Since the last Federal election, people have been shocked at where Australia seems to be heading. So where is Australia heading? Towards fascism? There are straws in the wind.
The Collins Dictionary defines fascism thus: n 1 any doctrine, system or practice regarded as authoritarian, militaristic, chauvinistic or extremely right wing.
Expanding on this, a fascist government: has a strong leader or small group of leaders with psychopathic tendencies; rules by fiat and slogan; has a culture of lying; defines and maintains an underclass while redistributing wealth and power to an elite; filters information so that the government only receives advice it wants to hear; controls the media; is nationalistic and militaristic; is a poor world neighbour; takes over industry and commerce.
Let us see how the Abbott Government stacks up on these criteria.
A strong leader or small group of leaders with psychopathic tendencies
A fascist leader is obsessed with power and control for its own sake and will do whatever it takes to grab and maintain power. This suggests a strong streak of psychopathy. Psychologist Lyn Bender asks in Independent Australia, 13 May, 2014, “What if Abbott and his cronies are just a bunch of psychopaths?” She makes a startling case that they probably are, mentioning indicators from Abbott, Joe Hockey and Scott Morrison. http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/what-if-abbott-and-his-cronies-are-just-a-bunch-of-psychopaths,6472
Psychopaths are commonly described as lacking empathy and compassion, as exhibiting no guilt or remorse, given to seeking revenge, compulsive lying, seeing the end as justifying the means and narcissism.
Abbott has shown himself lacking in empathy and compassion on several occasions. In October 2007, he accused dying asbestos victim Bernie Banton’s public protests against James Hardy as “a stunt”. During a visit to Afghanistan in February 2011, his comment on being told the details of how an Australian soldier had died was “shit happens.” When a Channel 7 reporter questioned Abbott on this comment, his reaction was utterly bizarre, glaring at the reporter, jerking his head for a full 28 seconds, remaining silent. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wT9XS_TvzQ
Laurie Oakes said these and other “flat-footed comments will surely call his leadership of the Liberal Party into question … and he will pay dearly for it.” They haven’t – not yet. Later on talk-back radio, when a grandmother complaining about the budget said she was forced to do telephone sex work to make ends meet, Abbott smirked and gave the radio host a sleazy wink.
Rules by fiat and slogan
The following is attributed to Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels: “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” And this is exactly how Abbott had conducted his campaign, with mindless slogans such as “stop the boats”, “repeal the carbon tax”, “earn or learn”, repeated ad nauseam. No explanation, no justification.
Political debate in a democracy has parties standing on different platforms. Come election time they argue their case with evidence and logic, taking apart their opponents’ policies and arguments accordingly. Certainly candidates hurl insults at each other but they are the exhaust pollution that comes from a working engine. Prior to and during the last Federal election, however, Tony Abbott made the pollution of insults the engine, bringing political debate to an all-time low in Australia:
Such slogans pre-empt discussion of how those ends are to be achieved or reflection on possible consequences of achieving them.
A culture of lying
Fascist governments survive through a culture of lying. Joseph Goebbels again: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
In Independent Australia, 26 April 2014, Alan Austin defines political lying not as broken promises, which happen in all parties, but as “a knowingly false statement by a politician, expressed with the intention to deceive”. http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/is-australia-run-by-compulsive-liars-part-two-abbotts-astonishing-30-lies,6398 Here is the lie score of recent political leaders: Kevin Rudd 1, Alexander Downer 7, John Howard 15+, Tony Abbott 30, other recent leaders of all parties, including Julia Gillard, 0. The Federal Liberals are thus by far the most mendacious of all other parties, and Abbott worse than other Liberals.
In this interview Kerry O’Brien tries hard to pin Abbott down on lying. It is as telling as Abbott’s 28 seconds of furious nodding silence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc5ljcri6Nk
Defines and maintains an underclass while redistributing wealth and power to an elite
Fascist governments on gaining power take the country in a radical, new and unpleasant direction. Pre-election Abbott promised no surprises, steady as she goes; post-election we were in for a big surprise.
First, Abbott destroyed virtually every positive initiative established by Labor – apart from Labor’s own cruel initiative in sending asylum seekers offshore. Labor’s social justice initiatives – Gonski, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, gambling reforms, superannuation tax relief for low income earners, the NBN and much more. The decks had been cleared for big changes.
