Oz Politics.

[WX]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-...court/12271556

Mr McIntyre, also a lawyer on the historic Mabo native title determination, said FMG's claim was hard to prove.

"It really boils down to an argument that if the colonisers have come in and flexed their muscles and made it the case that Indigenous people are subservient to them, then that is a basis for taking away their rights."

"It's quite a difficult argument, I would have thought, to sustain. It probably doesn't work in any legal system that I know."

[gypsie]

That Rio Tinto thing is about as ...... i can't think of the word... as it can get.
Unfathomable?

[WX]

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fede...wxv.html?btis=

[skuthorp]

So if you demand money with menaces from people who owe you nothing you'd be in jail quick smart.

But if the Government does the same they just pay it back, and no one even loses their job much less the minister.

And if the Government, the PM no less, plays favours with grants in an effort to swing an election the election stands and no one loses their job either?

They are a pack of crooks.

[skuthorp]

Background briefing, RN.
Port Pirie, lead pollution and the cover up.

Basically the whole town is unsafe, and for children even worse. Should be abandoned.

[Phil Y]

Yeah I don't get why anyone with kids lives there. I know employment, home ownership, family etc. None of those are good enough reasons to keep kids there.

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[skuthorp]

PortPirie children, even the ones where parents take precautions are reporting 10 times 'safe' lead levels in their blood.

[Bruce Morley]

Hi Phil, The local council here in Lake Macquarie NSW placed a ban on any children under the age of 5 (I think) from living in a house within 6 streets of the old Plasminco lead refinery. This was due to the soil and house contamination caused by the smelting of lead and zinc at the refinery. The council has spent millions on trying to clean up the site with some help from the administration of the bankrupt company that purchased the smelter off Plasminco. They still have great difficulty growing any vegetation on the site.

Bruce

[skuthorp]

Twenty three women killed by their partners this year, the senate enquiry took no submissions, saw no witnesses and finished up early with so far no report. 12 during the pandemic. $320 mill. spent for no report or visible result.

So now there's another enquiry being touted by Anne Muston, Minister for Social Services. Another 'under the rug' effort?
We'll see.

And BTW, no apology from anyone concerned with Robodebt, and I bet there'll be no consequences either.
That and the $30 billion mistake last week do not engender much confidence.

[Phil Y]

I'm thinking Scomo is going to feel emboldened by his Covid performance, and will think that the slack that the electorate cut him around that, and the authority he was allowed to wield, will carry on into other endeavours. I'm thinking he will shoot himself in the foot. Labour just needs to wait and watch it unfold.

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[RFNK]

Yep.

[skuthorp]

How come the robo debt debacle is not fraud, or theft, or in a few cases virtual manslaughter after suicides?. And given the scale of it how come no heads are rolling? And not just the ministers either, what burocrat suggested this, and what lawyers vetted it?

[RFNK]

Ask a better question: how many bureaucrats advised the ministers that the whole thing would be a debacle, immoral and tragic? Why are ministers not accountable for ignoring the advice of people who actually know what they're talking about instead of ALWAYS acting on the advice of the FWIT spinners they have crowding their offices?

[Phil Y]

Indeed. It just seems so obviously flawed in so many respects its almost impossible to understand how it was ever launched. No, not almost, it is incomprehensible.

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[skuthorp]

Stuart Robert is a happy clapper friend of Scomo it seems………..

And just to add to the mess it seems that the early access to super funds is also rife with theft and fraud because the MyGov website is open to it. Even if the subject of the theft is not elligible for the early access, the ATO approved many of the illegal withdrawals.
What next?

[RFNK]

Do I know Stuart Robert?

[RFNK]

Oh yeah, the minister, of course. Sorry, it gets to the point where I can't remember whether they're someone in government or one of the bad guys in Dr Who.

I've said it before: Anyone who believes that Jesus is actually going to arrive in a winged chariot one day and sweep everything away should be deemed ineligible for any leadership role in our nation!

