Australia + New Zealand | The Antipodes

[Typhoon]

im glad i got the cowboy period of the internet and started near the start with a 14,400 dial up modem

once it turns into as sterile and controlled an oligopoly as the rest of our media ill happily avoid it like i do the rest.

Agreed.

[Typhoon]

BBC | Kevin Rudd ousts Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard

He won by 57 votes to 45, in a leadership ballot of Labor lawmakers.

The change comes ahead of a general election due in September, which polls suggest Labor is set to lose.

Signs of desperation?

[noddy]

BBC | Kevin Rudd ousts Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard

He won by 57 votes to 45, in a leadership ballot of Labor lawmakers.

The change comes ahead of a general election due in September, which polls suggest Labor is set to lose.

Signs of desperation?

you have no idea how pathetic our politics is right now - the one thing uniting our country both left and right is the morbid reality of our choices and a lack of will to choose either..

the labour party is a freakshow and the liberal party is the worst kind of populist - the type with a broken radar and clueless about what they should be populist about... more romney than romney was.

[Typhoon]

BBC | Kevin Rudd ousts Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard

He won by 57 votes to 45, in a leadership ballot of Labor lawmakers.

The change comes ahead of a general election due in September, which polls suggest Labor is set to lose.

Signs of desperation?

you have no idea how pathetic our politics is right now - the one thing uniting our country both left and right is the morbid reality of our choices and a lack of will to choose either..

the labour party is a freakshow and the liberal party is the worst kind of populist - the type with a broken radar and clueless about what they should be populist about... more romney than romney was.

Well, if this blogger, Ozboy, is accurate in his summary of Aussie politics,

then Rudd sounds like a complete disaster.

Don't know much about the opposition position.

[noddy]

rudd is a particularly nasty little megalomaniac, no doubting that - messiah complex oozing out of every orifice and if by some miracle of insanity he actually won the next election i would struggle not to rant about leaving the country.

however - with the world economy the way it is and our prosperity linked to exporting goodies to china so it can make disposable crap for the eu/usa its probably not going to be pretty no matter who is in charge... like much of the world right now the cliche seems to be "its a good election to lose"

[Typhoon]

rudd is a particularly nasty little megalomaniac, no doubting that - messiah complex oozing out of every orifice and if by some miracle of insanity he actually won the next election i would struggle not to rant about leaving the country.

however - with the world economy the way it is and our prosperity linked to exporting goodies to china so it can make disposable crap for the eu/usa its probably not going to be pretty no matter who is in charge... like much of the world right now the cliche seems to be "its a good election to lose"

Election time Down Under.

BBC | Australian PM Kevin Rudd calls election for 7 September

What are the odds of PM Rudd and his party winning a majority.

Or is this an election they want to lose . . . ?

[Azrael]

I think that Rudd wants to lose; but have it close enough that he keeps control of the party and Lib/Nat has to govern with an unstable minority government.

[Typhoon]

A bit of Aussie election comic relief

An odd choice of issues for the now former candidate considering all the challenges facing Australia . . . no?

[Typhoon]

Australia election: Tony Abbott [Liberal] defeats Kevin Rudd [Labour Coalition]

Australia's opposition has crushed the governing Labor party in a general election that has returned the Liberal-National coalition to power for the first time in six years.

The coalition was on course to win 88 seats, compared with 57 for Labor.

[monster_gardener]

Australia election: Tony Abbott [Liberal] defeats Kevin Rudd [Labour Coalition]

Australia's opposition has crushed the governing Labor party in a general election that has returned the Liberal-National coalition to power for the first time in six years.

The coalition was on course to win 88 seats, compared with 57 for Labor.

Thank You VERY MUCH for your post, Typhoon.

The photo of Ozzies & Harriets voting in beach wear in Oz brought a smile.........

Wondering what Adventures Oz will have now that Rudd is a dud

[Typhoon]

FT | Australia risks isolation among G20 by scrapping carbon tax

Looks like the Aussie MSM is going all out to scare the public silly about climate change, so-called, given PM Abbot's determination to put the public trough on a diet.