The Budget gave the new game away. Australia has a Triple-A credit rating, 22 years free of recession, a strong health care system, and one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios in OECD countries. Yet the Abbott Government claimed that in view of Australia’s economic crisis (a lie) a really tough Budget was necessary (another lie) and that all Australians would have to do the heavy lifting (yet another lie). Unemployed 23-year-olds stand to lose 18 per cent of their disposable income, an unemployed sole parent with an eight-year-old child would lose 12 per cent. By contrast, a high-income couple with a combined income of $360,000 a year would lose nothing they might notice. The “heavy lifting” is to be done by those least able to lift.
People under 30 would not receive any benefits at all if they lose their job leaving them with nothing to live on. Family Tax Benefit would be restricted to those earning under $100,000 and payment stops when their child reaches six, previously 16. With youth unemployment around 20 percent across the nation and higher in Tasmania, young Tasmanians were told to leave the state to get a job: “earn or learn” or you are cut off the Newstart unemployment benefits for six months. “Learning” means going to university where uncapped fees could in some faculties triple. With higher HECS interest rates, repayments could take decades to clear. What low SES youth would buy into that? That’s assuming they had the ability and the interest in going to university. Students with parents wealthy enough to pay fees will not be saddled with a long term debt, giving them an enormous lifelong advantage.
The $7 co-payment and increased pharmaceutical fees in the health budget are the first step in dismantling Medicare and setting up a more privatised health system along US lines. Yet the US spends 17.7% on GDP on health for a far worse and inequitable system than ours, whereas Australia spends 9.5% on health, including Medicare, for a much superior health service: a difference largely due to the fact that if people don’t go to the doctor the later consequences can be expensive. The Budget intervention on health is not about economics or efficiency of service, but a deliberate hit at the poor. The $20 billion medical research fund, impossibly financed by the medical co-payments, is an obvious furphy that won’t do anything for the poor with their present health problems.
The Government has gutted Gonski with its egalitarian intent, giving more and more largesse to independent schools. $245 million has been allocated to finance untrained chaplains to provide ideologically tainted support for students while removing professionally trained social workers and psychologists.
Abbott is putting future generations at risk by cutting science on all fronts. He abolished a Minister for Science which has been there since 1938; has savagely cut $140 million from the CSIRO; the tertiary sector by 20 per cent but uncapping the fees universities may charge; all the instrumentalities set up by Labor for climate change and renewable energy have been abolished. If climate change is real, and there is very strong empirical evidence that it is, all this is psychopathically irresponsible. Future generations will not thank the Abbott Government.
The Budget and the Coalition’s tax policies see that the already rich become richer and the poor poorer. The super payments of those on $35,000 pa or less, once tax free, will be taxed at 15 per cent, but Labor’s plan to tax the richest retirees’ super funds will be abandoned. Family trusts and other tax lurks worked out by tricky tax consultants will not be addressed. Abbott’s paid parental leave scheme as originally proposed was to the enormous benefit of rich double income families while child minding facilities of essential value to poor parents and especially single mothers were cut.
But there is meaning in this madness. Fascist governments need an elite and an underclass. That is what the Budget is helping to create.
The planned redrafting of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act is another tactic in defining an underclass. Currently 18C makes it unlawful for a person to act in a way likely to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” someone because of their race or ethnicity. The change proposed by Attorney General George Brandis would replace these words with “vilify”. Thus, it would no longer be an offense to offend, insult or humiliate anyone of a different ethnicity. And not to be discriminatory, it would also be okay to offend, insult or humiliate anyone of the same ethnicity – a bogan, perhaps, or a Greenie.
Asylum seekers, demonised by Howard as child murderers, have become a target for community hatred, fear, and contempt. There is even a whisper, just a whisper, of a parallel with the demonising of certain minority groups by the Third Reich.
Filters information so that the government only receives advice it wants to hear
A fascist government does not want to entertain information or to consider possibilities it doesn’t want to hear: “the truth is the greatest enemy of the State”, as Goebbels had said.
Abbott has stacked all committees and inquiries he has set up with far right wingers and climate change deniers, the review of the national curriculum, the Royal Commission into pink batts and the National Commission of Audi being recent examples. Clearly, he is not interested in seeking balance and fairness but in obtaining the advice he wants.
SBS and especially the ABC are accused of left wing bias, although most ABC panels have representation from left and right. Both are in for heavy cuts and possible merging.