[skuthorp]

Speaking of Queensland nationals…..Q&A, with Mat Canavan in the starring role.
I really have to turn it off…………….

[RFNK]

Canavan's a turd

[skuthorp]

Why is the history of WA re their Aboriginal citizens, their rights and the continued destruction of their cultural sites so bad? (463 applications, and permissions to destroy Aboriginal cultural sites evidently, 463!) Oh I know it's all about money and political donations but I also wonder whether the remnant of the 'them and us' relationship with the eastern states is part of the problem. Canberra being an 'eastern state'.

[gypsie]

^ stunning - not one rejection!



Witness K and Collaery podcast - 23mins.
https://www.theguardian.com/australi...s-in-australia


"We are going to put you in jail for revealing an operation we won't confirm ever happened...."

[skuthorp]

Whatever it is it's certainly not justice.
I think the Government, looking for revenge on being exposed, have caused most of this problem.

Several politicians should have been summarily dismissed or maybe on trial, and maybe the operative that oversaw the spying as well. Collaery and his client are fall guys for a badly stuffed up operation that should never have been embarked upon. Considering it was a private commercial matter I'd just love to know just who got bribed in the first place.

[WX]

Why is the history of WA re their Aboriginal citizens, their rights and the continued destruction of their cultural sites so bad? (463 applications, and permissions to destroy Aboriginal cultural sites evidently, 463!) Oh I know it's all about money and political donations but I also wonder whether the remnant of the 'them and us' relationship with the eastern states is part of the problem. Canberra being an 'eastern state'.

Do you have a link Jeff?

[WX]

Not just the US.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-...-teen/12310758

[WX]

Why is the history of WA re their Aboriginal citizens, their rights and the continued destruction of their cultural sites so bad? (463 applications, and permissions to destroy Aboriginal cultural sites evidently, 463!) Oh I know it's all about money and political donations but I also wonder whether the remnant of the 'them and us' relationship with the eastern states is part of the problem. Canberra being an 'eastern state'.

46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site destroyed by Rio Tinto this month is one of more than 463 sites that mining companies operating in Western Australia have applied for permission to destroy or disturb since 2010. None of those applications have been refused. And under the state’s 48-year-old Aboriginal heritage laws, only the land or lease holder has the right to appeal – traditional owners do not.

[skuthorp]

Fin. this morning musing about whether accepting donald's invitation to the G7 along with Russia will taint scomo with the same smelly brush? Of course there's the American alliance…still…. to be schmoozed, but I wouldn't want to rely on that too much at present.
(Piece on this (Penny Wong) on RN this morning, just listening now at 8 am)

[Phil Y]

If I was Australia I'd be very, very non aligned right now.

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[Phil Y]

Not just the US.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-...-teen/12310758

Obviously there is serious entrenched racism here. But there's also the real problem of just straight out police brutality. I think I already mentioned a few months back my son was brutally attacked and forced to the ground by half a dozen cops as he left a pub. Simple mistaken identity. The police were way out of line.

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[WX]

101037421_10159808220221754_97993101947174912_n.jpg

[gypsie]

And things like this.... about 25 seconds in - totally unnecessary.

https://www.theguardian.com/australi...n-sydney-video

[skuthorp]

Front page of the Saturday Paper...

[Bruce Morley]

Hi, And the police commissioner makes the statment that the police officer just "had a bad bay". Try saying that to a highway patrol officer that has just stopped you for failing to indicate when changing lanes.

Bruce

[Hallam]

The subject of accountability and taking responsibility for ones actions comes to mind.
So this police officer can act like a child in a mans body when he 'has a bad day' and has a little dummy spit that smashes the teeth out of a 16 year olds mouth crushing his spirit? The police comish should publicly shame tha actions of the Police Officer, admonish the behaviour as that of a child and publickly tell him to grow up or he will have no job.
Lack of integrity in leadership and evidence of lack of maturity in both offending officer and Police leadership.

[skuthorp]

Hey, 800 pages. A little nod to the memory of Stevebaby, our patron.

[WX]

He would be pleased.