Climate change set to triple drought, bushfires and floods in Australia

Always in the future tense, never the present.

[noddy]

its a good thing to give the vain chattering classes something to whine about, an ivory tower for them to climb and self fellate from.

tony abbott is doing a vital service to the country, if they are not whipping themselves into a frenzy over climate change taxes they might be doing some real mischief elsewhere.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Australians seem very passionate and uncompromising about their favored political issues.

[noddy]

most australians are not very political at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_worries

[Typhoon]

its a good thing to give the vain chattering classes something to whine about, an ivory tower for them to climb and self fellate from.

tony abbott is doing a vital service to the country, if they are not whipping themselves into a frenzy over climate change taxes they might be doing some real mischief elsewhere.

Looks like the "climate change tax" is history . . .

WSJ | Australia's Carbon Tax Message

An elected politician who did what he promised to do . . . I'm shocked, shocked.

[noddy]

abbot is proving to be the symbol of horror for the wet lefties, like a twisted stepson of bush and palin.

[Simple Minded]

its a good thing to give the vain chattering classes something to whine about, an ivory tower for them to climb and self fellate from.

tony abbott is doing a vital service to the country, if they are not whipping themselves into a frenzy over climate change taxes they might be doing some real mischief elsewhere.

Looks like the "climate change tax" is history . . .

WSJ | Australia's Carbon Tax Message

An elected politician who did what he promised to do . . . I'm shocked, shocked.

from the referenced article: "The climate dogmatists denounce anyone who disagrees as "deniers" or worse, but Australia's vote shows that the real obstacle to their dreams of controlling more of the world's economy is democratic consent."

Until we outlaw democracy AND science.... AGW is going to be impossible to ...... "solve!"

KUDOS to the Stralians!!!!

[Typhoon]

its a good thing to give the vain chattering classes something to whine about, an ivory tower for them to climb and self fellate from.

tony abbott is doing a vital service to the country, if they are not whipping themselves into a frenzy over climate change taxes they might be doing some real mischief elsewhere.

Looks like the "climate change tax" is history . . .

WSJ | Australia's Carbon Tax Message

An elected politician who did what he promised to do . . . I'm shocked, shocked.

from the referenced article: "The climate dogmatists denounce anyone who disagrees as "deniers" or worse, but Australia's vote shows that the real obstacle to their dreams of controlling more of the world's economy is democratic consent."

Until we outlaw democracy AND science.... AGW is going to be impossible to ...... "solve!"

KUDOS to the Stralians!!!!

Misanthropist doom porn peddlers such as Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren have been proposing, now for decades, the suspension of democracy in order to "save the planet".

However, the underwear gnome aspect of their proposal is that the planet is actually in such dire actual need of saving.

[monster_gardener]

Thank You VERY MUCH for Maintaining the Forum, Admins Typhoon & YMix,

Hat tip to Apollonius for breaking the original story and an update that Sonia Sharp had moved Down Under...
Wondering if Oz hiring Sonia was a blunder
Maybe not a Sharp thing to do....

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2994

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2994#p78557

Rotherham child abuse scandal: Ex-children's head 'must quit'

Sonia Sharp now runs education services in the Australian state of Victoria

A former Rotherham children's services director is facing calls to resign from her current job in Australia over the town's child abuse scandal.

Sonia Sharp led Rotherham's children's department from 2005-2008 and now runs education services in Victoria.

At least 1,400 children were sexually exploited, mainly by men of Pakistani heritage, between 1997 and 2013.

Abuse survivors advocate Andrew Collins said she should resign from her current role "immediately".

Mr Collins told the BBC Ms Sharp's position in Australia was now "inappropriate".

Ms Sharp has apologised and said she wished she had been able to do more to prevent abuse.

