What a pack of treasonous arseholes Labor are. Via The Australian: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he is “very proud” to have signed his state up to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative on trade and investment, despite his West Australian Labor counterpart, Mark McGowan, this week rejecting China’s push for his state
Good on Barnaby Joyce for debating the implications of Hong Kong for Australia at Domain: In its entire post-First Fleet history, Australia has not had to contend with the larger intercontinental political issues in isolation from its cultural and philosophical alliances. We’ve always had a larger, stronger partner. In the future we may have our
Via The Guardian: Perth City council is pressing ahead with a trial of facial recognition technology to be installed in cameras across East Perth, despite concerns from privacy experts and local residents. The network of 30 cameras is set to go live within weeks, amid complaints there has been no proper local consultation since the
By Leith van Onselen The Coalition’s personal income tax package looks to be stuck in the Senate after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson on Monday pulled the party’s support unless the Morrison Government agrees to build new coal-fired power stations to lower energy prices. The loss of One Nation’s two Senate votes has left the
Via the AFR today comes Government lies on energy: …Centre Alliance supports stages one and two of the tax cuts and stage three in principle but believes they could be eaten up by rising energy costs. Senator Cormann said on Tuesday the government had an aggressive set of policy measures aimed at lowering power prices.
Hong Kong is in its last battle for survival, via Bloomberg: Hong Kong braced for rare strikes and further protests amid an escalating standoff over a controversial bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China. Local companies said they would suspend work or allow flexible office hours on Wednesday to accommodate workers planning to demonstrate
Nasty criticism about the Chinese naval visit to Sydney Harbour to celebrate the Tienanmen massacre from within ScoMo’s own party today. By Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells at The Australian: The decision to approve the visit to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre was not only insensitive but demonstrates that Beijing can dictate terms and
Via The Guardian: Voters appear to have returned the third left-leaning government in a year to the Nordic region as Denmark’s Social Democrats claimed victory in parliamentary elections with 25.9% of the vote. The centre-left party finished clear of the centre-right Liberals of outgoing prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who improved on their 2015 score
Ah yes, the Australian Labor Party, via The Australian: Labor’s new Treasury spokesman, Jim Chalmers, has signalled a decisive break with the past five years of economic policy under Bill Shorten, identifying the need to develop greater controls on spending and wind back high-taxing measures ahead of the next election. In an interview with The
Meet your skylarking Resources Minister writing in The Australian: A couple of months ago Bob Brown thought it was a fantastic idea to invade Queensland with an army of hypocritical and condescending activists. It is the one thing Bob and I agree on: I thought it a fantastic idea, too. …the truckies exploded. “Look at the
I have underestimated Mr ScoMo, via Domain: In his first interview since being elevated to cabinet, the Minister for Population, Alan Tudge, said immigration had played a key part in the May 18 federal election result – with outer suburban areas in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane backing the Coalition to deliver fewer migrants and increased
Via Guy Rundle whose grasp of political realities is slipping away: The simple version is that the Greens had a good election in the Senate and a disappointing one in the House. Before the elections there were dire predictions of a Senate disaster, with the possibility that they would suffer both a solidarity-drift back to
There is no saving these dills, via Domain: Labor’s home affairs spokeswoman, Kristina Keneally, says she will advocate the economic importance of immigration in a sign the Opposition is willing to make the case for a bigger Australia as it considers its post-election policy platform. Senator Keneally has entered shadow cabinet as Labor’s spokeswoman on
Via Domain: The Australian government and senior intelligence officials have urged Britain to ban Chinese technology giant Huawei from a role in building new ultra-fast mobile networks, arguing the western alliance of intelligence-sharing partners should have a consistent position. Multiple well-placed sources confirmed Australian officials have taken action on several fronts to impress on their
Via Dr Andy Marks, assistant vice-chancellor at Western Sydney University: The most troubling result for Labor occurred in its once safe harbour, western Sydney, where the swing against it was about 3.5 per cent – nearly triple the national average…A new vein of voter sentiment is emerging in Sydney’s west and even south. In Banks and Reid,
Via the AFR: Competition tsar Rod Sims says there is “no reason” why east coast gas prices should not as low as $7 a gigajoule and has told producers they still risk driving domestic customers out of business by failing to put enough importance on the local market. Gas prices at $7 “would make an
Via the AFR: Labor’s economic team is to be gutted in a post-election shake-out that shifts Chris Bowen to a non-financial portfolio and dumps shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh from the frontbench altogether because he lacks factional support. Shadow finance minister Jim Chalmers is the firm favourite to replace Mr Bowen as shadow treasurer. Mr
Time to ask the really hard question. Chinese anger at the trade war has turned its policy making utterly irrational, via the CPC foghorn: Mining of rare earths is conducted in Baiyunebo, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on July 16, 2011. File photo: VCG China indicated Tuesday night that it may weaponize its rare
Via The Australian: If a barnstorming tour of Australia whipping retirees into a Coalition-voting frenzy about Labor nabbing their franking credit cash can’t get you a spot in the ministry, what does it take? Tim Wilson, the newly returned member for Goldstein, raised howls of protest from the opposition with his extremely effective stint taking
Via The Guardian: Anthony Albanese will use his first day as opposition leader to travel to Queensland, pledging to reconnect with voters who turned away from the party and position Labor for victory in three years’ time. The first-order visit to Queensland comes as the party’s likely new deputy, Richard Marles, admitted he was “tone
As Labor tortures itself over which direction to take post-election failure, ScoMo knows exactly he is going, absolutely nowhere, via the AFR: Scott Morrison has stamped his authority on the government with a ministerial reshuffle that remarries climate change and energy, rewards his backers, and places a premium on stability by leaving key positions unchanged.
By Leith van Onselen It hasn’t taken long for soon to be new Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, to shatter hopes that he would follow the will of the electorate and pledge to lower Australia’s immigration intake back towards sensible historical levels: Over the weekend, Albanese explicitly threw his support behind Australia’s mass immigration ‘Big Australia’
Via The Australian: Scott Morrison will move rapidly to mark the Pacific as his top strategic priority, making an early trip to the Solomon Islands next week to counter growing Chinese influence over Australia’s regional neighbours. The visit comes as Beijing ramps up regional tensions with its attempts to lure the Solomons and other small
It’s kind of pathetic to watch the agony of the left as it fights its own failure still wearing a self-imposed straight jacket. Leftie media writhed through every excuse under the Sun: it was Murdoch’s fault says Rudd, wrote Bianca Hall working classes love their tax lurks, wrote David Crowe inner city globalisation winners lost
By Ross Elliott, cross-posted from New Geography: In a remarkable and most unexpected outcome, Australia’s conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison has retained the country’s leadership at the recent Australian Federal Parliamentary election (18 May, 2019). Morrison’s victory confounded a wide array of commentators, academics, advocacy groups, industry groups, all of the opinion polls, most of
From The ABC: Queensland MP Jim Chalmers has declared he will not run for the Labor leadership. Mr Chalmers wrote on Twitter that he had given the possibility very careful consideration, but had decided against it. “I spoke to Anthony Albanese this morning and told him I will enthusiastically support him and work tirelessly with
By Leith van Onselen The Morrison Government could potentially have 35 seats in the new Senate, which means it would require the support of only four crossbenchers to pass legislation in the upper house. The Liberal-National Party appears set to have three Queensland seats in the Senate, while Labor is likely to have just one.
Via The Australian comes Albo, new Labor leader in waiting: “The language used was terrible … unions and employers have a common interest. Successful businesses are a precondition for employing more workers, and that is obvious.” “There are common interests that are there … and if elected I would look for solutions, not arguments. We
From the New Daily: Anthony Albanese is set to be elected unopposed as Labor leader with Queenslander Jim Chalmers as his deputy as Chris Bowen prepares to pull out of the ballot. The New Daily has confirmed that challenger Chris Bowen is likely to pull out of the race before the ballot proceeds. The decision
Here is the untold story of how Australia saved ANZUS, via Reuters: In early 2018, in a complex of low-rise buildings in the Australian capital, a team of government hackers was engaging in a destructive digital war game. The operatives – agents of the Australian Signals Directorate, the nation’s top-secret eavesdropping agency – had been