Controls the media
As part of information filtering, a fascist government controls the media. No dissent allowed. That is not the case in Australia, but perhaps there is little need. News Corp, which backs the government 100 per cent, owns over 140 papers and magazines and is far and away the most widely read.
Robert Manne writes in The Monthly (November 2013): “Murdoch’s domination of the metropolitan press has two main consequences for our democracy. First, any government, no matter how worthy or unworthy, is now vulnerable should News Corp decide to target it in the way it targeted the Gillard government more than two years ago. Second, while News Corp retains its present dominance, mainstream debate about certain fundamental ideologically sensitive questions – how to respond adequately to the climate-change crisis; what levels and kinds of taxation are needed to develop the welfare state; the trajectory of foreign policy during the rise of China; Australia’s Middle Eastern policy; and, of course, media reform – is effectively ruled out in advance.”
Anthropogenic climate change is rubbished in all News Corp publications. 97 per cent of the columns appearing in the Herald-Sun were sceptical of human-caused global warming, an interesting symmetry to the 97 per cent of scientists who conclude the very opposite. This is irresponsibly dangerous – but perfectly in line with Abbott Government policy.
Is nationalistic and militaristic
The militarisation of Operation Sovereign Borders was entirely unnecessary, turning what should be a humane rescue operation into a military exercise with tight security clamps on information. Its handling probably reflects Scott Morrison’s militaristic fantasies as much as Abbott’s. A general was appointed in charge of Operation Sovereign Borders, now replaced by Australian Border Force. Is appointing another general as Governor-General of Australia a straw in the same wind?
In this time of supposed financial crisis, defence spending is increased to $122.7 billion for the four years to 2018, which amounts to 2 per cent of GDP. Then there is the purchase on 58 F-35 strike fighters for $12 billion. The F-35 is regarded as a lemon in military circles with performance and safety problems. Oddly, it is designed for attack not for defence. Arming for defence makes sense, but who are we going to attack?
Is a poor world neighbour
Being a good world neighbour means at least signing human rights treaties and adhering to them and to international law. Australia has signed 12 such, including treaties on refugees, torture, rights of children and of people with disabilities. Many of these treaties have been broken with regard to aborigines (as in John Pilger’s 2014 film Utopia) and in past and current asylum seeker policy.
Abbott’s treatment of asylum seekers breaks several signed treaties: separating children from parents, keeping legal asylum seekers in ignorance of when their claims will be processed, the foul and dehumanising conditions in the offshore detention centres under conditions that have been damned by the UN and Amnesty International and that amount to torture. Abbott has disbanded the Immigration Health Advisory Group, the only body to give independent advice on the physical and mental health of asylum seekers and to deny them access to legal aid.
In order to “stop the boats” the government had to make coming by boat (but not by plane) as nasty as the nastiness from which asylum seekers were fleeing. When boats of hopeful disbelievers in Australia’s nastiness kept coming, Abbott and Scott Morrison resorted to extraordinarily silly expediencies: buying Indonesian fishing boats in Indonesia so that none would be available to come to Australia; towing the people-smuggling boats back into Indonesian waters; packing asylum seekers into lifeboats and sending them back to Indonesia. All violate Indonesian territory and relations with our most important neighbor have been seriously damaged. Stopping the boats also involved Abbott in praising Sri Lanka’s murderous regime, presenting President Mahinda Rajapaksa with two patrol boats in order to help stop any Sri Lankan asylum seekers leaving for Australia. Such tactics have severely damaged Australia’s reputation internationally.
The environment sees Abbott at his worst as a world neighbour. Australia is per capita the largest carbon emitting country in the world. We are obliged to do our global bit. Not according to Abbott. He has axed or intends to axe carbon pricing, the Kyoto agreements, the Climate Change Advisory Committee, with $10 billlion cut from renewable energy investment. One such cut is totally irrational: that of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which arranges investment in renewable energy and low emissions projects. The CEFC, chaired by financier Jillian Broadbent, obtains private sector investors to invest in renewable energy projects: some $3 billion since last July. These projects not only decrease carbon emissions but make big money in the long term. Environmentalists want it, the big end of town wants it. Win-win all round you might think. But unfortunately the CEFC was created by the Gillard government. The bill for dismantling it has been passed by the House of Representatives twice, but the current Senate isn’t cooperating. So far.
