amid opposition from Labor and its own backbench.

Later that year, the eyes of the senior ranks of the then-Turnbull government finally opened to what former ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis described as the Chinese Communist Party's intention to "take over" Australia's political system. In 2018, the Turnbull government passed world-leading legislation targeting foreign interference in politics and other domestic affairs.

While 2017 doesn't seem that long ago, the centre of gravity on the question of China's rise has completely shifted. This has been sparked by Beijing's militarisation of the South China Sea, the democratic crackdown in Hong Kong, the detention of more than 1 million Uighurs in Xinjiang's forced labour camps, and China's economic coercion against countries that stand up to it, including Australia.

Andrews wasn't ignorant of these issues. Last year, fending off criticism about a Chinese company building a fleet of trains for Victoria being linked to China's mass internment of Uighurs, Andrews said he did not "agree with everything that is done in every country".

Victorian Liberal MP Tim Wilson, one of the first federal MPs to call for a more assertive foreign policy towards the CCP, says Australia's journey on rebalancing its relationship with Beijing and reasserting its sovereignty and interests has "been rapid and welcome".

"In 2016 the prevailing view in Canberra was to see the relationship solely through economic opportunity and blinkered to some risks, whereas now a realism has now been normalised," he says.

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, chair of Federal Parliament's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, says it was part of the CCP's strategy to bypass federal governments and create a "wedge" within a country.

"The CCP used the Victorian deals as a propaganda tool to spruik the BRI to our neighbours," she says. "We need to speak with one voice here, because if we don't, we're allowing a foreign regime to subvert our national interest."

In 2020, as criticism of the Victorian government's approach to China escalated, the Morrison government announced new foreign agreement veto laws. The legislation, passed in December, required Foreign Minister Marise Payne to cancel agreements that states, territories, local governments and universities enter into with an overseas government if they contradict Australia's national interest.

Along with the two BRI deals, Payne also announced this week she was cancelling two Victorian government education agreements - one struck with Iran in 2004 and another with Syria in 1999. She warned other agreements could be announced in the coming months.

Michael Shoebridge, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's defence program, says it is now impossible to separate security and diplomatic policy from trade and economics.

"Any decision that misses that point leads to really bad decisions like Victoria's two BRI agreements," he says.

In Canberra, the merging of security and economic policy was occurring as far back as 2017. Andrews just had to look beyond his own department to see it was happening.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-call-never-came-victoria-s-china-deal-was-done-through-premier-daniel-andrews-office-20210422-p57lik.html

#11690216 at 2020-11-18 06:18:48 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #11 - THE SILENT WAR CONTINUES Edition

Resignations in the news

'Self-indulgent': Labor warned after senior staffer's resignation

Labor has been warned against "self-indulgent" talk about internal issues after a senior staffer resigned from Anthony Albanese's office.

Anthony Albanese's deputy chief of staff Sabina Husic resigned Tuesday after an anonymous online post published a series of unverified claims against her.

The post, which was taken down on Monday night but reappeared on Tuesday, also alleged a toxic culture in Mr Albanese's office.

But Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has warned against getting distracted from Labor's jobs focus.

"(Sabina Husic) is a very experienced, very hardworking person and I wish her all the best. But the last thing I'm going to do is start commenting on staffing issues in one member of parliament's office," she said.

"Of course parliament needs to be a healthy, safe workplace like every other workplace in Australia.

"(But) how self-indulgent would it be to stand around talking about us again, when people are crying out for a job or more hours of work? That is my focus."

Mr Albanese stood by his staff on Tuesday, dismissing the post as "fake" and insisting he had "an outstanding office".

But in a resignation letter published by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Ms Husic said she "no longer felt safe in the role".

"Last night I was the subject of a malicious, false, fake and defamatory attack on my character. This was highly distressing and has had an incredibly harmful effect on my personal wellbeing," she wrote.

"The defamatory attacks and online harassment I have experienced are beyond the bounds of what should be required for this job or any staff position.

"For women staff, it is important to feel safe in their roles and workplaces - that very much extends to their mental health and wellbeing. I no longer feel safe in this role. I have decided to put my health and wellbeing first.

"Thank you to you and Anthony for the support you have provided me. I wish you and the office every success for the future."

Liberal MP Tim Wilson is calling for a probe into the allegations.

"The claims brought forward need to be investigated to ensure parliament is a safe workplace for women, for all Australians. People should be able to go to any workplace and feel respected and treated with dignity. If anyone has fallen short, that's the natural consequence," he told Sky News.

Ms Husic had worked for Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews before joining Mr Albanese's office shortly after Labor's loss in last year's federal election.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/work/selfindulgent-labor-warned-after-senior-staffers-resignation/news-story/409f75d0c763534d6f1f62ee45d9e4eb

#10994627 at 2020-10-09 10:18:27 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #10 - INFORMATION WARFARE Edition

NAB didn't maintain records of human traffickers until 2019

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NAB has been flagging around 10 transactions a month as potentially related to human trafficking but did not maintain its own records of its suspicions about the sinister nature of transactions involving criminals, terrorists and paedophiles until the middle of 2019.

The bank revealed over the seven months to January 2020 that it identified as many as 68 transactions as exhibiting characteristics consistent with human trafficking and another 148 with child exploitation before reporting them to the financial intelligence regulator AUSTRAC.

The transactions shed new light on the prospect of action from AUSTRAC almost three years after it first revealed it was investigating and fixing problems relating to its compliance with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing laws.

