It’s interesting to watch as Prime Minister Scott Morrison experiments with the trappings of “strong man” politics in Australia as the phenomenon expands abroad. The weekend press reprised last week’s mining and climate clashes and the PM’s responses. At Domain: Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sparked a furore over free speech by vowing to draft
Lowy Institute’s Sam Roggeveen does a shockingly arrogant job on an Aussie Brexit today: There are strong parallels between Australian politics and the chaos witnessed in recent years in Europe and the United Kingdom. My contention is that in Australia, immigration – a long-running point of domestic controversy with profound consequences for foreign policy –
It’s all about free speech with the Coalition so long as it doesn’t upset their mates: Scott Morrison has flagged new laws to crack down on activist protesters who target mining businesses, declaring “absolutist environmentalism is testing the limits of the right to protest”. The Prime Minister will use a speech to the Queensland Resources
Via the ABC: China is warning Australia to avoid straining bi-lateral relations following criticism from Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne on China’s human rights record. During a foreign policy speech in Sydney on Tuesday, Senator Payne said Australia would continue to advocate for democracy and human rights in China, adding that staying quiet on sensitive
Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil: “When … Labor people of a lifetime tell us they feel they are not allowed to question new social standards that seem to be reset every other week, I think we need to listen. There is a culture developing in the progressive movement where membership is granted with a box of
At least in part, even the idiots at Crikey have worked it out: At the moment, the government has its fingers in its ears and is yelling “budget surplus budget surplus”. But what about the opposition, now that Anthony Albanese has begun discussing Labor’s policy path to the next election? Albanese’s first major economic speech yesterday, full
From deep inside the Home Affairs pornopticon, Peter Dutton likes to watch, via ZDNet: The Department of Home Affairs is hoping to use its Face Verification Service and Document Verification Service across the economy, and is backing its use for age verification for Australians to look at pornography. Writing in a submission to the House of Representatives
Via Gottiboff: Almost half the Telstra share base comprises retail investors who rely on the company’s dividends to shield them from the impact of lower interest rates. What few Telstra shareholders realise is that the global Huawei saga of recent months has the potential to link future Telstra dividends to the flow-on repercussions created by
As usual, Paul Kelly is so stuck on the grand narrative that he can’t see the trees for the woods: For the Labor Party, the post-election challenge transcends the difficult task of moving its policy framework back to the centre. The ALP confronts a far more daunting task — remaking its political identity and values,
Sigh. It’s awful to watch, via the AFR: Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo is set to make a $135 million profit from a Sydney planning decision, after the deputy mayor of a local council failed to declare his $4 million interest in another company owned by the property developer. Simon Zhou, an independent who holds the
Bravo! Via the AFR: Even by the regular standards of modern campus activists, Drew Pavlou is particularly annoying. …He has just been elected – by the largest margin ever, he boasts – to the university Senate, which he plans to use as a platform for a campaign to sever its connections with the Chinese government,
US broadcasting legend, Larry King, says we should already be reaching for the revolver, at The Australian: Veteran newsman Larry King has attacked Australia’s draconian freedom-of-speech laws, saying he would “react with violence” if police raided his home in a bid to identify the source of a story. The American broadcaster, who hosted the eponymous
On Alan Jones this morning with Paul Keating: Good stuff on surplus stupidity and infrastructure but poor on super and terrible on China.