Earlier this week she was backed by her boss at Victoria's department of education, Richard Bolt, who said: "I have no doubt that Sonia tackled the issue of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham with maximum commitment, professionalism and focus."

However, a care worker has described in detail how abusers would "brazenly" take girls as young as 11 from their children's home.

The care worker told the BBC men would arrive almost "every night" despite staff's efforts to protect the girls and the regular reporting of events at the home to police and care services.
'Evidence of failures'

Ms Sharp's successor Joyce Thacker remains strategic director of children and young people's services in Rotherham.

The council's chief executive Martin Kimber said Ms Thacker was "part of the solution in achieving better services" and should not resign.

Both Ms Sharp and Ms Thacker were interviewed by the inquiry team as part of its work for Professor Alexis Jay, who on Tuesday published a report that said at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited from 1997-2013.

In response to the findings, the government said inspections of children's services in Rotherham would be carried out early.
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Emma, not her real name: 'Police lost my evidence'

Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, has written to the chief executive of East Riding of Yorkshire Council asking what steps it is taking to investigate another former Rotherham care boss.

Pam Allen served as director of safeguarding at Rotherham Council from 2004 until 2009, and now holds a similar position at East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool, has said he is to discuss the Rotherham report with Ged Fitzgerald who is Liverpool's City Council's chief executive.

Mr Fitzgerald was chief executive of Rotherham Council from 2001-2003.

The mayor said he will be "seeking further clarification" about Mr Fitzgerald's role in Rotherham.

Mark Rogers, the president of the society of local authority chief executives, said Rotherham council had acted correctly in notifying places where former Rotherham staff had moved.

South Yorkshire Police was also criticised in the report and Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) deputy chairwoman Rachel Cerfontyn said it raised "serious concerns" about the actions of the force.

As a result, the IPCC has told the force it should be informed of all "evidence of failures" in the way the force acted.

On Thursday Tracey Cheetham, deputy police and crime commissioner for South Yorkshire, resigned and backed David Cameron in calling for her boss Shaun Wright to step down.

Mr Wright resigned from the Labour Party on Thursday but has refused to quit his position as police and crime commissioner (PCC), despite also being urged to by Nick Clegg and Labour.
More on This Story
Rotherham abuse
Background and analysis

Victim 'raped once a week'
Who can abuse victims turn to?
Who was in charge in Rotherham?
History of a child abuse scandal
Easton: When we look, we find
Community's 'shock and disgust'
Abuse report: At a glance
Early inspections over scandal

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28977821

Victorian Government defends senior official Sonia Sharp over link to Rotherham sexual abuse scandal in UK
AM
By Nick Grimm and staff

Updated Sun at 9:52amSun 31 Aug 2014, 9:52am
Related Story: UK girls threatened with rape, guns claim damages
Map: VIC

The Victorian Government is standing by the appointment of a senior state education official who has been linked to a shocking child abuse scandal in northern England.

An independent report released this week blamed police and local authorities in Rotherham for failing to prevent the sexual exploitation of at least 1,400 children over a 16-year period between 1997 and 2013.

The report outlined rape, trafficking and severe mental and physical abuse involving children as young as 11, and included cases of children being made to witness violent rapes, and others being doused with petrol and threatened with being set alight.

It has led to calls for the resignation of the deputy secretary of Victoria's Education Department, Dr Sonia Sharp, who was a director of children's services in the Northern England town between 2005 and 2008.

The department maintains she is an outstanding leader and said her experience in England has helped strengthen Victoria's system.
Audio: Listen to Nick Grimm's report (AM)

Victorian Health Minister David Davis said the normal processes were followed when she was hired, but he would not say if she should stay in the position.

"I think that's a matter for ministers, but my point here is that I'm informed that the recruitment process has operated in the normal way, the recruitment process was a straight-forward, normal recruitment process," he said.

But Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said the Government had questions to answer about the appointment of Dr Sharp.

"I think it absolutely raises questions about the recruitment policies, it raises questions about ongoing arrangements at the highest levels in the education department under the Liberal Government," Mr Andrews said.

