Australian Politics
Violent turn by pro-Palestinian movement a strategic mistake as police crush strong-arm tactics
Victoria Police has sent the clearest possible message to pro-Palestinian and anti-war protesters, with a series of deafening blasts and front-foot policing designed to contain violent extremism.
For the first time since the pandemic unrest, police have pulled out the rubber bullets, batons, teargas and stun grenades to put protesters back in their collective box.
By doing so, police are flagging to protesters that violence against officers and their horses will not be tolerated, regardless of the cause.
While the Land Forces 24 conference was the purported target of the protesters, the 2000 or so people who marched were united under the banner of supporting Gaza.
However, the strategy, fuelled by hard core socialists, relied heavily on violent resistance. This was a mistake.
Throwing acid, tearing down security walls, hurling stones and horse manure at police and their horses triggered the firmest anti-riot response in years.
The decision to adopt violent protest tactics was a sharp shift from the past 11 months, when most of the public pro-Palestine rallies have erred on the side of peace.
Wednesday’s rally changes this dynamic.
For much of the battle in the late morning, protesters gave the police the moral authority to strike back with force.
The protesters also lost the strategic war.
While they were hurling projectiles at police, the delegates to the conference were quietly walking into the Melbourne convention centre through a front door 150m away.
Present at the protest was Nasser Mashni, president of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, who lent his support to the Gaza cause but had no involvement in the violence.
Free Palestine Melbourne banners were common, as was the Socialist Alternative, the Victorian Socialists and Students for Palestine.
At one point the protesters chanted “the people united, will never be defeated’’, a trusty old Trades Hall chant.
In other words, the protesters were an effective anti-war coalition that mirrored Melbourne’s weekly anti-Israel parades, with leaflets being distributed for Marxism Discussion Groups at Brunswick’s Red Flag Bookstore, hosted by the Socialist Alternative.
In some ways it makes you want to smile.
But there is a danger in what has happened.
The protest leaders have sharply raised the temperature on the Middle East in what is Australia’s protest capital.
It now means that when protesters step out, they will know how to maximise attention for their cause.
This is not something that police or the Victorian or Australian governments will be looking for.
The plan has been for nearly a year to encourage respectful dialogue.
That ended the moment the protesters chose anarchy over peace.
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Anthony Albanese signals social media ban until 16 years under online harm crackdown
I would like to see what the sience is on this ban. It will of course be circumvented
Anthony Albanese has signalled his preference for increasing the minimum age when teenagers can access social media platforms to 16, amid a federal government push to legislate an age-based ban by the end of the year.
The Prime Minister said the right age to impose a limit was between 14 and 16 years with his personal view being that the “higher limit” should be pursued, while stressing the importance of a nationally consistent approach after South Australia backed a ban for 14-year-olds.
Amid mounting concern about a surge in doxxing, online bullying and deep-fake pornography having a negative impact on mental health, Mr Albanese has committed to introducing, before the federal election, legislation barring access to social media platforms. “So the right age is between 14 and 16,” he told Nova Radio on Tuesday.
“I have a personal view. I err on the side of a higher limit … That’s where I’m at. But I want to make sure we don’t end up with different systems in different states. We want a national approach to an issue which is a national issue.”
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas is pushing for children under 14 to be banned from setting up online accounts after his government commissioned a report from former High Court chief judge Robert French outlining a legislative vehicle to restrict access to platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said there was a “wide variety of views” on the appropriate age to impose the limit, while leaving the door open to legislating the ban before consultation on the age limit was complete. “That’s an option. We’ll take advice from that as we go through,” she told Sky News.
Opposition communication spokesman David Coleman said he supported legislation being put in place to protect children from social media harm, criticising Ms Rowland for suggesting the government may opt to legislate the ban before an age is decided.
“The bottom line is, you need to know what age you believe it should be in order to even legislate it and they don’t know that,” he told Sky News.
Experts are divided on what age marks the appropriate cut off and whether an age-based ban will be effective, with any social media crackdown likely relying on co-operation from tech giants and parents to ensure teens don’t circumvent the laws.
News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller described the plan as “a first bold step at addressing the most concerning of the many harms the tech platforms are inflicting on Australia”. But Mr Miller said platforms must also be forced “to stop running scams and fakes, promoting body shaming and trolling, peddling misinformation and impacting Australia’s democratic way of life” as well as being made to pay for the news content they use.
Women’s advocacy group Collective Shout founder and director Melinda Tankard Reist said she supported the push towards an age limit of 16 in order to delay exposure to harmful content until teenagers had a higher level of development to cope.
“We share the Prime Minister’s view; while increasing the age of access won’t make the platforms safe, it would delay the harm done as a result of exposure to illicit content,” she said.