Via the Daily Mail: The Labor Party has been reluctant to seek answers on why the Chinese frigates sailed into Sydney Harbour. The Opposition’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong, who hails from Labor’s left faction, didn’t pursue the issue in Senate Budget estimates committees last week. The Labor Opposition failed to ask even one question
Via the ABC: A senior Labor official has warned the party will continue to lose votes to minor parties like One Nation, unless it starts talking to more people than just “university-educated, city dwellers”. ABC analysis of voting trends and census data revealed Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party polled strongly
Alas, this the problem of dealing with autocratic regimes that invade your space. The counter-espionage makes you look a lot like the invaders, via The Saturday Paper: We’ve all seen it in some American police drama: the line-up from which a victim of crime is asked to pick out the perpetrator among a range of
And why not. She has the CCP stamp of approval. Via Herald Sun: Liberal MP Gladys Liu brought the head of a group linked to China’s overseas propaganda arm to a celebratory event held in the government party room of Parliament House in Canberra. Zhou Guohua was among a large group of supporters who joined
Via Colin Barnett at the AFR: A modest reservation of some of that gas for the Australian market is just good policy. It’s not a sovereign risk, because it is our gas. With less than half the emissions of coal, it makes sense to put more gas into our energy mix. It might also help
Just as Kevin Rudd won as John Howard lite? Via The Australian, Richard Marles thinks so: The message from those voters is that they are tired of the politics of division and want to hear from Labor about how we will apply our values to putting the national interest first. We are forging new relationships
And secedes from Australian foreign policy in the process. Via Domain: Victoria has signed a fresh deal with the Chinese government and its global ‘Belt and Road’ infrastructure project with Premier Daniel Andrew urging other Australian governments to follow suit. …“We’d always hope that the federal government would have a similar approach to us, to
Via the ABC come Australia’s greatest challenges for the future according to Q&A gallahs: LIFE PRIORITIES Tara McDonald asked: We seem to be fixated on living longer at any cost and prolonging the inevitable which is death. Could we be spending more time and money on protecting future generations instead of ourselves? FOOD & WASTE
ACTU president Michele O’Neil has criticised Labor’s decision to support legislation to establish free trade agreements (FTAs) with Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru. She says the trade deals breach Labor’s national policy platform. Unions’ concerns about the trade deals include the clauses regarding investor-state dispute settlement and labour market testing. The legislation was passed by
Last month, the ACT Legislative Assembly passed laws legalising the recreational use of marijuana, which will allow residents aged over 18 to possess up to 50 grams and grow two plants from next year. This has garnered a strong backlash from the federal government, which labelled the legislation “dangerous” and has threatened to block the
The ease with which Labor can win the next federal election is nicely illustrated today by two stories. The first is that ScoMo’s polling is very weak for a honeymoon period PM as the weak economy drags him down. The second is captured nicely by Peter van Onselen: The Australian Electoral Commission has released data
Via The National Interest: The People’s Liberation Army Navy—more commonly known outside of China as the Chinese Navy—is modernizing at a breakneck pace. Chinese shipbuilders have built more than one hundred warships in the past decade, a build rate outstripping the mighty U.S. Navy. Most importantly, China now has two aircraft carriers—Liaoning and a second
Via Ross Gittins today: Scott Morrison’s problem is that he gets politics – and is good at it – but doesn’t get economics. The Prime Minister doesn’t get that if he keeps playing politics while doing nothing to stop the economy sliding into recession, nothing will save him from the voters’ wrath. Neither he nor
It is a worry for the Government. It is much less secure than Labor is making out (for no apparent reason), via The Australian: The Coalition has maintained its lead over Labor despite pressure over the economy and criticism of drought relief for farmers as Anthony Albanese’s approval ratings sink to their lowest since he
There are few greater proponents of the mass immigration economic model than David Crowe at Domain. At least, there were. He used to defend it at every turn. Produced ridiculous propaganda. And declared it was impossible to cut. Not any more. Today Crowe finally saw what MB has seen for many years. That mass immigration
Via Herald Sun: A close friend of Liberal MP Gladys Liu last year set up a group to campaign for China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative within Australia and the Pacific. Prominent property developer Chen Guo Jing has been described on Chinese language sites as the “implementer” of the Australasia Belt and Road Advocacy initiative.
From perhaps Australia’s greatest ever economic hypocrite, via Domain today: Former treasurer Peter Costello has blamed ultra-low interest rates for fuelling global political extremism and accused the Reserve Bank of focusing on global currency movements rather than the Australian economy when setting monetary policy. Speaking at the Citi Australia and New Zealand Investment Conference 2019