Abbott’s unthinking ruthlessness on achieving his ends has damaged foreign relations with Indonesia, with China, and with East Timor by defrauding Timor Leste of oil rights in favour of Woodside’s interests. His foolish resurrection of Royal titles was done without proper consultation with Buckingham Palace. Even more damaging in the long term has been an $8 billion cut in foreign aid to impoverished countries, lowering foreign aid to .29 per cent of GDP, compared to England’s .7 per cent. Twenty per cent of all cuts in the recent budget has been borne by the poorest countries in world.
Abbott’s international image will not be enhanced with this video, played on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight show on Abbott’s first visit to the US as Australian PM.
Takes over industry and commerce.
In fascist countries the state owns industry and the means of production. This is not so in Australia. Here it is rather the other way around: corporate power owns the government. The results for us however are much the same.
In Australia, company tax rate is 30 percent but few pay that. The average rate is 22 per cent for companies, but Westfield paid 8 per cent last financial year, and through a loophole, Apple and Google pay virtually no tax at all despite enormous profits made in Australia. Labor tried to fix that but when the Abbott government came to power the Labor initiative was dumped.
The mining tax on 2011 rates would now be yielding about $60 billion pa but after a ferocious campaign by both mining corporations and the Liberal Opposition, PM Gillard watered it down so much it yielded nothing in the first year although it will raise around $3.8 billion over four years. Now Finance Minister Matthias Corman wants to abolish it altogether claiming through a convoluted flow-on argument that it would save $13.8 billion. Believe it or not. The diesel fuel rebate cost the government $5.4 billion in 2012-13, which the Australian says is “fair” (10 May, 2014).
Abbott’s dismantling of renewable energy projects is at the behest of the mining and fossil fuel industries. Abbott’s Direct Action policy is ineffectual with regard to reducing emissions, but very effective in giving large handouts to the worst polluting industries.
The Great Barrier Reef is to be a dumping ground for dredged silt, World Heritage nominations are to be dropped, marine parks around Australia have been scrapped, the “greatly endangered” listing of the Murray-Darling Basin has been removed, the Tasmanian Forestry Agreement is to be ripped up, and all environmental assessments for development projects are to be in the hands of the states, who want the royalties from development whatever the environmental cost, as in Queensland and West Australia.
The damage isn’t being done only for the benefit of Australian based corporations. The proposed Trans Pacific Partnership would include an Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause into the agreement, which is only available to corporations. Philip Morris tobacco is claiming compensation for loss of revenue, against the Australian Government’s legislation for the plain packaging of cigarettes using an ISDS clause contained in an earlier trade agreement with Hong Kong. The fact that this law was made by a democratically elected Parliament and had been deemed legitimate by the nation’s highest court is irrelevant under the proposed TPP legislation.
One tribunal judge reportedly said, with regard to the ISDS clause:
It never ceases to amaze me that sovereign states have agreed to investment arbitration at all … Three private individuals are entrusted with the power to review, without any restriction or appeal procedure, all actions of the government, all decisions of the courts, and all laws and regulations emanating from parliament.
(The Guardian, 5 November 2013).
The government’s stated policy of “small government”, deregulating, and allowing market forces to prevail means giving open slather to the corporate world, even to international corporations who are not at all interested in the welfare of Australians.
So is the Abbott Government fascist?
The Abbott Government would no doubt defend its policies and radical change of direction as simply implementing their neoliberal agenda, which they would say they were elected to do. The public’s highly negative reaction to that agenda post-election suggests that they were fooled.
Neoliberalism leads to the adoption of most characteristics of fascism, except for the role of government itself. Neoliberalism’s so-called “small government” just hands control and the destinies of citizens to the corporate sector, which as Joel Bakan’s film The Corporation (2003) sees as manifesting all the symptoms of full blown psychopathy.
Whether we ordinary people are being bullied by psychopathic fascist governments or by equally psychopathic corporations, it’s not nice to be at the receiving end. Worse, we seem to lack the power to do very much about it. As Richard Cooke points out in “A class of their own” (The Monthly, June, 2014), political accountability is a myth. The values and decisions of political and economic elites are basically unaffected by the needs and values of their constituents. A majority of people want less privatisation, more spending on health care, social welfare for the poor (certainly not for the rich) even if all these mean higher taxes. Neoliberal governments give exactly the opposite to what a majority of people want – and tragically for us they seem to be getting away with it. Neoliberalism is undemocratically grabbing power across much of the Western World; it is a juggernaut that must be stopped.
