Comments

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2023-03-31 10:28

  Next Monday 3 April 2023 10.30am at the Frankston Life Saving Club, Channel 9 is planning an interview regarding the Stop the Great Wall campaign. This is your chance to express your grave concerns for Council’s plan for the future of Frankston.  Turn up and show support for this Frankston cause.  

James Sinnamon

Fri, 2023-03-31 08:11

The following video shows Independent MP Dr. Monique Ryan speaking to the House of Representatives yesterday on Thursday 30 March 2023 on the risks of death from acquiring COVID-19 during a visit to hospital. One in 10 can die from a COVID-19 infection acquired in hospital. This speech can be found in Hansard.

Julian Assange

I look forward to Dr. Monique Ryan being just as outspoken in support of Julian Assange as she was on 30 November last year.

James Sinnamon

Sun, 2023-03-19 15:59

In fact, a closer perusal of Hansard has shown me that Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has been quite outspoken for Julian Assange. The above article was written in a rush early in the morning of Saturday 18 March, not long before the protests against the AUKUS war alliance and for Julian Assange started outside the Melbourne State Library at 1pm. Nonetheless, all the hard efforts of Senator Whish-Wilson and other members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group have had almost no effect. The government's conduct towards Assange is no better as a consequence. I will soon publish another article which will rectify what I have written above.

admin

Sat, 2023-03-18 22:59

My post to Facebook :

If, from Monday 20 March, when Federal Parliament next resumes, a lot more was said on the floor of Parliament about Julian Assange, than what has been said so far this year. that might help free Assange?

"Why has so little been said in the Australian Parliament about Julian Assange?" (18/3/2023) https://candobetter.net/james-sinnamon/blog/6584/why-has-so-little-been-said-australian-parliament-about-julian-assange

https://youtu.be/EzxstIh5J7c

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Mike P (not verified)

Thu, 2023-03-16 10:57

I’m feeling the urge to break out in a choral singing of ‘I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night . . .’

Sue (not verified)

Mon, 2023-03-13 10:17

One would think that Writers' Week would be an ideal forum for informed real time discussion on current global affairs with (presumably) an assembly of participants with above average command of words.  Perhaps that's the problem!

quark

Thu, 2023-03-09 19:00

This does not make any sense to those who will not benefit and especially those who will be impacted negatively on a daily basis but it must make a lot of sense - dollar sense to those who are going to benefit big-time. 

Judy Andrews (not verified)

Thu, 2023-03-09 18:36

If any of these proposals goes ahead, they will cast a shadow over the beach for half each day - the morning.  As the beach is the best asset Frankston has, and is constantly touted as such by the council for tourism publicity, why would you cut off your nose to spite your face and approve this?  Crazy!   

quark

Mon, 2023-03-06 23:17

We seem to have no more say re our quality of life in terms the density and sprawl of our major cities where most of us in Australia live than does a chook in a battery egg farm.

James Sinnamon

Wed, 2023-03-01 00:23

How any ordinary Australian who thinks about it for longer than 2 minutes can support further growth in the population of Australia is beyond me. Clearly Australia has long ago surpassed its optimum population size. Any further continuation with Australia's natural resources and habitable land could only lead to more congestion, pollution and chaos. Any economy which allows some within Australia to gain, whilst making Australian society poorer on the whole, is clearly dysfunctional.

Sheila Newman

Sat, 2023-02-18 12:33

The Pulse blogspot https://thefingeronthepulse.blogspot.com/2023/02

https://thefingeronthepulse.blogspot.com/2023/02/why-do-we-keep-falling-for-idea-that.html?fbclid=IwAR10brQO37IUD-J-bvpmh0SZidxtC3LqH8w_c93PNnCI1kzWJ74osI_Y6X0

Interestingly, the website is owned by Ross Elliot, who is actually in the growthist field. See his qualifications below:

Ross Elliott. BA (Hons). MAICD

Executive engagement   |  Industry advocate | Business strategy

​

​​

  • BA (Hons) University of Queensland 1981 to 1985

  • Certificate in Commercial Real Estate Analysis and Investment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020 (98% v class average 84%)

​

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2023-02-17 20:32

Robyn Wood on Thursday 2023-02-16, wrote the following comment, which was accidentally deleted. So I'm reproducing it here: I'd like links to these references please. Similar surveys that seek opinions on population growth get quite the opposite result. There have been only two public inquiries into population, both by ALP governments, and both overwhelming rejected higher populations. The first one, “The Jones Inquiry” received 261 submissions with only 19 of these arguing for higher populations. There were 13 submissions from academic institutes, only one of which supported population growth. Most, including the CSIRO’s, argued for smaller populations. A submission from the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Commission, (ATSIC) expressed concern not only for the impact immigration would have on the nations prosperity, but with considerable forethought, predicted that the higher populations created from our substantial immigration, would create a situation where the needs of the existing society, including the original owners, would be given a lower priority.

Mick Rosenberg (not verified)

Fri, 2023-02-17 17:55

It’s obvious that war crimes were committed!   The criminals have been left to walk free.          Future Journalists are too scared to report on what is really happening.  Julian Assange does not deserve to be treated the way he has.  Countries that have not supported Julian should hold their heads in shame.  History will show us that.     All the world can see how dishonest our leaders are.     Julian Assange should be bought back home as a hero.  Julian has many followers all around the world.   

James Sinnamon

Wed, 2023-02-15 01:44

The encounter with Sheila, that Andriy Bondar refers to, begins here beneath Sheila's article of 21 November 2022, New industrial law bill may cut down on mass import of cheap workers, if passed. The title that Andriy Bondar gave to his post was "This is a garbled post".

Sheila responded, appropriately in my view, with a comment entitled "Post ungarbled. Your comments mostly correct, Andriy, if abusive."

In his next comment, in spite of Sheila conceding where she could see that Andriy Bondar was correct, Andriy Bondar attempted to further denigrate Sheila. After three sentences of this, he changed the subject completely and launched into a tirade against Sheila, similar to what he wrote above.

This tirade concerned articles we had written elsewhere, on candobetter.net, about Vladimir Putin, Russia and Ukraine. Sheila responded. Then we heard nothing more from Andriy Bondar, until now.

Regarding, the "critical guests," "every single one of which" has "copped abuse and been shown the door or otherwise treated poorly," I have no idea what he is talking about. Of course, he is welcome to provide examples.

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Tue, 2023-02-14 20:01

Sheila, you have no way of knowing if I read what Hersh wrote. You also say I turned up on a "on a population discussion list." I know nothing about any population discussion lists- you just made that up. My only previous encounter with you was correcting your numerous mistakes in regard to industrial law on this website. You even conceded most of your mistakes.   Having looked over the past 12 months's worth of encounters with critical guests on this site, I note that every single one of them has copped abuse and been shown the door or otherwise treated poorly. There isn't even a single exception. As such, I bid you farewell and shall travel to more fructuous pastures. Enjoy talking amongst yourselves.

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2023-02-14 08:26

Basically Andriy is acting as a media-gatekeeper. He does not actually read anything that he criticises, but just repeats slurs designed to put himself and others off reading it.  It would be interesting to see Andriy actually try to refute Seymour Hersh's detailed expose on how the US government organised the blowing up of Nordstream 2, but I doubt that would ever happen, because Andriy would not be able to bring himself to read anything that contradicts his 'mainstream' view of war.  This is because he is either programmed to obedience through the usual wedge politics imposed on the bulk of a poorly educated and uncritical population, or his is a professional troll.  I suspect the latter because he only recently appeared on a population discussion list, where he acts divisively and to confuse.

James Sinnamon

Tue, 2023-02-14 00:47

As with his previous 'contributions' to the discussion about the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Andriy Bondar has not cited sources for his latest attempt to depict Vladimir Putin as like Hitler or the Antichrist whilst attacking me personally. nor has he addressed what I added to two of his previous comments.

I chose to respond, in the way I did, to his comments because I believed it would help visitors better understand the content. I still preserved all of his original content within  those comments. If that still troubles Andriy Bondar, he can always find somewhere else to post his views.

I should also apologise to other site visitors, who find themselves subjected the venomous lies that were posted above. I will have to find a way to put such posts somewhere linked to from here so that those, who are sufficiently curious, can still follow the link and read the posts for themselves.