"This is not some junior bureaucrat, this is a senior, perhaps almost the most senior person... that is charged with the welfare and protection, the nourishment, the advancement, the education of our kids, there's answers that need to be provided to this and the Premier and the Minister are the ones to provide them.
'We feared this was the tip of an iceberg'

Dr Sharp, who is also a committee member of Australia's National Centre Against Bullying, said she did what she could to improve the situation in the city.

"As soon as I commenced in April 2005 as Rotherham's first director of children's services, I was briefed by politicians, senior managers and frontline staff about the issue of sexual exploitation of young people," Dr Sharp said in a statement.

"We knew that there were many children in the community at risk and feared this was the tip of an iceberg.

"There was a lot to do: shifting attitudes, raising the quality of services for these vulnerable children, improving early identification and strategies for prevention and, importantly, getting agencies to work together to achieve convictions."

But she said she did take some responsibility for what happened in Rotherham.

"You can't be the director of children's services and not take responsibility for what happens to children," she said.

"I regret every case of exploitation of vulnerable girls that was not prevented, but feel strongly that our collective efforts led to gradual but essential improvements in the situation for many young people."
Sonia Sharp 'an outstanding leader': Education Department

The Victorian Education Department maintained Dr Sharp was an "outstanding leader".

The department secretary, Richard Bolt, said the report into Rotherham contained important changes made by Dr Sharp that led to systematic improvement in the UK.

"I have no doubt that Sonia tackled the issue of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham with maximum commitment, professionalism and focus," Mr Bolt said in a statement.

"In the report there are numerous references to important changes made under Sonia's management that led to sustained and systemic improvement.

"There is considerable evidence not included in the report which reinforces my view."

He said Ms Sharp had shared the lessons from Rotherham with the department since she began in 2012 and the experience had helped her strengthen the Victorian system.

"Her experience and advocacy has been critical in strengthening my department’s focus on educating and developing Victoria's vulnerable children," he said.

A spokesperson for the National Centre Against Bullying also stood by Dr Sharp.

"Sonia Sharp is a representative of the Victorian Education Department on the National Centre Against Bullying. The Department have been long term supporters of the initiative," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"Sonia is known internationally for her work on tackling bullying in schools and was invited to share this knowledge with the National Centre Against Bullying."

Link to Report at Link:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-30/v ... am/5707698

[monster_gardener]

Thank You VERY Much for maintaining the forum, Admins Typhoon & YMix

Australian PM says police raids follow IS linked beheading plot

By Matt Siegel

SYDNEY Thu Sep 18, 2014 10:25am EDT

Australian officials carry out sweeping counter-terrorism raids (01:28)
Video

(Reuters) - Militants connected with radical group Islamic State were planning to behead a member of the public in Australia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Thursday, after hundreds of police raided homes in a sweeping counter-terrorism operation.

Abbott said there was a "serious risk from a terrorist attack" days after Australia raised its national terror threat level to "high" for the first time, citing the likelihood of attacks by Australians radicalized in Iraq or Syria.

Australia is concerned over the number of its citizens believed to be fighting overseas with militant groups, including a suicide bomber who killed three people in Baghdad in July and two men shown in images on social media holding the severed heads of Syrian soldiers.



More than 800 police were involved in the pre-dawn security operation in Sydney and Brisbane, which was described as the largest in Australian history and resulted in the detention of 15 people, police said.

Abbott told a news conference that members of the radical group had planned to conduct a public beheading.

"That's the intelligence we received," he said.

Media reported that the plans included snatching a person at random in Sydney, Australia's largest city, and executing them on camera draped in the group's black flag.

"The exhortations, quite direct exhortations, were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country," Abbott said, referring to the group otherwise known as Islamic State that has seized large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq.

Sydney man Omarjan Azari, 22, appeared in court after the raids. He has been charged with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and will remain in custody until a hearing in November, authorities said.

Prosecutor Michael Allnutt told the court in Sydney that an attack was being planned that "was clearly designed to shock and horrify, perhaps terrify" the community, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Azari's lawyer, Steven Boland, did not apply for bail. Boland told the court the allegation was based on one phone call, according to media reports. Boland was not available for comment......

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/ ... FJ20140918

[Heracleum Persicum]

.

“ Regrettably for some time to come, the delicate balance between freedom and security may have to shift ”

.

Consider the balanced shifted. Since those remarks, Australia has endowed its nation’s intelligence agencies with their most significant expansion of powers in 35 years, legalized the surveillance of the entire Australian Internet with one warrant, threatened whistle blowers and journalists with 10-year prison terms if they publicize classified information, and is mulling a new law that makes it easier to detain Australians without charge and subject them to “coercive questioning.”

.

.

[Endovelico]

Whitlam and Australia's forgotten coup
By John Pilger

John Pilger marks the death of former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam with the one story missing from the 'tributes' to a man whose extraordinary political demise is one of America's dirtiest secrets.

Across the political and media elite in Australia, a silence has descended on the memory of the great, reforming prime minister Gough Whitlam, who has died. His achievements are recognised, if grudgingly, his mistakes noted in false sorrow. But a critical reason for his extraordinary political demise will, they hope, be buried with him.

Australia briefly became an independent state during the Whitlam years, 1972-75. An American commentator wrote that no country had “reversed its posture in international affairs so totally without going through a domestic revolution”. Whitlam ended his nation’s colonial servility. He abolished Royal patronage, moved Australia towards the Non-Aligned Movement, supported “zones of peace” and opposed nuclear weapons testing.

Although not regarded as on the left of the Labor Party, Whitlam was a maverick social democrat of principle, pride and propriety. He believed that a foreign power should not control his country's resources and dictate its economic and foreign policies. He proposed to "buy back the farm". In drafting the first Aboriginal lands rights legislation, his government raised the ghost of the greatest land grab in human history, Britain’s colonisation of Australia, and the question of who owned the island-continent’s vast natural wealth.

Latin Americans will recognise the audacity and danger of this “breaking free” in a country whose establishment was welded to great, external power. Australians had served every British imperial adventure since the Boxer rebellion was crushed in China. In the 1960s, Australia pleaded to join the US in its invasion of Vietnam, then provided “black teams” to be run by the CIA. US diplomatic cables published last year by WikiLeaks disclose the names of leading figures in both main parties, including a future prime minister and foreign minister, as Washington’s informants during the Whitlam years.

Whitlam knew the risk he was taking. The day after his election, he ordered that his staff should not be "vetted or harassed" by the Australian security organisation, ASIO - then, as now, tied to Anglo-American intelligence. When his ministers publicly condemned the US bombing of Vietnam as "corrupt and barbaric", a CIA station officer in Saigon said: "We were told the Australians might as well be regarded as North Vietnamese collaborators."

Whitlam demanded to know if and why the CIA was running a spy base at Pine Gap near Alice Springs, a giant vacuum cleaner which, as Edward Snowden revealed recently, allows the US to spy on everyone. "Try to screw us or bounce us," the prime minister warned the US ambassador, "[and Pine Gap] will become a matter of contention".

Victor Marchetti, the CIA officer who had helped set up Pine Gap, later told me, "This threat to close Pine Gap caused apoplexy in the White House. ... a kind of Chile [coup] was set in motion."

Pine Gap's top-secret messages were de-coded by a CIA contractor, TRW. One of the de-coders was Christopher Boyce, a young man troubled by the "deception and betrayal of an ally". Boyce revealed that the CIA had infiltrated the Australian political and trade union elite and referred to the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, as "our man Kerr".

Kerr was not only the Queen’s man, he had long-standing ties to Anglo-American intelligence. He was an enthusiastic member of the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom, described by Jonathan Kwitny of the Wall Street Journal in his book, 'The Crimes of Patriots', as, "an elite, invitation-only group... exposed in Congress as being founded, funded and generally run by the CIA". The CIA "paid for Kerr's travel, built his prestige... Kerr continued to go to the CIA for money".