Heads Up Alliance co-founder Dany Elachi said he believed 18 was the appropriate age for young people to access social media to prevent it harming their “vulnerable psychology, extracting their data, stealing their childhoods”.
“Our view is that it would be 18, so hearing he wants to move to 16 is certainly heartening, it is in the direction we are advocating for,” he said.
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Victoria – the Pothole State
Judith Sloan
In recent weeks, I have been driving around Melbourne much more than I usually do. As a result, I have become more acquainted with the state of the roads, particularly along the major auxiliary routes that are controlled by the Victorian government.
OMG – there are major potholes everywhere, some so large that I thought I had hit something while driving along. (No, I hadn’t hit anything; I am a good driver, thank you very much.) I’m wondering whether the Victorian government, probably under Dan the Man, had previously engaged some union-linked road resurfacing company owned by a mate called O’Reilly.
But the good thing – OK, not that good – is that there are road signs warning drivers of the upcoming potholes and other assorted damage to the road. Rough Surface Ahead signs are all over the place.
What a wonderful metaphor for Victoria’s future because of the years of malign government under Dan and now Jacinta. It has got to the point that almost every time I see the sign, I let out a little chuckle, but sometimes a tear. This happens while I am trying to veer around the potholes.
Speccie readers would not be surprised when I foreshadow a grim future for my home state. Years of misdirection, overspending and progressive obsession have taken their toll. From a relatively healthy budget position, the Labor government has plunged Victoria into a state of fiscal penury with more pain to come. Net state debt is heading towards $200 billion by the end of the decade. It’s only a matter of time before the ratings agencies downgrade Victoria again.
It’s not as if there hasn’t been the money to keep the roads in tip-top shape; it’s just that other things have seemed much more important, such as embarking on a terrifyingly huge infrastructure building program with nary a thought for the cost-benefit ratios. Keeping the union bruvvers happy has always been a major focus for the Dan/Jacinta administration.
Add in overpaying public servants and awarding them ridiculous conditions as well as embarking on a series of frolics like a First Nations Assembly and suddenly there is no money – or enthusiasm – for maintaining the roads.
It’s still worth asking the question: is Jacinta just Dan without the North Face jacket? Is Allan just another version of Andrews?
They are both from the left; indeed, their power bases are largely centred on the CFMEU and other friendly unions. After the revelations of bad behaviour by the CFMEU – sure, this is a bit of an understatement – and the fact that the feds have put the union into administration, things have become more complicated for Jacinta.
She can’t publicly support the CFMEU anymore, particularly given its clear links with motorcycle and criminal gangs. (Don’t you love the story of the bloke who was released from jail early because of the Lawyer X fiasco – another disastrous event for Victoria – only to be employed as a CFMEU delegate the next week on big bucks?) But she will do everything in her power to ensure that her union pals are still pampered.
A recent deal to throw in an extra $800 million to ensure the completion of the Metro project – an extension of Melbourne’s underground train network – will partly end up in the pockets of the workers. Good one, Jazzy. The Labor government is feelin the need for an opening ceremony and will do almost anything to ensure this occurs before the next election.
There is no doubt that Dan the Man was a hard man as premier; he made up his mind and he was very disinclined to alter his position. Allan looks to be more flexible when it comes to making decisions, always with an eye to the electoral consequences.
The progressive crowd had been baying for some time to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years of age because anyone aged under 14 doesn’t know what they are doing and is incapable of being forced to act illegally. Sure. In her wisdom – pause for laughter here – Allan saw this as a bridge too far, particularly as youth crime is ravaging parts of Melbourne.
As a compromise, she has opted for 12 as the new age of criminality meaning she pleased neither the woke crowd nor the conservative forces arguing for the maintenance of the current arrangements. My guess is that Dan would have agreed to 14.
Another example of Allan bending with the breeze relates to health funding. The public health system in Victoria is ruinously expensive to run and has become more so since the pandemic. The plan was to save $1.5 billion from the health budget by rationalising certain services and forcing sub-scale regional hospitals – some aren’t really hospitals under the modern definition of the term – to amalgamate.
This process can be politically toxic, with some of the regional centres electorally important to Labor, both at the state and federal levels. Indeed, Allan herself hails from Bendigo and holds the seat of Bendigo East. Locals often seem to love their local hospitals as much as their children.
Allan quickly decided to pull the pin on the whole proposal. There would be no forced amalgamations and patsy Treasurer, Tim Pallas – he seems to have been Victorian Treasurer for half my lifetime and done an appalling job to boot – was simply instructed to find the money elsewhere. How he is expected to achieve this large budget saving in another way is anyone’s guess. It will probably just deepen the shade of red of the bottom line.