To answer our question: yes, the Abbott Government at least has strong fascist tendencies. That is what hard line neoliberalism does. It is itself a form of neofascism.
The good news for us Australians, as John Oliver’s little doco points out, is that Abbott and his mates are being so kack-handed about it they’ll self-destruct, to peals of international laughter.
• Attack on Australia’s universal healthcare system must be blocked, says TasCOSS
• Guardian: Climate unity dealt blow as Australia and Canada put business first
• John Green: Freedom of Speech? HERE I have now discovered another nasty little trick in Abbott’s budget. All community legal centres have been forbidden from taking part in any law reform activities or any kind of policy activities upon threat of their funding being cut. They have been explicitly banned from criticism on the Commonwealth government or any of its agencies. One of the major purposes of community legal centres is to develop a policy to improve the law and make proposals for law reform. It is clear the Abbott government opposes freedom of speech and is determined to stop all voluntary bodies from criticising it if at all possible.
THURSDAY June 25, 2015 …
• phill Parsons in Comments: On the criteria put forward in June last year we have to look at the Abbott government’s performance. They struggled right up to May this year and it was only when they rediscovered Nationalism and Militarism in the form of the terror scare that they have returned to appearing like a government. Of course this masks a series of allures in addressing threats to the nation such as a stalling economy; a trade deal the productivity Commission criticizes; global heating and climate instability and their imposts on the economy; failure to foster the growth industries in a transition to a sustainable energy economy; social division with cuts to health,to education and to vilifying certain groups of Australians. Everyone should be able to make up their own mind on the views of Zac Mallah but instead the control over the media is feeding everyone with the idea that he is a terrorist when he was not convicted of same and now works against ISIS promoting the Free Syria movement, a movement the British and the US support. It is strange that Ciobo knew Mallah and was ready for him. You can readily conclude Fascist … as they meet the criteria.
• Mike Bolan in Comments: Nicely researched and well put together John. Interesting that some seem to imagine that lack of gross violations (such as may have occurred in mature fascist governments) indicates that the LNP feds aren’t fascist. It takes them a while to get everything organised so that they can exercise unbridled power (e.g. get rid of Triggs, change laws, empower security agencies, weaken the majority with cuts and austerity programs). It certainly appears that psychopaths tend to create fascist/totalitarian type regimes – it seems that their lack of empathy leads them to such structures. …
Kim Peart
June 8, 2014 at 10:49
Australia is at risk, because we have not defined who we are or what we really stand for.
As a nation we were set up as a British colony and after WWII found that we were a vassal state of the US.
It was all the way with LBJ and every US war that followed.
We have never known true independence and that is why we fail to think independently.
Our only crack at a revolution was swiftly stamped out in 1853 on the gold fields of Ballarat.
Now our ship of state is a bit rudderless, sailing in a dangerous ocean.
We are in the East, where China is asserting power and Russia is finding its feet and taking back lands once integral to its dominion.
We see the circle of the East spread over Syria, backed by Russia.
Now China and India are forging strong bonds.
The East is dominated by authoritarian governments.
This is where Abbott may be heading, finding more in kin with Putin than Obama.
If we wish for another way into the future, then we had better discover who we are as a democratic nation and we had better be pretty quick about it.
The brewing conflict in our region may force us to choose between being friends with fellow authoritarian states, or risk invasion by the forces of the East, who would also have an eye on our claim to half of Antarctica.
Kim Peart
Karl Stevens
June 8, 2014 at 12:17
No, the Abbott government is not consciously ‘fascist’. However, I believe the Abbott government is working for a globalist agenda that is anti-Australian.
Take Tony Abbott for example? Born in a foreign country with a hereditary monarch that he still serves, even though the country of his birth has joined the EU.
That is the dazed and confused mentality of this internally-contradicted party of free lunchers and probable sociopaths IMHO.
Doctor Biggs has not even looked at the bizarre alignments the Libarals are flying in Tasmania.
‘The Three Amigos’? What the hell are they and are they interchangeable? Seems they are.
If you are in Bass, Lyons or Braddon your interests are served by the Three Amigo’s. Their policy is a mindless mix of shutting down Australia while pretending to be ‘growing’ it.
