richard.obrien's blog

There are a lot of people in the media saying that Scott Morrison has had a good year. And I couldn't agree more.

This year the prime minister buggered off to Hawaii during our worst bushfires on record, eventually responding with enforced handshakes, empty platitudes and dragging his feet on relief funding. He's taken no action on addressing climate change which will make the next bushfires even more devastating.

In the last 24 hours Victoria has had 14 new cases of COVID-19. Fourteen! Six weeks ago we had daily case numbers over 700. That’s an achievement largely unmatched anywhere in the world, and it’s happened because most people in Victoria accepted that some short term inconvenience was a fair price to pay to achieve it.

Imagine Labor had won the last Federal election. Then imagine:

That we had the most intense bushfires in our recorded history and the PM went on holiday to Hawaii

That Labor MPs were found to have used signs in Chinese during the election to deceive people into voting for them and the PM said nothing

That the Labor minister for Sport had been caught illegally using millions of dollars to target winnable electorates and the PM did nothing

Imagine Labor had won the last Federal election. Then imagine:

That we had the most intense bushfires in our recorded history and the PM went on holiday to Hawaii

That Labor MPs were found to have used signs in Chinese during the election to deceive people into voting for them and the PM said nothing

That the Labor minister for Sport had been caught illegally using millions of dollars to target winnable electorates and the PM did nothing

Life of the project: 60 years

Area of project: 447km2

Estimated water usage: 12.5 billion litres per year

Amount of water Adani must return in the first 5 years: 6%

Number of bird species supported by wetlands around Abbot Point terminal: 154

Amount by which Adani have exceeded their pollution discharge limit at Abbot point to date: 800%

Volume of Great Barrier Reef seabed dredged around Abbot Point: 10,000m3

Estimated production: 2.6 billion tonnes of (mainly low grade, high ash) coal

On the subject of identity, the allegation that Bruce Pascoe is not an Indigenous Australian originated from a site called "Dark Emu Exposed".

The site claims to be run by 30 independent researchers. The editor of the site is a businessman called Roger Karge, who occasionally writes opinion pieces for the Murdoch press under the title "amateur historian".

Here's what the site has to say about the other "independent" researchers:

Sure Andrew Forrest’s $70 million donation is conditional.

Sure only $10 million is going to actual relief, while another $10 million will cover the cost of his volunteers and $50 million goes to his own think-tank.

Sure $70 million represents 0.005% of his net wealth and a minuscule fraction of the unpaid taxes he owes.

When I was a child and we used to visit my grandma and I remember living in fear of this grumpy old curmudgeon who lived a couple of units down from her.

Her hatred of children was fanatical. She was like the witch from Hansel and Gretel, only without the pleasant demeanor and gingerbread. The mere sight of a child would sent her into a walking stick-waiving frenzy about how we were up to no good and shouldn't be allowed to roam unsupervised.

I assume that woman is long dead now, but I'm sure she'd have just loved what the Liberal Party have become.

The term “boycott” is derived from Captain Charles Boycott, an agent in Ireland for a British absentee landlord. In 1880, Boycott began evicting tenants who could not pay their rent following a particularly bad harvest. In response Boycott was socially ostracised. Shops refused to serve him, local business refused to transact with him and workers refused to tend his fields, stables and household.

In the 1930s boycotts of goods from Japan and Nazi German severely curtailed their preparations for war.

When Steve Ciobo talked of slitting Julia Gillard's throat, Julie Bishop had nothing to say.

When Peter Reith echoed those words on radio a week later, Julie Bishop had nothing to say.

When Grahame Morris said Gillard should be kicked to death, Julie Bishop had nothing to say.

When Alan Jones said Gillard should be "put into a chaff bag and thrown into the sea", Julie Bishop had nothing to say.

When Tony Abbott held a rally with signs saying “Ditch the Witch” and “Bob Brown’s Bitch”, Julie Bishop had nothing to say.