It was not for everybody, but the shock advertising tactics of the Australian comedian Dan Ilic made an appropriate point. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a famed coal hugger, has vacillated about whether to even go to the climate conference in Glasgow. Having himself turned the country’s prime ministerial office into an extended advertising agency,…
Watching Barnaby Joyce being interviewed by Lee Sales on 7.30 last Tuesday was like an over the hill comedian in the final throes of his decline. He couldn’t get through a line without fluffing it. In doing so, he refused to answer any questions at all to the point where one wondered what on earth…
So far as I can see, most of those who claim to be ‘Christian’ are actually adhering to a cult. I grew up in a Christian (Presbyterian) household, I studied the Old and New Testaments at a C of E school, (as well as Comparative Religion) and am now sufficiently uncertain as to the existence…
It was such a noble public health dream, even if rather hazy to begin with. Run down SARS-CoV-2. Suppress it. Crush it. Or just “flatten the curve,” which could have meant versions of all the above. This created a climate of numerical sensitivity: a few case infections here, a few cases there, would warrant immediate,…
“Great news… The Coalition are about to announce a commitment to net zero.” “Really? How did that happen?” “Well, ScoMo has been pushing for net zero for years…” “Morrison? Didn’t he take a lump of coal into parliament?” “Yeah, he told people not to be afraid about getting rid of coal.” “I don’t think it’s…
By Amanda Smith The Cashless Debit Card is the latest iteration of a policy called “compulsory income management” (CIM) in Australia. Compulsory income management – meaning government and corporate control over all or portions of people’s social security entitlement payments, is an idea that had its roots as far back as 1982 in government,…
Morning listening on October 13. Australia’s Radio National. Members of the Morrison government are doing their interview rounds with the host, Fran Kelly. We enter a time warp, speeding away into another dimension where planet Earth, and Australia, look different. The first interview, with Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, is filled with the sort of rejigged…
Definition of echo chamber : a room with sound-reflecting walls used for producing hollow or echoing sound effects — often used figuratively Now, I could be nasty here… However, I’m used to putting up with teenagers who are sometimes rather nasty to teachers and I’ve learned that fighting fire with fire just leads to a…
The returns have not been impressive. For an app essentially anointed as a saviour for tracing purposes in the worst pandemic in a century, COVIDSafe is a lesson in exaggerated prowess and diminished performance. It was billed as necessitous and supremely useful. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was fashionably vulgar in linking the use of…
According to AIMN readers and many Facebook political pages, covid19 hardly rated a mention in my survey. I asked many Facebook political groups of a leftish standing together with readers of The AIMN the following question: If an election campaign was starting tomorrow, what would be your top 10 points of debate? The absence of…