When Whitlam was re-elected for a second term, in 1974, the White House sent Marshall Green to Canberra as ambassador. Green was an imperious, sinister figure who worked in the shadows of America's "deep state". Known as the "coupmaster", he had played a central role in the 1965 coup against President Sukarno in Indonesia - which cost up to a million lives. One of his first speeches in Australia was to the Australian Institute of Directors - described by an alarmed member of the audience as "an incitement to the country's business leaders to rise against the government".

The Americans and British worked together. In 1975, Whitlam discovered that Britain's MI6 was operating against his government. "The Brits were actually de-coding secret messages coming into my foreign affairs office," he said later. One of his ministers, Clyde Cameron, told me, "We knew MI6 was bugging Cabinet meetings for the Americans." In the 1980s, senior CIA officers revealed that the "Whitlam problem" had been discussed "with urgency" by the CIA's director, William Colby, and the head of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield. A deputy director of the CIA said: "Kerr did what he was told to do."

On 10 November, 1975, Whitlam was shown a top secret telex message sourced to Theodore Shackley, the notorious head of the CIA's East Asia Division, who had helped run the coup against Salvador Allende in Chile two years earlier.

Shackley's message was read to Whitlam. It said that the prime minister of Australia was a security risk in his own country. The day before, Kerr had visited the headquarters of the Defence Signals Directorate, Australia's NSA where he was briefed on the "security crisis".

On 11 November - the day Whitlam was to inform Parliament about the secret CIA presence in Australia - he was summoned by Kerr. Invoking archaic vice-regal "reserve powers", Kerr sacked the democratically elected prime minister. The “Whitlam problem” was solved, and Australian politics never recovered, nor the nation its true independence.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-01-231014.html

The Empire - and its usual British friends - at its best...

[noddy]

pilger is a pillock who specialises in selective memory and twisting reality to suit his agenda.

he is conveniently forgetting the fact that whitlam was a disaster of over promised, under delivered who had next to no support locally so while their may or may not be truths in some of his conspiracy (their always is!) the real truth is that those evil anglos could only remove a politician that the local population wanted removed and the fact they may have wanted to remove him is a secondary issue.

if whitlam had the local support then they could have not done this, end of story.

australia is part of the commonwealth, the governer general is a representative of the british monarchy, this is not a coup, this is the legal structure of our political system.

[noddy]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-27/m ... se/5843762

A group of men wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit, a motorbike helmet and a Muslim niqab have tried to enter Parliament House in Canberra to argue in favour of a nationwide ban on the burka.

They were met by a security official outside the building, who advised the men that the helmet and the KKK hat were not allowed inside.

He told the protester wearing the niqab that his face would have to be revealed during the normal security screening process.

The media was unable to witness the security process, but all three men emerged without their head coverings.

"It seems that you're allowed to wear a full-faced covering into Parliament if you're a Muslim woman, but no other group is allowed to have that same privilege," Sergio Redegalli told reporters.

[Simple Minded]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-27/m ... se/5843762

A group of men wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit, a motorbike helmet and a Muslim niqab have tried to enter Parliament House in Canberra to argue in favour of a nationwide ban on the burka.

They were met by a security official outside the building, who advised the men that the helmet and the KKK hat were not allowed inside.

He told the protester wearing the niqab that his face would have to be revealed during the normal security screening process.

The media was unable to witness the security process, but all three men emerged without their head coverings.

"It seems that you're allowed to wear a full-faced covering into Parliament if you're a Muslim woman, but no other group is allowed to have that same privilege," Sergio Redegalli told reporters.

My hat is off to these three "men." no pun intended.

Merika is waging a war on women. Straylia is waging a war on men. Shirley a compromise could be reached..... how bout no one can ever show their faces in public?