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-13 21:38

I see that my above comments have been edited (the titles have been changed) and have editorial insertions put in them without my consent. Am I right in assuming this has been done by James Sinnamon rather than Sheila Newman? I ask because Sinnamon's peculiar idées fixes appear in the editorial comments. I have never had this happen on the mainstream media sites where I have commented over the years. Such behaviour is unethical but it certainly confirms my priors. As to the new batch of factual claims made above by Sinnamon (I assume), I would need to see data from neutral sources before I assess them. In any event, it is well reported that Russia is killing its own soldiers with sledgehammer blows to the head- the Putin approved Wagner terrorist group has a long history of using this tactic and Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin appears to be quite proud of it. He no longer even denies it. Why do facts like that not appear on this site? Why is there no mention of Russia using thousands of convicted criminals as cannon fodder? Why is there no mention of Russia's few remaining independent journalists having mostly fled the country? Or the journalists who have been jailed or died in suspicious circumstances? Or citizens being punished for even calling the war a war instead of the ridiculous euphemism, "special military operation"? But most importantly, why have you concealed Putin's open embrace of Nazism, for instance his continued crackdown on LGBTI people, anti-Satanist witch hunts and lionization of the Hitler loving madman Ivan Ilyich? Are you denying that Putin had Ilyich's grave moved to Russia from Switzerland and laid a wreath on it? Having said all that, I note that in the last French Presidential election Sheila Newman expressly called for French voters to vote for Marin Le Pen, whose party is the continuation of her father's anti-semitic, holocaust denying National Front. One could be forgiven for thinking that an openly anti-LGBTI, pro-Putin, pro-Ilyinist and pro-Le Pen war-loving website such as this could itself be designated far right, if not outright fascist. Would you be comfortable with such a designation?   And as to me being riled up, well no, I gather your readership is so small that it is irrelevant. 

DeFoe Mary (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-13 21:12

HE VOICE YELLS  LOUD OVER
ITS TRUE PURPOSE

As the pro-Voicers loud-hail about the Aboriginal voice to parliament and the anti-Voicers try hard to negate what’s almost certain to be a rigged referendum, the true objective evades all.

Firstly, the brevity of detail surrounding this mooted “voice” should tell you all you need to know: that it’s something that the deep state wants and aims to get but is misleading Australians and our massive immigrant demographic about what it all earnestly means.

The critics are naturally labelled as “racists” while the proponents are effusive with fuzzy feelings and promises of constitutional emancipation for the Aborigines. The notion one must undertake if they’re to follow the pro-voice logic is that Aborigines are currently excluded from the electoral process. One is also led to assume that they have “special needs” that aren’t being met and that, in the first place, they assume a priority in the Australian state that’s been sorely overlooked from day one.

What hasn’t been ignored is the sluice gates of immigration pouring a burst dam’s worth of immigrants into the country year after year—an accretion of interlopers that only paused for the global COVID project (sic) to facilitate what the World Economic Forum (WEF) gloats about being the first phase of the “great reset

Now immigration numbers are back in full swing under the guise of, among other names, Overseas Students. On one hand, we have a government that is eager to amplify a “voice” for a disunited aggregate of tribal peoples who share nothing much in common least of all a common language; and on the other, they want to further disenfranchise those remaining pureblood Aborigines [sacred to Australia Firsters], by forcing an influx of disparate races into their (sic) lands to swamp them even further into total marginalisation.

Either the internationalist “managers” of the economy known as Australia are just stupid with obstinate egalitarian notions of what’s right, or else they’re hoodwinking us. Given that the latter is always the case 100% of the time then it’s a fair bet that “the Voice” is a distraction from other social projects; especially given its vagueness of detail and the rush the globalists are in to establish one.

Firstly, it sets a pretext for “amending” the constitution; an act of bi-partisan tampering that’s unlikely to end with just ‘the Voice.’ Secondly, while the sweaty masses are all het-up about that Voice, they’re not paying attention to its actual purpose, which has almost nothing to do with justifying the insufferable “welcome to country” balderdash in parliament or improving Aboriginal self-esteem through the parliamentary gravy train. In truth, the “Voice” is about solidifying Australia as an Asian migrant zone. Confused? Don’t be.

Australians as perceived during the Vision Splendid era were a distinct set of the Caucasian race. Our ancestors invariably hailed from Europe and we shared customs, culture and a common language. That’s all going and the government-invited invaders are screaming up the charts and outpacing the founders of this country to such an alarming degree that according to the 2021 Census 51.5% of our 25.5 million population was either born overseas or has a parent born overseas. In other words, not Aussies. Don’t be misled if you’re told that a large swathe comes from the UK either because one look at poor old lost Blighty and you’ll quickly see that could mean anything from Pakistani to Senegalese. 

Nepalese represent the fastest-growing migrant group, with Indians at the top, and Mandarin the most spoken language outside of English. Other European languages such as Greek and Italian are on the way out, as are fairdinkums ourselves. This is not by accident but by design—as the intent for Australia is not to honour in the footsteps of the “ANZACS” but to integrate into Asia as an economic zone with a principal loyalty to America’s Satanic Empire. 

With such a disparate grouping of races, many of which bring with them ethnic and religious conflicts, the motif of Aboriginality serves as a fixed point of cultural agreement in a tokenistic kind. After all, the Aboriginal “flavour” serves only disingenuous ceremonial purposes and as a semiotic veneer for this new economic zone: it’s not expected that all the alien imports learn Aboriginal histories and customs. But it means that the “colonial past” and the labour movement are flushed down the can and supplanted by this undemocratic revision of the nation.   

     
Therefore, the Voice is not for Aborigines, but for multi-racialism and rampant commercialism. It is a voice for plunder, exploitation, and the epochal lies that characterise the actors behind ‘the great reset.’

Oppose the Voice for the fraud it is, with every bit of strength you can! 

The Australian peoples movement of Australia First is developing, and will be issuing an Aboriginal New Dreamtime Programme, to advance an organic based REAL FUTURE for our Aborigines.     
                                         Mary Defoe

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-13 14:12

Yeah, nah. The Kim Dotcom observations have been widely reported and Kim's record is not so black and white. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAFWsSnxsI) Doesn't seem likely that he made it up, but, even if he did, his is not the only sign pointing to the  US.

Motivation, opportunity, and threats put the US (and anyone found loitering with them) as prime suspects.

Seymour Hersh's very detailed account is probably true for the simple reason that the bad guys (the United States and NATO) have failed to argue it point by point. Instead, they have just tried to smear the author, whose credentials are so good that this just makes them look like liars incapable of defending their lies, despite enormous budgets just to do that.

You are also trying to smear him, rather than argue motive, opportunity, intention, and all the points that Hersh makes.

ABC Australia mirrors Australian cabinet policies and consistently reports whatever the Whitehouse gives as reasons to go to war. The US always find mad dictators wherever they want to invade and pillage, and weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons, babies thrown out of incubators, etc etc.  How could anyone not born yesterday believe them, unless thoroughly brainwashed from childhood?  Four Corners also does terrible reports sometimes, such as perpetuating the Russian interference nonsense in US elections. With anything important that affects foreign relations, they pull their punches.

Unfortunately Australia is one of the bad guys and it is friends with a whole gang of them.

We have a government that has allowed Julian Assange, who exposed countless US and other war-crimes to be locked up illegally for years, on behalf of the United States. What further proof do you need to indicate that Australia's media and governments are built on lies, war, propaganda, and defending criminals?

The ABC has almost nothing to say about Julian Assange.  None of the mainstream journalists stand up for him - because they are too scared of their bosses or so ignorant that they actually cannot question what they are telling the general public.

All our news is censored since the beginning of the war, at a time when everyone could and should be able to read what the other side(s) have to say.  But that would prevent the war, so we have censorship.

It amazes me that you get so riled up.  Ours is one of very few sites that doesn't swallow the pro-Ukraine message hook, line and sinker.  Do you expect every single journalist in the world to agree with your ideologically stuck view of the world?

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-13 14:08

Editors' comment: How Andriy, an ethnic Ukrainian, could not hate Zilenskyy, who has sent tens of thousands of his brothers to their deaths in his war of choice in the East, is beyond me. Is Andriy aware that Zilenskyy, whether through stupidity or criminal intent, attempted to cause the Zaporozhye nuclear plant to melt down with rocket attacks and artillery bombardment? Has he seen films of Ukrainians, including ethnic Hungarians being hunted down to be conscripted by Zilenskyy to fight and die in the East?

Re the editor's comment, all my claims are from the mainstream media and you may easily google them. It takes less than 10 seconds to find literally thousands of links about Kim Dotcom's wealth and legal issues, for instance. This is also common knowledge as it has been well reported, so the author of this article is obviously aware of them but made a deliberate decision to conceal this information from the readership.  I did not bother providing links as this website dismisses mainstream reporting and will not allow links or even paragraph breaks, although I note paragraph breaks, for the first time ever, are in my above reply. - I edited the comment to make it more readable - Ed.

 

As an aside-  I now see that this website is running a claim by the convicted pedophile and notorious chatroom child groomer, Scott Ritter, that the Ukrainians are using chemical weapons against the Russian Ilynist-Putinist invaders. (Editors' comment: As we know from the Jeffrey Epstein saga, large numbers of the US political elite were also guilty of pedophilia. If Ritter, himself, has been found guilty of some counts of pedophilia, the fact remains, we owe our lives to Scott Ritter, who achieved agreements to control the nuclear arms race in 1988, following the US deployment of cruise missile and the Soviet response. Had this not occurred, nuclear war would almost certainly have occurred.) Without hard evidence, verified by neutral sources, I see this as just another racist attack on my fellow Ukrainians. For whatever reason, this website is determined to see all Ukrainians exterminated in a Second Holodomor.

admin

Mon, 2023-02-13 02:22

Dear Elena,. Thank you for your reply   On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 5:13 PM Tieri, Elena (S. Georganas, MP) <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello James,   On behalf of Steve, I thank you for your email and commend you on the action you are taking.   Steve shares your concerns and is very proactive when it comes to human rights and the violation of liberty and voice. Within Parliament, he speaks on behalf of many who are suffering at the hands of injustice.   As a member of the Parliamentary Friends of the Bring Julian Assange Home committee, he takes concerted action to bring a humanitarian focus on Julian’s plight; and will continue to do so until Julian is returned to Australia.   Thank you once again for reaching out to Steve. He has heard your voice and will bring it to Parliament to fight for something you both truly believe in.
    I am glad to hear of this.   Nevertheless, the fact remains, that very little is even said in Parliament about Julian Assange, let alone debated and voted upon.   In the past sitting week, Julian Assange was not mentioned once in the House and his name was only said twice in the Senate.  The amount of discussion about Assange in the 2022 sitting year was little more. As I have said when I speak out at our weekly vigils for Julian Assange every week outside Flinders Street Station in Melbourne (See "End the Australian Parliamentary Gag on Discussion about Assange" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwYZGSFLhu4), I think 40 members of the Bring Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group could find ways to make their presence in Parliament more widely known.   I will be writing to other members of the Bring Julian Assange Support Group to ask each of them, as well as Steve Georganas, to, this week, try, once more, to have the issue of Julian Assange debated in Parliament. Please try to have Andrew Wilkie's foreshadowed motion of 2 December 2021, which was outrageously disallowed, put to this sitting. This is the foreshadowed motion:
That the House: (1) notes that:   (a) Walkley Award winning Australian journalist, Mr Julian Assange, remains incarcerated in HMP Belmarsh in the United Kingdom, despite a British Court earlier this year finding that Mr Assange could not be extradited to the United States of America for health reasons;   (b) the US continues to pursue Mr Assange and has recently been back in court in the UK appealing the earlier decision to refuse the extradition;   (c) the reason for the US's determination to extradite Mr Assange is limited to Wikileaks' exposes in 2010 and 2011 of US war crimes and other misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Guantanamo Bay, including the release of the 'Collateral Murder' video in which a US helicopter in Iraq gunned down innocent civilians including journalists;   (d) recent revelations in the media show the Central Intelligence Agency developed plans to abduct and assassinate Mr Assange; and   (e) the continuing incarceration of Mr Assange, and any extradition to the US, would not only be a grave injustice but a severe threat to his health and life; and (2) calls on the Prime Minister to:   (a) speak directly with his counterparts in the US and UK to bring an end to this madness, including the US dropping all charges against Mr Assange and the UK allowing his immediate release; and   (b) commit to not allow the extradition of Mr Assange to the US from Australia.
As I said in my talk, if the Speaker pronounces that the necessary motion to Suspend Standing Orders to allow the above motion to be put is defeated, then call for a Division to (1) verify that the majority of members have voted against that procedural motion (2) make known to voters the names of MP who oppose the issue of Julian Asange being debated in parliament.   That way, members who behave, in my view, undemocratically, can, at the next federal; election, be held to account by their constituents for their conduct.   Thank you for your attention.   Yours faithfully,   James Sinnamon  

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Sun, 2023-02-12 21:04

Editor's comment: The original title given to this comment was "Little Miss Breathless in Australia?" I changed the title so that readers are more likely to understand the purpose of this comment. As for this post's effort to dismiss Seymour Hersh, please also see the 29 minute Video discussion How America Blew Up The Nord Stream Pipeline | Redacted with Natali and Clayton Morris. Otherwise, for now, I will just point out that no sources are given for the claims made below. I expect that if they had been cited, we would find that they are the same sources that lied about Iraqi WMDs, supposed Syrian and Libyan governments murder of their own peoples, 'North' Vietnamese 'aggression' against 'South' Vietnam, Oswald's 'magic bullet', etc., etc.

 

I checked out the link that you would have us believe proves former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss sent a text message to the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, saying, "It is done." moments after the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline explosion. Your link is to some obscure Pakistani website that advertises samosas (which I quite enjoy) and the "evidence" consists of nothing apart from a tweet by the notorious troll, serial liar and convicted fraud Kim Dotcom. Kim Dotcom claims to have personally seen the alleged phone comment on hacked intel. It is beyond me why anyone would take this unsupported claim seriously as Kim Dotcom furnished no evidence and repeatedly makes outrageous claims.  At least when Kim Dotcom dishonestly accused  Lt Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi of wearing a Nazi bracelet, he provided a blurry image! But such are the standards of your citizen journalism that random unsubstantiated tweets from known frauds constitutes breathtaking evidence, so long as it fits in with your conspiratorial, Russia Today approved worldview.

One imagines Kim Dotcom is rather unhappy with the US government, which seeks his extradition from NZ for several hundred million dollars worth of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering. Also of interest is how Kim Dotcom, who dropped out of high school without a penny in his pocket, has somehow been able to accumulate the wealth to have almost 20 luxury cars, a mansion and 10 million dollars in the bank. Not being a conspiracy theorist myself, I shall not speculate.

As to the 85 year old Mr Seymour Hersh, about whom you claim to be breathless, his claims about the US and Norway being behind the blowing up of Nordstream2 have about as much hard and verifiable evidence as the litany of other conspiracy theories he has pushed in his dotage, such as his James Bond like claim about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. That is to say, nothing whatsoever.  

Accordingly the ABC, which you breathlessly criticise and accuse without evidence of lying, is likely not reporting Seymour Hersh's latest tale for the same reason it doesn't report most of the millions of other grubby claims and conspiracy theories that flood the internet each day of the week and lure in the gullible, the immature and the weird. Any claim that the ABC is beholden to the government is obviously false given the ABC's habit over many decades of running stories that shame the Government of the day, such as those on Robodebt,  war crimes in Afghanistan, corruption in politics and policing and so on. How many time has just one program, 4 Corners, shone a light in dark corners that have embarrassed governments over the years? It must be dozens.  You will not get that in your preferred Ilyinist-Putinist  (Nazi) Russia, which controls most of the media and has caused independent journalists to flee the country.  

James Sinnamon

Sun, 2023-02-12 01:42

Prime Minister Albanese should take note from the young female Syrian in the embedded video below: The illegal sanctions which Australia, the US and its other allies imposed against Syria, made life close to unbearable for Syrians, even before the earthquake. Those illegal sanctions are now causing death as those struggling to rescue earthquake survivors are deprived of life-saving equipment and medicine as consequence of the sanctions.

 

Lucia Vorpasso (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-06 19:32

How do I lodge an objection to Planning Permit Application NO: MV/269/2022? Thank you

James Sinnamon

Sat, 2023-02-04 13:38

The comment below has been posted to Why the Media Fear Julian Assange (1/2/2023) | Consortium News :

 

The Australian Parliament sits from this coming Monday 8 March - two days from now.

Even though the "Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group" numbers 40, the major parties on both sides have, so far, successfully colluded to prevent any substantial discussion, on the floors of either the House of Representatives or the Senate, about the treatment of Julian Assange and successive governments' [mis]handling of his case.

This must end. A modest start will occur during the next sitting commencing Monday 8 February:

Independent member Monique Ryan will be asking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to explain why, contrary to his claims made to her during a previous Question Time on 30 November 2022 (hxxs :// candobetter.net/admin/blog/6513/video-parliament-will-government-intervene-bring-mr-assange-home-dr-monique-ryan), a FOI request has revealed that, for six months, no Australian government department official has been in contact with any US government official over Julian Assange.

However, when the time allowed in Question Time for each question and response is two minutes, much more is needed than a question or two even by an MP as capable as Monique Ryan. A proper debate on the floors of Parliament, in which the case for government action to free Julian Assange can be put, is urgently needed.

James Sinnamon

Wed, 2023-01-18 03:22

I posted the following comment beneath the Consortium News YouTube Video CN LIVE! S5E1 SAVING ASSANGE - SAVING U.S. FACE :

Thank you, Joe Lauria, for raising the issue of Greens Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.

Even though the required number of signatures were collected to put NATO membership to a referendum, the Swedish Parliament, presumably, including Greens Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, refused to hold the referendum. Without consulting the people of Finland, they abandoned Finland's past neutrality and made Finland an ally of the United States, the country which has killed an estimated 20 million people since 1945 (https://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-regime-has-killed-20-30-million-people-since-world-war-ii/5633111). The Finnish government, like the similarly corrupt governments of Germany, Sweden, France, the UK and nearly every other European nation, are also allied with US puppet Ukrainian President Zelensky (elected in 2019 as the supposed 'peace' candidate with 70% of the vote) and his nazi Azov Battalions against the people of Ukraine, Russia and the rest of humanity.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have both bragged about the 2014 Minks Accords supposed peace agreement was only to make time for the defeated Ukrainian military to rebuild with US money, equipment and 'advisors' in order to re-launch their war against Russian speaking Ukrainians and Russia.

Merkel and Hollande have the blood of tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians on their hands. It is with such people that the Greens Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto also wants Finland to form a military alliance with.

admin

Sun, 2023-01-15 14:06

The following was posted to the Facebook Group Canberra Conversations

The above video can now be watched non-live. Fortunately (and unfortunately) it's length is 4 hours and 22 minutes. The Schiller Institute should be thanked for convening, filming and thence publishing the Symposium. (It has also been embedded within "Live at 2:00 AM(+11): Stop NATO's World War and Dismantle the 'International Assassination Bureau'" at hxxps://candobetter.net/admin/blog/6539/live-200%E2%80%AFam11-stop-natos-world-war-and-dismantle-international-assassination-bureau [here].)

If the truth behind the murders of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK, RFK and numerous witnesses to those murders can be made widely known in 2023, even almost 60 years since those events, it still might be possible to hold to account today's heirs to those murders and reverse the coup of 22 November 1963 in the United States. With someone else approaching JFK's greatness in the White House - perhaps Tulsi Gabbard? - we could finally eradicate the threat of war from this earth.

James Sinnamon

Thu, 2023-01-12 10:32

In his otherwise informative speech below, former US Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter said that, by supplying Ukraine with far fewer weapons than President Zilenskiy had requested, the US was choosing to prolong the conflict rather than help the Kiev regime to defeat Russia.

This presumes that, had the US supplied all the weapons that Kiev had requested, Kiev would have been able to use those weapons to defeat Russia. Most likely, the US understood that a large volume of the stream of US weapons entering Ukraine would have been destroyed by the Russians en-route with missiles and aerial bombardment. In any case, those additional weapons would have had to find their way into the hands of Ukrainian troops who were motivated to use them effectively.

If the delivered weapons were, in spite of all this, started to pose a threat to the Russian forces, this could most likely have been dealt with by an increase in the numbers of Russian forces deployed in its Special Military Operation.

Sheila Newman

Sat, 2022-12-31 13:46

A friend of ours was recently in the cardiac unit at Frankston Hospital.  She was transferred out of there to a private cardiac facility because the ward was about to close down for a remake into a THIRD covid ward for the hospital.

Everywhere you went there, staff warned you to wear masks outside in the greater community, because of the rocketing rate of infection.  Staff, visitors, and patients all wore masks continuously to reduce infection risk in the hospital. Obviously the rate of admissions for COVID 19 illness is climbing again.  There are several probable factors: 1. People are not taking precautions in social distancing, mask wearing, or hand-sanitising.  (How many times have you tried to sanitise outside a supermarket or somewhere similar, and there was nothing in the dispenser?) 2. People who are not vaccinated are getting sicker than those who are vaccinated.  3. People don't realise how serious the illness can be and therefore do not access the rapidly acting anti-virals now available or 4. They fall outside those categories. 5. No-one has any clear idea of the current incidence of COVID-19, nor of the preponderant strains, because they are either not testing, or not reporting their test results.

Sue (not verified)

Fri, 2022-12-30 10:08

What did go wrong? Was it something peculiar to Australia or was it the rise of neo-liberalism internationally which Australia did not withstand? What has happened in Australia is a disgrace when compared with the picture painted above of the prosperous Menzies era in Australia. It seems that the values present in this past era are no longer held. Governments do not seem to care that not just housing ownership but even rentability have declined to the extent that people now live in 3rd world conditions - in cars and tents. They don't seem to care that educational standards have fallen and children are falling through the cracks. It's not about having a high general standard for everyone but instead just as long as someone "makes it". Governments don't like unemployment to be too low, either and "skills" shortages become the urgent cry when training of our own population has been long neglected.   There is rising inequality with the obscenely, osentatiously wealthy and a class of people delivering their meals to them on bicycles.  That's what I see, in a nutshell and this situation seems to be OK with Labor  too.

admin

Sat, 2022-12-24 03:15

Comment: In truth, I don't normally object to the Ukrainian flag. However, in the current political climate, raising of Ukraine's flag almost always implies support for the nazi-infested regime of US-puppet Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky as it was intended to in the Parliament of Slovakia.

Sarolta E Kérészy (not verified)

Fri, 2022-12-02 00:18

I am ashamed to be Australian. Of Hungarian origin. Bi / TRI lingual + 1. Albanese's words hide deception.continuing the Oz tradition of being Corporations owned and a mere Yankee wipe rs. He has no shame. A slitherer like his predecessor and a traitor to all those refugee migrants who sought  not only a better life but also safer.

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2022-12-01 16:02

I note that Prime Minister Albanese abused his position in Australia's parliament yesterday to cast more gratuitous slurs on Julian Assange.

"I, sometime ago, made my point that enough is enough. It is time for this matter to be brought to a conclusion. "

What, for instance, does 'Enough is enough' mean in the context of someone being held illegally even for one minute? What does 'enough is enough' mean in the context of someone being held in solitary confinement, whose only crime was to jump bail in order to seek asylum to save his life - a misdemeanor for which he served out his full unreasonable sentence years ago?

"I don't express any personal sympathy with some of the actions of Mr Assange. [...] As I said, I don't have sympathy for Mr Assange's actions, on a whole range of matters."

What purpose does it serve for the Australian Prime Minister to mention and repeat again that he does not 'express any personal sympathy with some of the actions of Mr Assange'? What actions? The action of exposing US war crimes? The action of seeking asylum?  What is the purpose of this totally unspecific slur, except to abuse a public platform in order to throw yet more mud on the courageous Assange? And what is the purpose of that?

"[...]when you look at the issue of Mr Assange and compare that with the person responsible for leaking the information, Bradley Manning, now Chelsea Manning, she is now able to participate freely in US society."

And, what's this statement about 'leaking the information'  - you mean exposing massive war-crimes?? And then noting that 'the person responsible' - Bradley Manning - is now able to participate freely in US society.  In this way, Albanese implies that Assange is guilty because Manning was guilty and obviously Albanese thinks people should be punished for exposing war-crimes.  His position seems to be that the US should not be punished for its war-crimes, and that we should not even know about them.  What on earth does the Prime Minister stand for then?

Any British or American hearing the PM's weasle-words on Assange would rightly derive the idea that Albanese does not give a stuff about Assange, or truth, or justice, or false imprisonment, or torture, or asylum, or democracy, or war-crimes. Albanese delivers this message loud and clear, through the parliamentary megaphone.

Source of excerpts in Albanese's full response to Dr Monique Ryan:

"I, sometime ago, made my point that enough is enough. It is time for this matter to be brought to a conclusion. In that, I don't express any personal sympathy with some of the actions of Mr Assange. I do say though that this issue has gone on for many years now, and when you look at the issue of Mr Assange and compare that with the person responsible for leaking the information, Bradley Manning, now Chelsea Manning, she is now able to participate freely in US society.

The government will continue to act in a diplomatic way, but can I assure the member for Kooyong that I have raised this personally with representatives of the United States government. My position is clear and has been made clear to the US administration that it is time that this matter be brought to a close. This is an Australian citizen. As I said, I don't have sympathy for Mr Assange's actions, on a whole range of matters. But, having said that, you have to reach a point whereby what is the point of this continuing, this legal action, which could be caught up now for many years into the future? So I will continue to advocate, as I did recently in meetings that I have held. I thank the member for her question and for her genuine interest in this, along with so many Australian citizens who have contacted me about this issue."

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2022-12-01 14:04

I have ammended the article in question to indicate that it was not worth importing cheap labour until Howard brought in his Corporations and Work Choices legislation.  Thank you for pointing out my mistakes. With regard to mentioning 2009,  maybe I was going to say something (but got interrupted) about the high rate of mass migration into the country, which was particularly shocking as outnumbering natural increase around that time - actually from 2007.

(See, for instance, Table 4: Components of population growth: 1980–2015 at https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/MigrationStatistics.)  

Anyway, I decided not to pursue that subject, and you are right that that year did not make sense. 

With regard to the term 'industry-based awards,' I was also thinking of occupation-based awards, my point being the erosion of collective bargaining through the introduction of enterprise bargaining in Australia.  Collective bargaining was the hallmark of Australia's leadership in industrial law legislation and worker and citizen empowerment, from the world's first 8 hour day (1856) through to Federation and the Australian Constitution, and onwards - up until John Howard's changes to the interpretation of the Australian Consitution, which has practically outlawed collective bargaining to all intents and purposes.  

The substitution of a few sparse rights in the Fair Work Act for the historic rights acquired over many decades through the old state award systems, is nothing compared to the historic rights and power acquired through the old award systems. These systems were created between unions, government, and workers. They empowered unions and thereby workers, providing a bulwark against the tendencies for governments to side with employers and big money.  Your comment that most workers go to the Fair Work Tribunal about unfair dismissals is an indication of the lack of scope for workers regarding the laws that underpin that tribunal.  The situation of workers regarding other employment rights is very poorly defended by that Tribunal.There is a good paper on this here: "Collective Bargaining: Delivering for the public interest?" https://www.aierights.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ron-McCallum-Debate-2018-discussion-paper.pdf

You write, "Whether or not foreign guest workers are allowed in Australia is a separate issue and not dealt with in the Fair Work Act 2009 or its predecessors." That is not the point. The point is that the system that Howard introduced covers something like 80% of workers and it permits them to be paid at different rates for the same work, when that was not legally possible in most industries before.  This makes it profitable to import cheap workers from overseas and that is what has happened.

It is irrelevant to this argument whether you think "an appropriately monitored guest worker system can help raise poor people in developing coutnries out of poverty whilst simultaneously ensuring Australian consumers have affordable fruit/veg and so on ..."  Except to say that, without enforceable, detailed awards in a unionised system with teeth, it is not possible to have an 'appropriately monitored guest-worker system.

Australian farmers have been forced to compete in a globalised, unlevel playing field, which does not reflect the cost of production in this country, which requires a huge amount of fertiliser, irrigation, and mechanisation (and environmental damage).  This leaves no margin at all for paying pickers and packers properly.  The notion of affordable fruit and vegetables is meaningless in the context of the cost of long-distance travel, vast overseas imports, oversupply in all seasons, and enormous spoilage. 

In industrial case-law 'industry' traditionally refers implicitly to large numbers of people who get their hands dirty doing something relatively unskilled.   Industrial law is mired in class division, which is, of course, a reflection of power. That is one of the chief things supposed to separate Liberal from Labor in this country, but Labor did seem to allow things to drift after Howard's essential destruction of worker and citizen-rights, with the Fair Work Act not much better  It is therefore surprising that Albanese seems to be taking a more traditional Labor tack.  I can only hope that this will bear out.

The history of Australian industrial laws as a protection against slavery is that Australian workers at the turn of the century, having ended transportation of forced ‘white’ labour (convicts and indentured labour) noting the kidnapping of Pacific Islanders, also rejected ‘non-white’ slavery through the White Australia policy, which was a trade-off for allowing manufacturers to import foreign goods.  Australian employers were kidnapping Islanders as slaves and would have imported African slaves if allowed.   An ammendment to the Masters and Servants Act August 1847 forbade the transportation of ‘Natives of any Savage or uncivilized tribe inhabiting any Island or Country in the Pacific Ocean’. Masters and Servants Act 1847 (NSW) No 9a. No.IX., 16 August 1847. Six weeks later a Legislative Council motion disapproved the prospect of introducing Pacific Island workers into the colony, because it “May, if not checked, degenerate into a traffic in slaves.” https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2019/july/1561989600/alex-mckinnon/blackbirds-australia-s-hidden-slave-trade-history.  Whitlam decoupled the notion of cheap imported labour from skin colour, but continued to protect Australian and State Awards. Howard managed to reverse theses and the protection they carried against 

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2022-12-01 13:56

Andriy Bondar, I have corrected the mistakes you pointed out in my industrial law article, but you have failed to point to any specific mistake I might have made in reporting on Ukraine. Instead, you continue to pretend that this site is pro-Putin rather than anti-war and anti-censorship, and make inflammatory comments with the excuse that you were born in Ukraine.  That kind of behaviour is hardly a good advertisement for Ukraine. 

This war is mostly, like all wars, a huge money-laundering operation for criminals operating within criminal states, with the support of completely captive mass media. Already more than 60 billion USD has gone into the black smoking pit of Ukraine, and out the other end into various private bank accounts.  

The most relevant article that I have produced about Nazism in contemporary Ukraine is from a Jewish site that tracks the creation of Nazi monuments around the world, including GPS links to the actual monuments, with dates and histories, at https://candobetter.net/anonymous/blog/6321/nazi-monuments-ukraine-mushroomed-2014-time-us-interference. How about you look at the links and argue with those facts? This article is a partial copy from a Jewish site "Nazi collaborator monuments in Ukraine,"The Nazi collaborator monument project, https://forward.com/news/462916/nazi-collaborator-monuments-in-ukraine/ I copied parts of it because it is a subscription-only site, which has only temporarily made this information on Ukraine available. This article shows an explosion of monuments since 2014, which was the time when multiple US political figures were present in Ukraine, intervening in elections there. Several were recorded fraternising with Neonazis, and the current President of the United States and his son have interfered with the Ukrainian judiciary by having Poreshenko remove a public prosecutor because he was going after a wealthy criminal who was mixed up in a Biden-Ukraine commercial exploitation. And that criminal was the one who financed the television series that made Zilensky famous and his political campaign.

I do not know how many Ukrainians supported Ukrainian Nazis leading up to the war. There was plenty of resistance from the Donbass region and from people all over Ukraine who did not want the Euro-Maidan, but most people stopped resisting because the Nazi revenge on them was so terrifying.  That reign of terror obviously continues.  The United States, which is behind the war in Ukraine, has a history of using political extremists to change regimes and to fight their battles on the ground. There is probably not much difference between ISIS and Ukraine's neo-nazis.

Poreshenko admitted that he never intended to negotiate the Minsk Agreements in good faith - but just to buy time to get US support to make war on Russia.  Ukrainians should be thankful for this??? What craziness! What psychopathy. He could have avoided war. Ukraine could have been a peaceful country.

As for what Ukrainians in Ukraine think about this - how would we know? You get shot in Ukraine if you criticise the war. 

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Tue, 2022-11-29 11:27

Sheila Newman lives in Australia. In spite of this, her article on Australia's employment law is a garbled pile of falsehoods and nonsense. In short, her research and comprehension are vastly inferior to the point of being comical. In just a few short paragraphs, as I have shown above, she manages to get almost everything completely wrong. It therefore comes as no surprise that Newman, who has has probably never even set foot in my ancestral homeland and country of birth, Ukraine, manages to get every fact wrong. Instead of engaging in even the most elementary research, Newman simply regurgitates Russian state propaganda about the Ukrainian people being Nazi Satanists and pads it out with "independent reporting" from a gaggle of Russian state approved shills. Absent from her articles is any mention of the non-State Russian journalists who have been murdered, tortured, imprisoned and forced in to exile. Absent from her articles is any mention that genuine journalism from Russian controlled territory is impossible given the vague and broad laws that criminalise calling the invasion of Ukraine a war, criminalise saying anything that could be considered an insult to the military and so on.  Also strangely absent from her articles is the chilling nature of Russian state propaganda or any mention of Putin's proto-fascist and imperialist ideology. Nowhere is there any mention of Putin's devotion to the Hitler loving fascist Ivan Ilyin, whose remains Putin had returned to Russia from Switzerland so that Putin could lay flowers at his grave.   For details, see here: www youtube com /watch?v=bfVYiHY7lok

James Sinnamon

Mon, 2022-11-28 12:30

Just now, I had a telephone conversation concerning Julian Assange with a Canberra staff member of Queensland One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts. I 'phoned Senator Roberts, because of all the 7 automatically-generated replies I have received so far, in the last two days, from members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group, in response to my e-mails, his seemed to be the most promising.

Roberts' reply pointed to his web-site malcolmrobertsqld.com.au. A search showed that this site included 2 articles about Julian Assange Julian Assange Update dated 12 August 2022 and Labor Government must do even more to get Australian citizen Julian Assange home than they did to keep the Bilo family in Australia dated 21 June 2022. The most recent article had 20 comments in response.

Whilst at first Senator Roberts' staff member welcomed my phone call and expressed compassion and concern for the terrible plight of Julian Assange, he discourteously hung up the phone after 11 minutes.

From what the staff member said, he seemed to be implying that, if my suggested motion to suspend standing orders, in order to allow a motion in support of Julian Assange to be put, was lost, then even just calling for a division of the House was not allowed. I attempted, several times to confirm whether or not that that was the case, but each time got interrupted. He hung up on me after 11 minutes.

In spite of the obfuscation by Roberts' staff member, it seems to me that members and senators are allowed to call for a division should any motion they put, procedural or otherwise, be defeated. That should have been done 12 months ago on 2 December 2021 when Andrew Wilkie's foreshadowed motion was disallowed and it could be done this week in Parliament. Then we would learn the names of those MPs who support free speech in Parliament and the names of those who use their votes to suppress free speech.

It is now unclear to me whether Senator Malcolm Roberts is part of the solution or part of the problem.

admin

Sun, 2022-11-27 23:33

Editor's not: The original tweet, which features Aleksandr with large nazi tattoos all over his body. Presumably, it was deemed by the previous owners of Twitter to have been too embarrassing for the democratic freedom-loving President Zilenskyy and removed.

James Sinnamon

Sun, 2022-11-27 23:17

I Posted the following beneath Lethal US Hypocrisy on Press Freedom (25/11/22) | Consortium Newsby Caitlin Johnstone:

Next week, the House of Representatives will be sitting for 4 days and the Senate will be sitting for 5 days.

 

I believe that it is most urgent that every one of us who supports Julian Assange contact those 39 members (or 41 including Anthony Albanese and Barnaby Joyce) of "The Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group" (hxxps://www.assangecampaign.org.au/bring-julian-home-campaign/ - 'htxxs://' because correctly-formated URLs with 'https://' are disallowed there as they are on many sites) and urge them to try, once more, to have a motion, similar to what Andrew Wilkie tried unsuccessfully, 12 months ago on 2 December 2021, put to Parliament. This time, should the necessary procedural motion be defeated, then a division should be called, so, that at least we can find out the names of those MPs and Senators who are both happy to allow the illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange to continue and who are opposed to those who have opinions, which differs from theirs, from being being put to Parliament.

For more information, please see my article “Your Parliament won’t allow 39 members, who support Julian Assange, to speak – Why?” (27/11/22) at hxxps://candobetter.net/james-sinnamon/blog/6511/your-parliament-wont-allow-39-members-who-support-julian-assange-speak-why (this page).

patricia walsh (not verified)

Sun, 2022-11-27 15:48

I demand that my country represents my view and that of the thousands of other Australians who believe that Julian Assange should be home by Christmas, rescued by the Australian government as an Australian citizen being persecuted by an illegal and dangerously threatening process. Anyone standing in the way of such actions is threatening our democracy, Sincerely, Trish Walsh

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Sun, 2022-11-27 10:56

This is a garbled post riddled with misinformation and errors. I'll outline just a few examples.    You blame John Howard for weakening worker conditions then immediately contradict yourself by saying 2009 is when things got worse:   
Up until 2009 Australian employers had not had much to gain by importing immigrant workers because they had been required to employ them under the same industrial awards as native born workers.
In truth, 2009 is when Federal Labor brought in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Howard lost office in 2007). Contra what you say, most workers traditionally covered by Awards are covered by the Modern Awards established under that FW Act 2009, which remains in force to this day.  Additional worker entitlements are in the body of the FW Act and in associated regulations.  The Modern Awards didn't diminish entitlements (per the Take Home Pay Order provisions). Again, contra what you say, imported workers are covered by the Modern Awards.   You say:
Employees do not have the personal power, time, or specialist education to negotiate their rights workplace by workplace, let alone enforce these severely attenuated rights via the arcane, confusing, expensive processes available under the Fair Work Commission.
Workers mainly go to the Fair Work Commission to dispute a dismissal. The hearings are informal and the default is that neither party has legal representation. I took my own dismissal dispute to the FWC where it was resolved without a hearing, as happens 90% of the time. The process is very simple. Claims for underpayments under Awards and Enterprise Agreements are held in the appropriate federal or state court, not the Fair Work Commission.   You say:
Industry-based awards and bargaining will start to give workers a basis on which to claw back some of the many rights they have lost. 
As already stated, we already have an Award system.  You've also incorrectly used the term "industry-based awards". That term has a particular meaning and doesn't describe all awards as some are occupation based, which you would know if you understood the subject matter you are waxing lyrical about. Whether or not foreign guest workers are allowed in Australia is a separate issue and not dealt with in the Fair Work Act 2009 or its predecessors. As an appropriately monitored guest worker system can help raise poor people in developing countries out of poverty while simultaneously ensuring Australian consumers have affordable fruit/veg and so on, I personally don't have an in-principal objection to it.          

admin

Thu, 2022-11-24 13:44

Speaking in English, a Ukrainian lawyer, shows a fragment of the shell which hit a school in Donetsk was from a 155mm (diameter) American made artillery shell which had a rocket-engine to assist propulsion. The shell was fired at the school by forces fighting for the nazi-infested US-puppet Kiev regime of President Volodymyr Zelensky. It appears that, this time, thankfully, no-one was killed.

Sheila Newman

Mon, 2022-11-21 16:11

Do you mean the protection racket where the State Government outsources VCAT to developers who usually allow overdevelopment?

Brian Burleigh (not verified)

Mon, 2022-11-21 14:43

State Government and Shires are operating a protection racket to prevent any decline in property prices without regard to negative social consequences; homelessness, insufficient affordable and social housing, inability to attract workrs to regions in consequence of there being no housing available; older residents having no down-sizing options - consequent inaduate maintenance of existing housing stocks..

Sheila Newman

Wed, 2022-11-16 15:19

  1. This Saturday at 10am the Friends of Banyule and Lid the Link campaign are meeting at Mount St Heidelberg and marching down Burgundy St to protest the destruction of the Simpson Barracks trees to pave the way for the North East Link.
  Supporters will march down Burgundy Street, then drive slowly up Rosanna Rd to Watsonia Road Watsonia, and park in the vicinity of Lambourne Road. They will then march up Watsonia Road to a gathering space outside the Watsonia Library.   Speeches will be outside the Watsonia Library at 11.30am. I will be one of the speakers. More details are in the attachment, which you should be able to open by right clicking. There is a facebook invitation to the event https://fb.me/e/2jnjMka8U. Please feel free to share it.  
  1. Also this Saturday, 19 November, at 2pm, the Protectors of Public Lands will hold their Annual General Meeting at Walmsley House, 161 Gatehouse Street Parkville and via Zoom. I am their Guest Speaker.
 
  1. Tomorrow night, Thursday 17 November at 7pm, the Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc AGM will be held at Longbeach Place, Chelsea Community Centre, 15 Chelsea Rd Chelsea. Guest speaker will be Dr. Kathy Mc Innes from the CSIRO.
 
  1. Sandringham Foreshore Association are currently seeking the support of like-minded organisations who are concerned about the safety of Jet Skis in Port Phillip Bay. It is well-known that Jet Skis are a source of significant noise pollution and negatively impact marine life and recreational passive users of the Bay. Please contact Dr. Vicky Karalis, President of the Sandringham Foreshore Association via email [email protected] for more information.

James Sinnamon

Sat, 2022-11-12 22:09

Yesterday, 11 November 2022, as noted on Twitter (see, also, below), was the 47th anniversary of the CIA-orchestrated dismissal of Australian Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam on 11 November 1975. (It was also the 104th anniversary of the 1918 conclusion of the 'War [that failed] to End All Wars'). Australians should reflect upon whether Gough would have allowed the British Government to imprison and torture in solitary confinement an Australian citizen, whose only crime was to reveal, to the world, evidence of corruption including United States' war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and elsewhere.

James Sinnamon

Wed, 2022-11-09 03:14

I posted the following comment beneath Secret Power: The War on WikiLeaks (7/11/22) by Owen Bowcott | Consortium News:

We should also point out that:

1. If Prime Minister Anthony Albanese chose to, he could make UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak end the UK's illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange today, but he has chosen not to; and

2. A check of the House of Representatives Hansard for this year 2022 shows that the words "Julian Assange" have have barely appeared,for the year 2022. (I suspect the same is true of the Senate.) Whilst members of the "Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group" have, on several occasions, been prevented, by the use of arcane rules, from putting their various foreshadowed motions in support of Julian Assange to either the House or the Senate, I, nonetheless, think they could try a little harder than they have, firstly, to put Julian's case to Parliament and, secondly, to make the public more aware of how free speech and democracy have been so outrageously suppressed in Parliament by the major Parties.

Please see my article "For how much longer can your Parliament remain silent about the monstrous treatment of Julian Assange?" (7/11/22) at https://candobetter.net/admin/blog/6495/how-much-longer-can-your-parliament-remain-silent-about-monstrous-treatment-julian

quark

Thu, 2022-11-03 13:46

The endless discussion of "identity" in the media , especially on the ABC and SBS has struck me for ages as white noise against the pressing problem of the plight of other species because of the pressures exerted by us, homo sapiens.  I am so happy that Geoffrey the Giraffes has spoken out. Time for Katherine the Kangaroo, Pauline Possum and Malcolm Magpie to be heard!

quark

Thu, 2022-11-03 10:25

Fences of death Thanks to your correspondent for their letter (28/10) highlighting the plight of kangaroos on the Mornington Peninsula. When I moved here a year ago, I was delighted to find kangaroos, koalas and echidnas so close to my home. Friends in the city told me how lucky I was. In a way they were right, but maybe not. This letter was in The Age 3 Nov 22 The future for these beautiful animals frightens me. I am saddened by the growing number of bodies on roadsides, by the lone kangaroo I saw hopping along a verge beside a busy road, unable to escape car headlights because a property owner had recently installed a wildlife exclusion fence. Cherie Wilson, Rosebud

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2022-10-11 17:29

COME TO CANBERRA NOVEMBER 22-24TH

IPAN People’s Inquiry Report to be released in Parliament House
CHARTING OUR OWN COURSE

What are the costs and consequences of Australia’s involvement in US-led wars and the US-Alliance? What are the alternatives?