A NAB spokeswoman confirmed the bank updated its internal systems to automate the extraction of data in July 2019 but maintained the reports submitted to AUSTRAC have always been compliant.

"NAB SMR (suspicious matter reports) reports submitted to AUSTRAC include details of the suspected crime type, as required by law. It would be wrong to suggest otherwise," the spokeswoman said.

Last month AUSTRAC won a record $1.3 billion penalty from Westpac for 23 million breaches of the law and turning a blind eye to transactions of suspected paedophiles in an action which led to the departure of its CEO Brian Hartzer, chairman Lindsay Maxsted and widespread blood-letting in the executive suite.

NAB's suspicions about its customers and their transactions are laid out in a macabre table filed to a House of Representatives Economics Committee as part of a 23-page info dump in response to a question from Tim Wilson MP made in December 2019 about the number of transactions it flagged and types of criminal activity it suspected.

When the bank responded in January - the day before the Australia Day long weekend - hidden among the 10 separate documents was a breakdown of the suspected criminal activity behind 8110 suspicious matter reports filed to AUSTRAC between July 2019 and January 2020.

In addition to the human trafficking and child exploitation transactions NAB said it categorised another 6648 SMRs as consistent with money laundering, 15 with organised crime, 12 with terrorist financing, and two with crimes of a sexual nature.

Serious crimes

The bank said there were more than 1000 transactions it suspected as relating to "serious crimes" but could not be captured by the above categories because of their unique nature.

The bank said: "1217 SMRs relating to various other threats such as (not limited to) narcotics, family day care fraud, tax evasion, complex movement of funds, unregistered remittance service providers and other sanctions related suspicion".

(continued)

#7887462 at 2020-01-23 17:45:56 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #6 - YEAR OF THE BOOMERANG Edition

Four Australian MPs urge Britain to ban Huawei

London: Four Australian MPs and chairs of parliamentary committees have launched an unprecedented combined intervention into Britain's Huawei debate, urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to follow Australia's ban.

But their calls came amid further signs Johnson is likely to rebuff pleas from Australia and the United States and allow the Chinese telecommunications manufacturer to supply some parts of the country's 5G network.

Reuters, citing two sources, reported British officials had given the green light to Huawei involvement - the same position taken when Theresa May was prime minister but failed to resolve the issue after it split her National Security Council (NSC).

The NSC is expected to back Chinese involvement when it meets next week. The council's decision will be announced in Parliament, prompting the last-ditch intervention from the quartet of Australian MPs.

Liberal MPs Andrew Hastie, Tim Wilson, James Paterson and Labor's Kimberly Kitching all issued statements to The Times of London explaining why Liberal and Labor Australian governments had banned the company from building the national broadband network and supplying the 5G rollout.

Hastie, who chairs the Intelligence and Security Committee, said it was about "digital sovereignty" and urged solidarity among the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, comprising Australia, the US, UK, New Zealand and Canada.

"Our membership of the Five Eyes community is central to our defence and security strategy," he said.

"In a Time of growing strategic uncertainty, Australia values that membership more than ever."

Senator James Paterson, who chairs the Joint Corporations and Financial Services Committee, said the ban had been uncontroversial when imposed in Australia.

"Successive Australian governments from both sides of politics banned Huawei from our broadband and 5G networks with very little controversy," he said.

"No one in the Australian political system regrets those decisions today."

Labor Senator Kimberly Kitching said while Australian politics could be "robust and combative" there was complete bipartisanship on the issue.

"Recognising that in this age of unprecedented cyber interference, protecting critical infrastructure is a crucial part of our national security," Kitching said.

"It is the ulTimate false economy to allow the commercial benefits to outweigh the security considerations where a vendor cannot offer 100 per cent integrity."

Pollster YouGov said trust in Huawei in Britain wasn't "just low" but "deteriorating."

"Over half of consumers (53 per cent) and business leaders (56 per cent) reported that they were worried, as did three-quarters of business leaders (75 per cent)," it said.

"More than eight in 10 MPs (83 per cent) are alarmed about potential national security risks, and while a third (34 per cent) would allow Huawei to get involved in non-core parts of 5G infrastructure, a comfortable majority (62 per cent) believe it shouldn't touch anything that's strategically sensitive."

More than half also say working with the company damages the UK-US "special relationship".

The US has threatened to limit intelligence sharing with Britain, because under Chinese law, Huawei can be forced to spy on Beijing's behalf, but the threat has been dismissed as a bluff.

Speaking to the Australia-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce in London on Thursday, former Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Australia's attempts to lead the Five Eyes in banning Huawei had damaged the bilateral relationship, with Scott Morrison unable to secure a visit to Beijing since becoming Prime Minister.

Carr said he was neutral on the question of the ban itself but said Australia should not have made a virtue of being the leader.

"Why did we have to be the first of the Five Eyes nations to do it? Why couldn't we have moved in tandem with the governments?" Carr said.

"Why did we have to take the lead role [amongst the Five Eyes], or why did we have to announce we were taking a lead role?"

Carr recently stepped down from the Australia-China Relations Institute which was funded by the banned Chinese donor and agent of influence Huang Xiangmo.

Carr said claims of foreign interference were exaggerated and limited to just one donor.

https://www.brisbaneTimes.com.au/world/europe/four-australian-mps-urge-britain-to-ban-huawei-20200124-p53u9x.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed