Labor’s caucus will shortly decide whether to support the federal government’s proposed free trade agreements (FTA) with Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru. Sources have indicated that Labor is unlikely to oppose the legislation. Meanwhile, the ACTU is lobbying Labor MPs to oppose the bill, due to concerns about issues such as allowing thousands of Indonesians
Via Domain and drawn from the OMG files: A University of Queensland student has sought a court order similar to a restraining order against the Chinese Consul-General in Brisbane, Dr Xu Jie, who he claims has endangered him by describing him as an anti-Chinese separatist in a statement published on the Consul-General’s website. Drew Pavlou,
Tribalism is the bane of Australian progress. It is the default position for a populist Australian psychology that is always far more ready to adopt partisanship over national interest or even ideology. To wit, at The Guardian: While national politics frets about its trust crisis, the bulk of Australian voters appear reasonably sanguine with both
Pulling a LeBron James might enter the lexicon as something along the lines of: “as, of, or pertaining to, selling out liberal values for a Chinese Communist Party buck”. Sinocism has the links: Charania: Inside what went on among Nets and Lakers players on the ground in China amid the NBA-China conflict – The Athletic $$
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
Via the Herald Sun: Embattled Liberal MP Gladys Liu held a party for the volunteers on her successful campaign for the seat of Chisholm at a building owned by a property developer who once said Australia “couldn’t survive” without Chinese migrants. …The revelations came as Ms Liu refused to outline the complete list of organisations
Via Bloomie: Hong Kong’s subway system has closed early for more than a week, effectively cutting off the main mode of transportation for millions of residents. Many are now wondering how long it will last. Following unprecedented vandalism on the night of Oct. 4, when Chief Executive Carrie Lam banned face masks after invoking emergency
Amusing stuff today from CCP foghorn, The Global Times: Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on Friday sharply criticized China for launching cyber attacks against Australia and interfering in Australia’s internal affairs, drawing a strong rebuke from China. It is an old trick of certain radical Australian politicians to make such groundless attacks against China.
An enterprising MB reader wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to express anxieties about the national interest loyalties of Member for Chisholm, Glady’s Liu. Liu is on record lying about her senior memberships of Chinese Communist Party propaganda organisations, proudly declaring a fund raising record with dubious and very likely CCP cash, cynically misled the
Can’t vouch for it but makes sense: Via Crikey last week: Feng Chongyi works from a small, cramped office at Sydney’s University of Technology, where he is associate professor in China Studies. Hanging on his wall is a photo of him, in 2006, sitting with top liberals and democrats within the Communist Party’s Central Committee.
Perhaps this explains Peter Dutton’s sudden China hawkishness, via the ABC: Australia’s top universities could be aiding the Chinese Communist Party’s mission to develop mass surveillance and military technologies, amid rising concerns from Australian intelligence agencies that they are putting national security at risk. A joint Four Corners-Background Briefing investigation has uncoveredextensivecollaborations between Australian universities
The fundamental operational principle of Westminster democracy is that MPs take responsibility when things go wrong in their electorates or departments and resign. No more. Via Domain: Federal Liberal MP Gladys Liu is confident she no longer belongs to any “inappropriate” Chinese Communist Party-linked organisations after a “lengthy” probe of her association memberships. The first-term
Via Nikkei: The Thursday edition of China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper featured a photo of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and Chinese President Xi Jinping smiling and shaking hands splashed across its front page. The two leaders met in Beijing on Wednesday, weeks after the island nation cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and switched
Via the AFR comes ALP rising star Richard Marles: Acting Opposition Leader Richard Marles said Labor failed its base at the last election by offering “handouts over hope”, as he joined calls for the party to move its economic focus away from tax and spend and towards generating growth. Speaking to the John Curtin Research
Labor’s open borders spokesperson, Kristina Keneally, has warned that multiculturalism is under threat by Australia’s “cruel” immigration policies: Labor’s spokesperson for immigration, Kristina Keneally, will use a keynote speech to warn that multiculturalism is under threat. Blown out wait times to become an Australian citizen have led to the largest-ever drop in people pledging their
ScoMo thinks so: Scott Morrison has named the ANZUS Treaty with the US, which formalised the Australia-US alliance and was negotiated and signed by the Menzies government in 1951, as “the single most important achievement” of the Liberal Party in government. In an exclusive interview to mark the party’s 75th anniversary, the Prime Minister said
Via the AFR today: The chair of the Energy Security Board Dr Kerry Schott says the rapid take-up of household rooftop solar panels in Australian cities is causing energy security problems for energy distribution companies. …”The so-called duck curve is really causing security issues for the distribution networks,” she said.Dr Schott said Australia’s power grid
We all know the story. Chinese kiddies wanted freedom so they staked out Tienanmen Square. The Chinese Communist Party shot them instead and drew up a new social contract that promised capitalism with Chinese characteristics in return for permanent CCP dictatorship. That’s the same deal you’re being offered today. Before you decide whether you want to
A review of the federal public service has been urged not to impose new restrictions on freedom of information (FOI) laws. Three governance experts from the Australia & New Zealand School of Government have told the review that FOI laws help to create trust in government by providing a degree of transparency, and that this
Labor’s immigration spokesperson. Kristina Keneally, has again attacked the growing backlog of migrants awaiting citizenship: Hundreds of thousands of migrants from China, India and the United Kingdom face waiting more than a year to receive their Australian citizenship… Despite a 100,000 drop in the number of applications to become an Australian citizen over the past
At the AFR: The big four banks last week blamed falling profits from ultra-low interest rates for their decision to not pass on all of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s quarter-percentage-point cash rate cut to home loan customers. The central bank cut the cash rate to a record low 0.75 per cent last week. But
The rictus Treasurer is copping a lot of flack, via The Australian: Former Reserve Bank governor Ian Macfarlane has warned that the central bank has reached the limits of its ability to boost the economy through interest rate cuts and further reductions will have “very little power to do anything useful’’. After the RBA cut
Some good work today from Guy Rundle, whose brain has been missing for quite a while: Pity the poor Laborista assigned to do the Light on the Hill address in 2019. Jim Chalmers wanted to use it to tell Labor to abandon its nostalgia regarding old-left socialism. But of course he also had to recite Ben Chifley’s accomplishments. Here’s
A preview of tonight’s all important US jobs release. Via Calculated Risk: Special Note on Decennial Census: Temporary Decennial Census hiring will probably impact the September employment report with the Census hiring around 15,000 temporary workers. The headline number should be adjusted for these hires, see: How to Report the Monthly Employment Number excluding Temporary Census Hiring On
We are about to discover what Hong Kong is really made of, via Bloomie: Hong Kong will use an emergency ordinance for the first time in more than a half a century in order to ban face masks at public gatherings, according to local media outlets including the South China Morning Post and news channel
She’s a Bobby Dazzler our Gladys: Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and backbencher Gladys Liu have conceded that controversial Chinese-language signs they put up at voting booths on the day of the federal election had the wrong translations. In filings made in the Federal Court on Wednesday, Mr Frydenberg and Ms Liu said that the signs “intended
Via New Daily: Convicted felon and former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos has praised Prime Minister Scott Morrison for his co-operation with the Russia probe, insisting that Alexander Downer was “spying” on him and it was “payback time”. In an interview with The New Daily, Mr Papadopoulos described his evening with Mr Downer, which sparked the investigation into Russian
Another Orwellian triumph today for Aussie fascists, via the ABC: The Federal Attorney-General has granted limited protection that could shield ABC and News Corp employees from facing charges over their reporting. Christian Porter has instructed Commonwealth prosecutors not to charge journalists under certain sections of Australia’s complex secrecy laws without his formal approval. Two ABC
Via the NYT comes the things that splatter: President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call. The White
We begin with The Australian providing a platform to the Chinese diplomatic propaganda machine of ambassador Cheng Jingye who says Australia should remember it depends on China for its economic success: …he said it could take another 30 years before China could be considered developed — a timeline that could deliver the country up to