The point here is that Jacinta Allan is emerging as a Richo-style politician – ‘whatever it takes’. She doesn’t command the (incomprehensible) adulation and support that Dan did and she knows it. Labor is on the skids and would be on the way out were it not for the feckless and ineffective opposition led by John Pesutto. (Who? I’m sure most Victorians couldn’t name him if asked.)
In the meantime, the Victorian economy goes to hell in a handbag. The Labor government is attempting to tax everything that is nailed down and a few things that aren’t. Land taxes are through the roof; it is now extremely financially punishing to own a second home or to have investment properties in the state.
Several private schools are being subject to payroll tax when they were previously exempt. Payroll tax has been raised for all businesses that are not tiny. There are still mental health and Covid levies on businesses, which are absurd.
Both businesses and individuals are fleeing the state – that’s what competitive federalism does – but it doesn’t seem that Allan and her mates care much. The only thing that the state is now good at is attracting new migrants and even that is under threat as the federal government tries to cut the numbers of new international students. Building crappy high-rise apartments is also part of Victoria’s ‘skill set’.
At this stage, enormous sinkholes are emerging all over the state; it looks like a very bleak future for all Victorians who opt to hang around.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/09/victoria-the-pothole-state/
******************************************************One state is pushing ahead with an Indigenous treaty… but a 'deeply concerning' act to make it a reality has raised alarm bells
The banning of media from covering discussions on the treaty between Victoria and Aboriginal groups is 'shady' and should be a 'red flag' about the entire process, top Liberal Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says.
The publicly-funded but closed-door 'Talking Treaty' discussion was held by the First Peoples' Assembly in Victoria on Sunday to discuss the creation of a state treaty.
Despite Victoria - and every other state - voting against 'The Voice' referendum, the state is pushing ahead with a treaty in line with the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Senator Price, the shadow minister for Aboriginal Affairs, said the secretiveness of Sunday's event was a worrying sign of how this treaty will proceed and how unrepresentative it will be of public will.
'It's really deeply concerning stuff, and especially when you've got a body that's claiming to be a representative body with such a low voter turnout,' Senator Price told Sky News political commentator Peta Credlin.
'It's like what's under way in South Australia at the moment with their legislated Voice, again, 10 per cent voter turnout. Where's that going to go to?'
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was a vocal supporter of the Uluru Statement from the Heart following his election victory in May 2022.
However, after his failed Voice referendum in October 2023, he has been much more vague in detailing his plan to establish its three pillars: voice, treaty and truth.
Credlin suggested if the closed-door meetings were to continue, it would allow the First Peoples' Assembly to fabricate their contents and 'push' its proposed treaty through the Victorian Parliament with false claims of unanimous support.
It could also set a precedent for other states to ram through treaties in private consultations with governments, until the prime minister is compelled to create a national treaty, Credlin claimed.
Senator Price questioned why the Assembly was allowed to proceed with treaty discussions when there were major concerns over its election processes and how representative it really is.
'You can't suggest, that with these sort of shady closed door events, and this inability to provide transparency, that this is actually going to be a true, democratic process, that heads toward legislation in this process,' she said.
'But you know, we all know, that Mr Albanese is sitting in the background waiting for all these states to conduct their treaty processes and then ram it on through.
'Australians should be very concerned. This is going to affect every single one of us.'
The First Peoples' Assembly announced in July it expected to be ready to begin treaty negotiations in November, following community consultation.
'Treaty is not something we enter into lightly, you want to make sure you've actually got the things in place to negotiate properly a treaty,' co-chair Rueben Berg said at the time.
He added the proposed treaty would focus on giving Aboriginal groups direct means to advise government.
'Through treaty, we want to make sure we put decision-making back in the hands of First Peoples,' he said.
'Decisions about mob should be made by mob.
'We also know government needs to be held more accountable for the activities they're talking about First Peoples, that's also what treaty will deliver.'
The Assembly's declaration it was ready to start discussions was entered into the Negotiation Database and a copy presented to the Treaty Authority at a ceremony in July.
Assembly co-chair Ngarra Murray said there would continue to be gathering of feedback from traditional owner groups and Aboriginal community organisations as to what should be in the treaty.
'We're really excited about bringing all their aspirations and all their hopes and dreams into this moment,' Ms Murray said at the time.
Victoria's opposition withdrew its support for treaty in January, citing concerns about cultural heritage laws.
Mr Berg said he was open to further conversations with all sides of politics.
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http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://john-ray.blogspot.com/ (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC -- revived)
http://jonjayray.com/select.html (SELECT POSTS)
http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Sahara Ray is undoubtedly a good-looking woman. Since she is Australian-born there is even a possibility that we may be distantly related. I hope she recovers soon from her encounter with Guillain-Barré syndrome
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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