Australian Politics
Sam Mostyn: Yet another awkward tweet comes back to haunt Australia's new Governor General
Having a political extremist as GG is totally inapeopriate. Albo should have stuck to retired generals
The businesswoman chosen to be the King's representative in Australia once tweeted in support of the republican movement.
Sam Mostyn, 59, wiped her social media presence clean before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the gender and climate activist as General David Hurley's replacement as Governor-General last week.
But in a since deleted tweet on December 7, 2015, Ms Mostyn praised the former chairman of the Republic Movement Peter FitzSimmons, for his work to sever ties with the British monarchy, The Australian reported.
'Passionate advocacy for Australian republic @Peter-Fitz in Sydney today #ARM #AustralianRepublic #Australia #auspol,' she wrote.
Mr FitzSimmons served was chairman of the Republic Movement, an organisation which advocates for an Australian Head of State, from 2015 until he stepped down in 2022.
The revelation comes after Daily Mail Australia uncovered other deleted social media posts which shed light on Ms Mostyn's political views.
Ms Mostyn was a leading advocate for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, hosting and participating in panels about the referendum alongside Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo.
She advocated for a Yes vote online, took part in Michael Long's 'Long Walk Oz' to Canberra, promoting the Indigenous advisory panel, and joined virtual yarning circles with Pat Anderson AO and Professor Megan Davis.
The banner picture of her X account was, for a lengthy period of time, a poster which declared, 'We support the Uluru Statement'.
And on January 25, 2020, Ms Mostyn wrote: 'This 26 January, NITV Sunrise Ceremony cleansing ceremonies, 80,000 yrs Australian history, wonderful panel discussing survival, truth, #invasionday & the future.'
She then included another hashtag which stated: '#AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe.'
Reconciliation Australia, a foundation focused upon healing the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, celebrated her appointment on Wednesday, revealing - in addition to the long list of qualifications touted by the PM in his statement - she also served on their board.
'Sam is a former board member of Reconciliation Australia (2007-2010) & has been a dedicated advocate for reconciliation, First Nations rights, climate change & many other causes during her career,' the organisation said.
Ms Mostyn made another post on July 30, 2022 after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese committed to the referendum into the Voice to Parliament, and in the wake of Aboriginal activist and singer Archie Roach's death.
She said: 'Cannot think of a more bittersweet day - from the exhilaration & hope for a Voice to be enshrined in our Constitution to the devastating, deep sadness on the loss of Archie Roach.
'Australia cannot waste a moment in accepting the Uluru Statement from the Heart.'
Ms Mostyn also appeared to celebrate the election of the Teal independents at the 2022 federal election.
'Just in case you hadn't already heard them roar,' she tweeted - sharing an article about the 'pro-climate women who took on the Liberal Party and won.
These were all removed by the time she was announced as the incoming Governor-General on Wednesday.
Speaking of her appointment, Mr Albanese said: 'Ms Mostyn has had an extensive career in the Australian business community, including working at senior levels in telecommunications and insurance companies in Australia and globally.
'She has also held senior non-executive roles on boards including Transurban, Virgin Australia, and has been chair of Citibank Australia. She currently chairs AWARE Super and Alberts Music Group and is on the board of Mirvac.
'Ms Mostyn has been a Commissioner with the Australian Football League (AFL) and a driving force behind the AFL Women's (AFLW).' Her tweets show she is an AFL nut - posting repeatedly about the league.
It was widely expected Mr Albanese would appoint an Indigenous Australian to the role of Governor-General, and Ms Mostyn's announcement came as a surprise.
She and Mr Albanese have a longstanding professional relationship due to her high-level roles chairing the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce and on the Climate Change Authority board.
Back in September 2023, when the PM was facing scrutiny over his friendship with embattled Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, Ms Mostyn was named in a manifest for Mr Albanese's VIP flight.
She joined Mr Joyce and Mr Albanese on a private flight back to Sydney following the Jobs and Skills Summit, along with other VIPs including the CEO of Rio Tinto and chair of Telstra.
Mr Albanese said at the time: 'They were sent a bill, they paid their own way and that they sat together whilst I had a meeting about the Jobs and Skills Summit in a different section of the plane.'
She was also seen at the PM's victory party after winning the 2022 election.
Ms Mostyn has long been outspoken in her ambitions to see positive change in Canberra after working as a policy advisor to two ministers and prime minister Paul Keating.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13280887/sam-mostyn-tweet-republic-Peter-FitzSimmons.html
*******************************************************Anthony Albanese vows no turnback on Operation Sovereign Borders as third boat arrives
People who arrive by boat seeking a better life or even asylum “won’t be settled in Australia”, Anthony Albanese has said as he doubles down on his government’s commitment to the Coalition’s Operation Sovereign Borders policy following another undetected mainland arrival.
The latest illegal maritime arrivals to reach Western Australia’s far north Kimberley coastline were the third known group since November and the first Chinese to reach Australia by boat since 2012. All but one of the group was put on a charter jet to Nauru on Sunday.
There were varying reports about the size of the group but late on Sunday The Australian was told a total of 10 men, all believed to be Chinese, were delivered to the mainland near Truscott.
The group wandered into the airbase about 4pm on Friday. On Saturday, WA police confirmed they were looking for one of the men. It was not clear if he had arrived at Truscott with the group then absconded or if he got lost before the group arrived at the airstrip. A massive land search using drones ended on Sunday morning when the man was found standing on a track nearby.
WA police reported he was in “relatively good condition”. He, too, was expected to be flown to Nauru late on Sunday or on Monday morning.
Speaking to reporters at a Sikh community event in Melbourne on Sunday, the Prime Minister was adamant that the border control principles established by the Abbott government remained in place. “We will deal with any unauthorised arrivals consistent with Operation Sovereign Borders, and that’s what we’ve done,” Mr Albanese said.
“(T)here’s been no change in policy since 2013. We’ll use all avenues at our disposal to make sure that the borders are protected and make sure we respond in accordance with the principles of Operation Sovereign Borders. And that’s what we have, again, done on this occasion.”
Mr Albanese made the statements as the Coalition’s home affairs spokesman, James Paterson, lashed the government for “demonstrable failures on their watch”. “Three boats through to the Australian mainland, 13 attempted since the election, hundreds of attempted asylum-seekers coming to our country as a direct result of the government’s attempts to undermine our successful border protection policies,” Senator Paterson said.
“We warned them before they abolished temporary protection visas that that would give people an incentive to get on the boats again to try and come again.
“And lo and behold, that’s exactly what’s happened.
“If this government had followed our advice, kept in place our successful policies, this wouldn’t be happening.”
Operation Sovereign Borders commander Rear Admiral Brett Sonter told The Australian last month he had re-positioned key personnel and hardware on land, in the air and at sea to detect and disrupt criminal people-smugglers and illegal fishers amid increased threats in Australia’s northwest.
Rear Admiral Sonter, who replaced Justin Jones as OSB commander in January, ordered an “enhanced posture” after a series of people-smuggling ventures linked with faster fishing boats and new tactics to breach maritime borders.
For decades, smugglers in Indonesia have put paying customers on rickety, slow boats and instructed crew to drive the vessels towards locations where they were likely to be intercepted, mainly Christmas Island but also Ashmore Reef and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
On each occasion, a cheap boat was used because Australia’s border authorities always burn vessels after interception. However, recent ventures have evaded detection and no boats from any of the last three known ventures have been found.
A group of Chinese asylum seekers are believed to have arrived on the Australian mainland. Sources have told… Sky News an estimated 13 Chinese nationals walked on to the Truscott airbase around 1pm on Friday. The base is in an extremely remote part of the Kimberley region, in the far More
The Australian has been told the ABF is aware smugglers have recently switched to valuable boats that can travel up to 20 knots.
They may also be instructing their passengers to hide in the bush for a few days after being dropped off before seeking help.
This gives the people-smugglers a better chance of getting their vessel into international waters before the alarm is raised.
“Well, people-smugglers will always try to change their methods in order to ply what is the dangerous trade,” Mr Albanese said.
“But there is no change to Operation Sovereign Borders. It’s important that that message be sent.
“And once again, through the response of the Australian government, that message will be sent very clearly again to the region.”
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Stop demonising profits or face economic pain, business leaders warn Labor
Business chiefs have launched a fightback against the demonisation of corporate profits and the Albanese government’s “anti-business” policies, as Jim Chalmers this week unveils a key plank of Labor’s competition overhaul centred on sweeping merger reforms.
Amid flatlining economic growth, surging insolvencies and rising investment pressures, the Business Council of Australia and private sector leaders have warned jobs “aren’t safe” and that super fund investment could flow offshore if Labor continues on its current path.
The Treasurer will move to allay concerns of big business ahead of the May 14 budget by unveiling Australia’s biggest merger reforms in decades and dousing Coalition and Greens’ calls for divestiture laws targeting supermarket giants.
Former Labor minister Craig Emerson’s food and grocery code of conduct interim review, released on Monday, “does not support a forced divestiture power to address market power issues in the supermarket industry”.
The review recommends a mandatory code for supermarkets with annual revenues exceeding $5bn, including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and wholesaler Metcash, and penalties of up to $10m, 10 per cent of a company’s annual turnover or three-times the benefit it gained from breaching rules.
Dr Chalmers on Wednesday will deliver the Bannerman Competition Lecture, hosted by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and Law Council of Australia, to announce the government’s merger reform plans. The Australian understands the merger reform plan, which the government believes will be welcomed by big business, is one of a suite of competition changes aimed at boosting economic dynamism that will be rolled out before the budget.
Despite attempts by Anthony Albanese to ease tensions with the private sector after telling a small business summit last week that his government was “pro-business”, the BCA is demanding stronger support for employers and private sector profitability from all sides of politics.
The pre-budget BCA campaign comes after industry groups and members cosied-up to Labor ahead of the 2022 election. Since the election, BCA members including BHP, Rio Tinto, Qantas, Woolworths, Coles, Woodside and Santos have been targeted by government industrial relations, energy and competition crackdowns.
Writing in The Australian, BCA chief executive Bran Black says corporate Australia “has become the national punching bag … we are dangerously close to making it taboo to run a business well and turn a profit”.
“Large businesses employ more than four million Australians – almost one-in-three workers. Those jobs matter. When you squeeze an employer, it is harder for them to operate, and at the end of the day jobs aren’t as safe,” Mr Black says.
“In an analysis from the RBA last year, it was shown that businesses with profit margins under 5 per cent had significantly worse employment outcomes. What that tells us should be common sense – you need decent, dependable profit to create and maintain secure jobs.”
With 80 per cent of the workforce employed in the private sector and $153bn being paid in company tax, the BCA warned the demonisation of profitable businesses was resulting in bad policies and putting the economy at risk.
Mr Black said Australia’s major supermarkets were “currently being investigated for price gouging when they are making less than 3c in every one dollar spent at the checkout”. “Do we want a situation where bureaucrats are setting profit margins for businesses or price controls for products? Thankfully the Prime Minister and Craig Emerson have pointed out this didn’t work for Soviet Russia. It certainly won’t work here,” he wrote.
In a joint statement, Dr Chalmers and Assistant Competition Minister Andrew Leigh said Dr Emerson’s food and grocery review “is all about making our supermarkets as competitive as they can be so Australians get the best prices possible”. “The interim report recommends the code be made mandatory, with heavy penalties for major breaches,” the statement said.
Since the ACCC in February outlined what business leaders described as a “radical” reshaping of merger rules, the Albanese government has consulted with the private sector to secure a middle ground. Company bosses want mergers to be processed faster and for new rules to consider the economic argument alongside regulation demands.
The ACCC in February said out of an estimated 1000-1500 mergers annually, only 330 were reported to it under the existing voluntary merger regime. Around half of mergers are made by the largest 1 per cent of businesses.
Lindsay Partridge has reflected on his time as Brickworks CEO after announcing his plans to retire. Mr Partridge has been the chief executive of Australia's biggest brickmaker for 25 years. The board acknowledged him by saying when he started the company had an asset base of $500 million, now More
The competition watchdog has pushed for mandatory notification of mergers above certain thresholds and a requirement to not complete the transaction until approval is granted.
Former GWS Giants chair and BCA president Tony Shepherd, a NSW Racing director who has served on major company and public boards across Australia, said the welfare and wellbeing of the community relied on a strong economy driven by a profitable private sector.
“Some of the current latent socialist discussion misses this point. If the ecosystem of business small, medium or large aren’t doing well, that means jobs go, taxes aren’t paid and critical infrastructure such as roads, rail, schools and hospitals cannot be built,” he Shepherd said. “We should be celebrating and encouraging companies which are doing well and not be seeking to tear them down.”
Mr Shepherd, who chaired Tony Abbott’s national commission of audit, said “governments do not create wealth – they spend the revenue they take from hard-working people and business who pay so much in taxes and charges”.
NAB board member and former national KPMG chair Alison Kitchen said it would be a “travesty if the retirement savings of hardworking Australians are increasingly invested offshore” in the event commercial returns can’t be generated domestically.
“Business must be allowed to operate at a reasonable commercial return, it benefits us all,” Ms Kitchen said.