IPAN NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Opening public meeting Tuesday 22nd November,6pm
Register: HERE 

Full day conference Wednesday 23rd November at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture
Register: HERE .
Program development underway- check website for details HERE 

Rally on the Parliament lawns Thursday 24th 10 am supporting the findings and recommendations of the Inquiry report and the movement for peace and demilitarisation.
Inquiry Report official release in Parliament House Thursday morning 24th November

We the People must grow our voice and power to prevent Australia yet again supporting wars from Korea to Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria and now the threat of nuclear war while the planet overheats, while health education and housing needs are not met with our dollars going to the profiteering war industries.

Some billeting will be available: for more information and updates:
https://ipan.org.au/ipan-national-conference-canberra-2

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2022-10-08 12:51

A delusionary trifecta In one Tory conference sound bite new UK Prime Minister Liz Truss combined the growth delusion with the trickle-down delusion and rounded it off with the tax delusion.  The delusionary trifecta starts with the pursuit of endless growth in producing stuff and services thus defying reality and logic. Then the delusion of trickle down economics and tax cuts ignores evidence and equity. Thus a combination of interests, ideology and ignorance has created a world of economics, politics and democracy as normal that consistently undermines human and social potential and risks global survival. Unfortunately the three delusions are not confined to the hyperbole of a conservative party conference. The mainstreams of liberalism and labourism are to varying degree unproductively influenced by the growth, trickle down and tax delusions. This year is the 60th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The book exposed the influence of inertia, interests and the irrational on scientific explanation and understanding. The normal science of Copernicus required a revolutionary overthrow just as the normal science of Hippocrates, Newton and a multitude of others required overthrowing and replacement. We need a Copernican revolution in the current normal worlds of economics, politics and democracy. Stewart Sweeney, Adelaide, SA

admin

Wed, 2022-10-05 17:14

The following is a re-tweet of Julian Assange's father John Shipton, and brother Gabriel Shipton, explaining how they have tried to make the Federal Labor Government act to free Julian Assange. My own comments concerning the bizarre refusal of Australia's Parliament to even allow motions in support of Julian Assange to be put, are included.

DavidZero

Sun, 2022-10-02 17:13

As a shareholder, why is AGL ignoring the huge cost difference between NSW and Victorian power stations (TheAustralian 30/9 & 1/10)?

NSW black thermal coal has a current export value of $400/t. Bayswater burns 8-million tons of coal a year, with feedstock costs of $3,200-million/yr.

In contrast, Loy Yang A burns brown coal/lignite that has no other uses or value, so its feedstock costs are zero. That was a giant advantage seen by Sir John Monash 100 years ago, and still true today.

Lignite is "wet" so yes, burning it emits lots of water vapour which is also a powerful greenhouse gas. Cloudy nights are warmer than clear sky nights.

Water vapour from lignite is "bad". Water vapour emitted from new cars and trucks burning hydrogen is "good". That's the etiquette in polite climate society, and within the brain-dead AGL board.

David Z Hughes

admin

Tue, 2022-09-27 00:18

Since 2011, the governments of Australia, the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and their allies, along with the their obedient newsmedia, supported the proxy terrorist war against the people of Syria. The people kiled in this war include Syrian Chistians who speak Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ. By one very outdated estimate, 400,000 Syrians have been killed in this war.

admin

Fri, 2022-09-23 15:26

Tonight, from 6pm outside Flinders Street Station, Melbourne supporters of Julian Assange will be meeting in front of Flinders Street Station with banners and leaflets. The two focuses of our protest tonight will be:
[1] Demanding that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese use his powers as the leader of this sovereign nation to (i) tell UK Prime Minister Liz Truss to end the UK's illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange and to facilitate his return to Australia and (ii) tell US President Joe Biden to cease the US government's illegal efforts to extradite Julian Assange and thence imprison him in solitary confinement for the rest of his life. Julian Assange, who is not even a US citizen, has been indicted for breaching the 1917 US Espionage Act, by supposedly endangering US National Security. If he is extradited to the US, he faces a trial, in secret, before a kangaroo court in the eastern district of Virginia. In the eastern district of Virginia, in which the 'trial' would be held, are the headquarters of many of those intelligence agencies. The Grand Jury, which would try Julian, is drawn from the inhabitants of this are who are largely employees of those agencies and their spouses.
and
[2] Demanding that the sitting of Parliament which has commenced today and which will procede over the comming week from Monday to Wednesday, as a matter of urgency, discuss the dire circumstances facing the most famous and most revered Australian anaywhere - Julian Assange. The sittings of both the House of Representives and the Senate have, so far, been taken up, almost in their entirety, to the eulogisation of the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II. No time appears to have been left to discussing other business deemed to be urgent. That business will have to wait until Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. The plight of Julian Assange, which should surely, by far, the most urgent matter confronting Australia has yet to be scheduled for any proper discussion.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2022-09-17 08:20

A better option
If we convert our suburbs and towns into high-density housing, as recommended by Brendan Coates (“Quarter-acre dream a ‘problem’”, The Age, 15/9), our gardens and trees will disappear under a sea of concrete unless more open space is created.

We need to adapt quickly to a warmer world to ameliorate the effects of climate change and reduce CO2 emissions. We need far more trees and green spaces to do this and retain and improve habitat for other species.

Stabilising our population, building smaller dwellings to retain open space and making better use of Australia’s current housing stock is a more sustainable option.
Jennie Epstein, Little River  (17 September 2022)

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2022-09-16 09:56

The letters in the Age, as for decades, make much more sense than the articles therein.

THE HOUSING MARKET

The problem is one of demand, not just supply
It is unsurprising that Brendan Coates of the Grattan Institute would tell people to effectively “suck it up” and accept higher-density buildings because the institute is a major spruiker of mass immigration (“Quarter-acre dream a ‘problem’”, The Age, 15/9).

Sure, we don’t have enough houses, prices are astronomical and renters live in fear, but let’s add an extra 200,000 people per year into the demand queue for housing.

Perhaps Coates should accept what the research by groups like the Australian Population Institute or your own commissioned survey by Resolve Strategic are saying and recognise that Aussies and their communities don’t want mass immigration restarted.

Lessening the demand side lowers prices, too.
Kieran Simpson, Blackburn North

The rest of us must accept higher-density living ...
Having a backyard for the children to play in, room for a vegie patch and some fruit trees, inviting friends over for a barbecue and a game of cricket and space from your neighbours was something that the average working person could aspire to.

We were the envy of the world and the Australian lifestyle was no doubt a major factor in the postwar immigration boom.

The quarter-acre dream in the cities is now an option only for the well-to-do. As noted by the Grattan Institute, the rest of us must accept higher-density living. This is the inevitable consequence of policies promoting a Big Australia.
Barry Lizmore, Ocean Grove

admin

Thu, 2022-09-15 22:26

The following comment is awaiting approval on Facebook:

To further promote Sunday's protest, I have printed another 300 leaflets (with 50 left over from previous efforts, I have 350) from the two PDF files https://candobetter.net/files/attendStateLibraryProtestForJulian_page1_12sep22.pdf and https://candobetter.net/files/attendStateLibraryProtestForJulian_page2_12sep22.pdf.

The content of the leaflet has been adapted to become the article "Make your Prime Minister act to free Julian Assange: Protest Victorian State Library, 12pm Sunday 18 September" (13/9/22) at https://www.candobetter.net/james-sinnamon/blog/6435/make-your-prime-minister-act-free-julian-assange-protest-victorian-state .

I have, so far, distributed 850 in the CBD - 380 on Sunday and 470 on Wednesday - very hard work. I plan to distribute as many as I can at our weekly Friday night vigil for Julian Assange outside Flinders Street Station - - and the rest in the CBD prior to Sunday's protest. Any help would be greatly appreciated. (Consider becoming my friend on Facebook so we can communicate.)

I believe this can help make the Sunday protest large enough to begin to make the difference that can make this Government finally act to end the illegal imprisonment of Julian Assange.

