Tagged: scott morrison

Abbott’s First 100 Days and the reality-based community | Sunday 15 December 2013

the first 100 daysThe actual document is here if you are interested in reading it.

It’s in keeping with Abbott’s campaign for the election – create a “business-lite” prospectus for government, and then pump out reports that confirm you’ve done what you said you would do, regardless of whether the facts match up.

It’s like having a consulting firm for a government; you know they can claim that they’ve done what you paid them to, because their interpretation of the facts will always show that they have.

“That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

– Karl Rove (allegedly)

 

Friday 10 August 2012

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This is Australia. Today.

In addition to the frontpage, “This is Australia. Today.” also has a short summary of articles worth reading on key issues from the news of the day. It’s a small curated collection, worth reading with a drink.

In fact, I’m drinking Jacob’s Creek Reserve 2009 Shiraz as I write this. What are you drinking?

Asylum Seekers – Stopping boats from stopping boats

The asylum seeker issue hit new lows today, with the big issue apparently being cracks in the hulls of naval vessels, not loss of life:

Mr Clare said the navy’s patrol boats vessels were working harder than they otherwise would be, due to surging asylum-seeker arrivals.

“They wouldn’t have to work as hard if politicians would just work together,” Mr Clare said, suggesting the Coalition should back the government’s plan to stop asylum boats. (From this Australian article)

I guess when you can’t convince either side of politics on the merits of ethics, appeals to the military budget could help. The Coalition, of course, blames the government for not “stopping the boats” – and therefor stopping the boats that are stopping the boats. To quote Scott Morrison, “The people-smugglers are now stopping our boats rather than the other way around, which is what the Coalition’s policies would be designed to do if given the opportunity to implement them” (yes, he actually said that).

Hey, if Scott Morrison’s having fun with absurd word games, at least someone’s having a good day, right? I don’t think satire is really necessary here any more.

Meanwhile a Sudanese woman who arrived in Australia as refugee just won the right to be her actual age. Yay for Australian immigration!

Sikh Temple Shooting

This article by Suvendrini Perera on the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconson asks the tough questions around the difference in coverage between this mass murder and the widespread response to the Dark Knight Rises shootings in Aurora.

There’s a lot to the argument that there’s a degree of racism to the lack of coverage (or a lack of understanding) but I also think that sadly the Sikh massacre doesn’t have as interesting a “narrative” as the Aurora shooting does. The Sikh temple massacre probably also says more about the state of American (and possibly western culture in general) fear of Islam (and those who look Islamic) than is comfortable to digest in an everyday news package.

A guy who thinks he’s the joker who builds intricate traps in his apartment to stop police from investigating him? That’s an easy story. It’s like a Jeffrey Deaver novel without a journo even having to extrapolate.

Chris Berg wrote a great piece on the Drum about the Aurora/Dark Knight Rising shooting and the quest for a narrative which is well worth a read.

The Robert Hughes arrest

The coverage of the arrest of former Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes has thankfully been rather sedate. While it’s clearly the result of exhaustive interviews and research, it’s important to remember that Hughes is still currently only allegedly a paedophile.

I’m going to tread carefully here, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s going to be near impossible for Hughes to have a fair trial in Australia given the Woman’s Day and A Current Affair coverage of the issue initially.

Obviously this press coverage led to the investigations that ended with Hughes’ arrest today, and if the allegations are true, it’s good that after all this time victims may get some justice. But it’s hard to see how anyone could not think Robert Hughes is a paedophile after the press saturation on the issue – which is a problem for a trial. And a bigger problem if the allegations are not true.

But you’re never going to win friends suggesting that the pitchforks and flaming torches should be kept in the barn.

For what it’s worth, the Herald Sun had the best coverage of the day. The background on the investigation, coverage of Sarah Monahan’s response and court reporting on Hughes appearance in court  is really comprehensive and measured.  The Age/SMH and Australian coverage is bizarrely thin in comparison.

A few interesting links from around the traps

Do you ever read Terms of Service on websites? No? That’s right, of course you don’t, because you’re human. This site rates and summarises end-user agreements/terms of service in clear and simple terms so you don’t ever have to. It’s great.

All the news sites went a little crazy over the fire-fighter who was asked to move seats on a Virgin flight because he (as a man) was banned from sitting next to unaccompanied minors according to company policy. All the news articles were simple paraphrases (with varying degrees of verification) of John McGirr’s own blogpost at The Rant Nation.

And lastly, Jacob Silverman writes at the Slate Book Review about the chummy culture of the online literary scene, and why it may be killing the literary review. It’s a great read and perhaps has things to say about our own creative scene in Australia too.