Australian Politics

Recently enacted legislation requires new political parties to seek permission from existing parties if they want to use any words in their name that are already used by that party.

We truly are living in Bizarro World when the self-proclaimed defenders of the environment and social justice – The Greens – champion the very policy (mass immigration-driven population growth) that is most destructive to Australia’s natural environment, causes mass disenfranchisement among the working class, as well as robs developing nations of their talent.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) recently ruled that national cabinet was not a sub-committee of the federal government. This meant that its deliberations could be subjected to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests.

I’ve got a few quick thoughts on Victorian vaccine targets because I would love to get out of lockdown a few weeks early, and I think we have the wrong vaccine policy settings to do that.

According to a quarterly analysis of Newspoll surveys conducted between July and September, the Morrison Government stands to lose between six to 10 seats on the back of significant swings against the Coalition in Victoria, Western Australia and NSW if current trends persist.

Finally, somebody in Labor has used their brain.

Should you throw away your Chinese phone?

Paul Monk via Sky: Former defence head of China analysis Paul Monk says Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ secret deal with China was part of the Chinese government’s strategy to operate in Australia “without federal oversight”.

Silly old coot: Former prime minister Paul Keating has escalated his attack on the new AUKUS security partnership unveiled by the Morrison government, unleashing fury on his own side for supporting the deal and characterising it as the “surrender” of Australia’s control of its military.

Transparency International Australia (TIA) has lodged a submission to the Senate Inquiry into the adequacy and efficiency of Australia’s AML-CTF regime, which claims Australia property is a haven for money laundering: The FATF has said Australia is seen as an “attractive destination for foreign proceeds, particularly corruption-related proceeds flowing into real estate, from the Asia-Pacific”.

Finally, the Morrison Government gets it: Health Minister Greg Hunt has urged pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to seek approval for its COVID-19 vaccine to be given to children as young as five in Australia as soon as possible.

Via The Economist today: Just occasionally, you can see the tectonic plates of geopolitics shifting in front of your eyes.

Endless China fanboi, High White, penned a great piece at The Saturday Paper that summarised the nuclear debates over the weekend: If Australia’s submarines were intended primarily to defend Australia and our closer neighbours, then there is no way we’d consider nuclear propulsion.

Michael Pascoe has done a terrific job exposing the widespread corruption flowing through the Morrison Government’s veins: There’s pork barrelling, then rorting, then corruption and bare-faced corruption, and now a new low: Inviting the public to rejoice in looting.

Twice over the past two days, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has pointed the finger at the federal government for Australia’s housing affordability problems.

NSW planning minister Rob Stokes is the latest to call out the federal government’s bogus housing affordability inquiry: Federal politicians, developers, economists and large sections of the media are quick to blame all our housing affordability woes on slow supply, slow state planning systems and stringent controls.

Be careful what you protest for: A TikTok comedian who shot to fame after he correctly predicted the daily Covid case numbers in NSW has joined his father fighting for life in hospital with the virus.