Ms Kitchen, who is a BCA director, said Australian businesses must be profitable to ensure workers can benefit through their super funds, which are “generating an enormous pool of investment funds which will allow people to live in greater comfort in their retirement”. “Professionals manage those funds to generate the best returns for their customers,” she said.
BCA president and former Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert said “when businesses succeed, our whole country succeeds”. “We need companies to do more than break even. We need companies to grow to keep jobs and create jobs. I worked for a US company for 15 years and I was always fascinated by the difference in culture between the US and Australia,” he said.
“In the US they celebrate their successful companies and hold them up as icons to be admired. It creates an aspirational environment that promotes innovation and growth. There’s a lot that Australia does better than the US, but it’s no coincidence that the US consistently produces the world’s most innovative and successful companies.”
Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chief executive Luke Achterstraat said “we need to see real action – not just talk – and better recognition of the unique operating environment facing small business”.
“Without meaningful action to address rising energy costs and slowing productivity, we face the alarming prospect of sustained small business closures. Whilst small and big business won’t agree on everything, there are many common areas to work together to lift the tide for all boats such as improving our IR system,” Mr Achterstraat said.
“Let’s nurture rather than neglect, or worse yet, demonise Australia’s job creators.”
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A penalty for being good-looking
An element of jealousy involved, I suspect
More on the interesting Ms Hatherall below:
https://brainstatesinc.com/
Jodie Hatherall, TOGA’s former general manager of risk and compliance, is suing her employer in the Federal Circuit and Family Court over her termination.
She claims she endured several instances of “derogatory verbal comments questioning (her) qualifications and suitability for her role”, “sabotage” and “unwanted advances of an inappropriate, intimatory and/or tacitly sexualised nature” under boss and TOGA CFO Alex Collinson.
Ms Hatherall, who was on a $382,000 renumeration package, says Mr Collinson questioned in a performance review why she wanted a pay increase when she was on good money and “doesn’t have a mortgage or kids to look after”, and said “most people have a problem” with a “young, female in a senior position”, according to court documents.
Ms Hatherall, who joined the company in September 2017, claims the sudden and aggressive termination means she now faces considerable emotional and financial hardship, “especially given the current economic climate”.
But in its letter of termination to Ms Hatherall in November last year, TOGA said she was acting improperly by working for several start-up companies and claimed she was “spending substantial amounts of time” on university studies and “personal care” activities such as laser, nails, “cobbler consignment”, cosmetic medicine, facials, lashes and hair appointments. This, an HR executive said, amounted to “serious and wilful misconduct” and “gross neglect” of her duties.
She denied this, and said the start-up was not a conflict of interest and her numerous “praise-filled performance reviews” and “financial bonuses” were inconsistent with her termination.
Ms Hatherall claims she was doing well at TOGA until the appointment of Mr Collison as her boss, and alleges a number of “harassment” and “discrimination” events. In a statement, legal firm Hamilton Locke said: “The respondents (TOGA and Mr Collinson) reject the claims and will be filing a defence in due course.”
As early as his handover meeting in April last year, Mr Collison questioned her qualifications and suitability for the role, which she found “humiliating”.
In another one-on-one meeting, he made comments like “You need to understand that construction is a different operation than what you are used to in hospitality”, which she took to be “dismissive and belittling” because she had not worked in hospitality and had 15 years’ experience in construction and project management.
In a performance review with Mr Collison, she claims he made several remarks like “On top of being young and female, you also look like that, so it is hard for people to take you seriously”, “I want to help you but this isn’t a conversation for the office, it needs to be at the pub over a wine”, and “We need to get you a mentor or put you on a training course to manage the gender problem”.
He later told her she ought to address all communication through him, due to alleged “gender” issues with the other directors, and that the new executive manager would also “likely have a problem with your age and being a woman too”, she wrote in her statement of claim.
In another meeting, she said Mr Collinson “berated” her team’s performance and then “made a point of standing uncomfortably close” to her, calling it “an apparent show of intimidation”.
Ms Hatherall also says Mr Collinson invited her a couple of times to meet at a bar after work, claiming the “ongoing advances” were “inappropriate and threatening”.
He also “frequently visited” her LinkedIn page, and Ms Hatherall told her colleague in a text message “Seriously … He’s on it EVERY day”. She eventually blocked him, saying she felt “threatened and harassed”. In her termination letter, TOGA claimed she blocked him because her LinkedIn page contained reference to a start-up she founded.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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