We must insist, on every possible occasion, including at Sunday's protest, that our Parliament debate Julian Assange, as one example Julian Hill's foreshadowed motion of 10 June 2021. In particular, we must tell our elected representatives that we expect them as a matter of urgency to put Julian Hill's motion (or a motion adapted from it) to the next 4 day session of Parliament commencing on Friday 23 September.

With 30 members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group they should surely be able to find a way to overcome the procedural rules that have so far prevented any motion for Julian Assange being put to Parliament. Why can't they issue a press release or call a press conference over this?

That Australia's Parliament will not even discuss Julian Assange should be a major international scandal. As, just one example, I am sure that if those two outspoken supporters of Julian Assange, Irish MEPs Clare Daly (@ClareDalyMEP) and Mick Wallace (@WallaceMick) were made aware of this, they would probably hit the roof.

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2022-09-12 14:30

"Talking freedom:"

A talk by Dr John Wilson, BDS (Sydney), author of
“Jackals of Slavery and how to defeat them” at the Club Parramatta,

Cnr Macquarie & O’Connell Streets

PARRAMATTA NSW 2150.

Monday, 26 th September, 2022, 7:30 PM.

Donations very welcome.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COMMONWEALTH:

This land is our land. We the People, who call Australia home, are a sovereign,
independent and self-governing nation from Broome to Brisbane and from
Darwin to Tasmania. This is our country and our culture of equality and
friendship. We will not be slaves again. Awaken your best. So help me God.

admin

Sun, 2022-09-11 09:07

See Update of 10 September. With your help we can draw large numbers to next Sunday's protest for Julian Assange from 12PM outside the Victorian State Library at 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne. If you want to help, please download the attached PDF file and print out copies and then distribute them. One place these leaflets can be printed is at OfficeWorks. If you print the leaflets yourself and not ask for them to be printed for you by Officeworks staff, the cost will be 8 cents per leaflet plus a small additional charge for guillotining the printed bundle of A4-sized pages into two bundles of double-sided A5 leaflets, typically $2 for a small bundle and $5 for a larger bundle. So you can expect to pay between $18 and $21 to print out 400 leaflets.

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2022-09-09 08:32

(Reply to 'Similar values expressed on Foreign Correspondent.') But it will drive up the cost of water and food! There is profit in that. And it might make the tourists more interested in coastal land marks in California, to the benefit of hotdog stands and art galleries in that area.  The market always provides silver linings for survivors.

James Sinnamon

Sun, 2022-09-04 00:23

From Wikipedia :

ADX Florence was commissioned when the Federal Bureau of Prisons needed a unit designed specifically for the secure housing of those prisoners most capable of extreme, sustained violence toward staff or other inmates.

admin

Wed, 2022-08-24 23:11

I posted the following beneath a post on the Canberra For Assange Facebook page entitled Canberra for Assange closing on Facebook - send your email.
Did I read this right? Is "Canberra for Assange" shutting down its Facebook page just when there seems every chance of finally raising this for discussion in our Federal Parliament? My local MP Peta Murphy told me on Tuesday night that Julian Assange, will be debated (as it should have been long before now) in the Session Starting 5 September. Prior to that I had handed out copies of my double-sided A4 leaflet "What sort of Parliament refuses to discuss the plight of this most famous Australian?" (https://candobetter.net/files/leafletForJulianReParliament_24aug22.pdf adapted to become https://candobetter.net/files/leafletForJulianReParliament_24aug22.pdf)

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2022-08-18 05:09

RadioTNT interview Tony Wakeham: https://tntradiolive.podbean.com/e/tony-wakeham-josephine-cashman-on-the-mike-ryan-show-15-august-2022/

Starts at about 5min 25sec and goes to 26min 45sec  Gives publicity to Sydney activists' schedule of weekly gatherings -  11 am Wednesdays outside the US Consulate, 52 Miller St North Sydney, and 11 am Thursdays outside Anthony Albanese's electoral office in Marrickville. Fridays 4pm-6pm Sydney Town Hall.  Talks about how Julian's legal team have gone on the offensive, to sue Pompeo and US Global. Mentions how Albanese's staff are actually rude to the protesters, whereas in other venues tendency to be 'sickly sweet.'  "We know we are on the right track when they try to scare us off."  "It would appear to be that Albo was lying."

https://tntradiolive.podbean.com/e/tony-wakeham-josephine-cashman-on-the-mike-ryan-show-15-august-2022/

Sheila Newman

Wed, 2022-08-17 18:43

Julian Assange United Anthony Albanese Gathering #17 We will be there EVERY THURSDAY at Albo's Electoral Office at 334A Marrickville Road, Marrickville. In the morning of the 18 August, 2022 We will be there from 11am to 12.30pm. Raising awareness with All, of the outrageous treatment of an innocent Australian. Reminding Albo & Staffers there that 88% of Australians do NOT support the US mistreatment of Julian Assange & "Enough" was always TOO Much! Please come along and express your feelings and help raise awareness of this critical issue of Julian's health and Freedom of Speech.

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2022-08-16 21:32

Julian Assange United States Consulate Gathering #4

We will be there EVERY WEDNESDAY at the US Consulate, 50 Miller Street, North Sydney.

In the morning of the 17 August, 2022 We will be there from 11am to 1pm.

Raising awareness with All, of the outrageous treatment of an innocent Australian.

Reminding the US Delegation there that 88% of Australians do NOT support the United States of America mistreatment of Julian Assange.

Please come along and express your feelings and help raise awareness of this critical issue of Julian's health and Freedom of Speech.

(Tony Wakeham)

admin

Fri, 2022-08-12 01:16

I posted the comment below beneath Australian Labor Party and Assange: Burying the Politics (8/8/22) by Kellie Tranter | . It is awaiting moderation.

If, instead of 'quiet diplomacy' that Julian Hill also seems to be advocating in his 23 minute interview by Cathy Vogan which is embedded above, the Australian Government were to adopt the language and style of Mexican President Lopez Obrador, I think Julian Assange would be free much sooner. In June this year, President Obrador said that Asange is the "best journalist of our time, in the world. He added , "Mexico opens its doors to Assange." On 4 July he said, "If they take him to the United States and he is sentenced to the maximum penalty and to die in prison, we must start a campaign to tear down the Statue of Liberty."

In that interview, Julian Hill seems, unfortunately, to have forgotten his own foreshadowed motion of 10 June 2021 in support of Julian Assange. That foreshadowed motion was disallowed by the shadowy Parliamentary Selection Committee. Here it is:

that this House

(1) notes that:

(a) the trial and extradition of Mr Julian Assange are inconsistent with international law, and Australian legal standards, and contravene the legal rights and protections for which those laws and standards provide;

(b) the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has found that Mr Assange 'showed all symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture, including extreme stress, chronic anxiety and intense psychological trauma';

(c) several medical reports find that Mr Assange is in ill-health due to prolonged arbitrary confinement, and indeed the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that the 50-week sentence of Mr Assange for bail violation, which formally ended on 21 September 2019, was punitive and disproportionate given the nature of the offence and the usual sentence;

(d) Mr Assange is facing extradition for an alleged political offence, which is expressly prohibited by Article 4(1) of the Anglo-US Extradition Treaty and an abuse of power; and

(e) Mr Assange is an Australian citizen and, if convicted in the US, faces 175 years in prison, which would be in effect a death sentence;

(2) acknowledges that Mr Assange is a publisher and journalist, as recognised by his 2011 Walkley award and 17 other awards for excellence in journalism and promoting human rights, and that his charges:

(a) are a direct assault on press freedom; and

(b) threaten the protection of others who publish classified information in the public interest; and

(3) calls for Mr Assange to be allowed to return to Australia.

The above foreshadowed motion is included within my article "Julian Hill MP to put crucial Motion for Julian Assange to the Australian Parliament this coming Monday 21 June - how you can help" (16/6/2021) at https://candobetter.net/admin/blog/6134/julian-hill-mp-put-crucial-motion-julian-assange-australian-parliament-coming-monday

I would have thought if the then Liberal/National Government were confident that they could justify, before Parliament, their seeming failure to end the UK's illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange, then they would not have been at all hesitant to allow Julian Hill's motion to be put.

The fact that this Parliamentary Selection Committee, which is controlled by both the Government and Opposition parties, disallowed Julian Hill's motion indicates to me that the government understood that, even if they succeeded in using their numbers to vote it down , their arguments would not be seen by the broader public to have withstood challenges from members of the Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group. For its part, the then Opposition, which is now the Labor Government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, was just as fearful of a debate on Julian Hill's foreshadowed motion. I expect that they are no less fearful today.

The open-and-shut case for Julian Assange would have been put before the Australian public. The course of the debate would most likely also have shown that the Australian government could have, at any time since June 2012, to used its power as a sovereign national government to make the UK government end its illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange.

Those members who would have decided to vote against Julian Hill's motion or abstain from Julian Hill's motion could then be held to account for this by their electors at the next election if not sooner.

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