The key ‘Amigo’ is Serbian-born Andrej Nikolic who has served is country by helping to invade Iraq while we were bribing it’s dictator. He then went on to help invade Afghanistan for good measure, even though his party refuses to tax the ‘religion’ of 1slam in this country.
People like Abbott and Nikolic are quite capable of using ASIO to silence anybody who does not bow-down before a foreign monarch and are probably doing that right now.
Why would a Serbian-born military man serve the queen of another country while living in yet another country? That is a secret that Tasmanians deserve to know.
Anne Cadwallader
June 8, 2014 at 13:26
“Great Tasmanain representation – a German in the Senate, and a Serbian in the House of Reps. Fascism is a state of mind. We are well on the way.
Oh, and I don’t share John’s optimism in the last line. People laughed at Hitler too, ridiculous little man. It took 80 million deaths before he was stopped. Fascism remains the greatest danger to the human race, and it has never really gone away.
Abbott must fall, but he is only a figurehead for a cabal that lurks behind and around him – Peta Credlin and her husband most prominent. Fascists don’t go away, they have to be stopped by resolute action of those who value freedom, and kindness, and equality. We need to be in the streets a whole lot more or we will live to regret it.
Kim Peart
June 8, 2014 at 15:23
It is not enough to say “NO” by hitting the streets.
We must build the future that we wish for and inspire enough people to participate in the building.
Actions speak louder than words and last longer than walks.
Enough voters follow Abbott, because there is no serious alternative on the table.
Get that alternative on the table and the numbers can start rock’n.
We must be at the cutting edge, if we wish to cut through.
We must think differently.
Kim Peart
john hayward
June 8, 2014 at 15:46
John should stick with the” psychopathy” label. Tony’s lads seems quite comfortable with the uniformed tough guy connotations of “fascist”. Remember Tony’s orgasmic pleasure at sitting in a fighter cockpit.
But John is right about rejoicing at the repellence of nearly everyone in the Tony Gummint. If they don’t cure Australians of any yearning for punitive authoritarianism, nothing short of death will.
John Hayward
Mike Bolan
June 8, 2014 at 19:17
Whether they’re technically fascist or not, it’s surely enough that they exhibit all of the symptoms of psycho/socio-pathocracy!
To have a pathocracy running Australia is a serious risk to any vulnerable groups, and to the rest of us under the ‘right’ conditions.
Such people have no feelings for others whatsoever and hence are dangerous whenever they have decision making powers over the lives/well being of other people.
If you can treat desperate refugees the way our government does, then other vulnerable groups can expect the same lack of consideration and empathy that the asylum seekers get.
We need to wise up and recognise that Australia is not a democracy and start fighting for our freedoms and for some sensible rights under law.
davies
June 8, 2014 at 20:38
Seriously are you people for real?
The most extreme politician in Parliament by far is the Stalinist Lee Rhiannon. Yet not a single comment about how extreme she is.
Tony Hale
June 8, 2014 at 20:50
For goodness sake. At the worst it is a tad more conservative than the last Labor Government but hardly fascist as the Green commies would suggest.
Regards,
Tony Hale
Basil Fitch
June 8, 2014 at 20:57
Stop Press- Tonight 8.30p.m ABC 1- Four Corners Investigative programme into the 2,400 abuse victims in the ADF.
New evidence and Royal Commission being called for. Basil
peter mackenzie
June 8, 2014 at 21:47
Davies #8 and Tony Hale #9
As far as I am aware, TTs Editor would accept a separate item from each of you (or even a collaboration), explaining in detail (along the lines of the item above), why you respectively argue that #1 Lee Rhiannon is extreme, and #2 The Abbott government is only a tad more conservative that Labor under Rudd/Gillard/Rudd, and not fascist.
I would definately read it, and you will certainly generate a lot of discussion among TT readers.
With respect, it would be far more interesting than the 2 and 3 line comments you have made.
john hayward
June 8, 2014 at 22:22
#9,Tony. Fascists/Psychopaths often don’t strike their despotic colours until they have full control of the wheel. The former Yugoslavia, China, Russia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and numerous S. American countries have all suggested that this sort of psychopathy is everywhere at all times, awaiting its opportunities.
Tony already displays the telltale absence of conscience, empathy, and honesty.
jonboy
June 8, 2014 at 22:54
Fascism perfectly describes most environmental groups except they are extreme left wing; same difference. They are :The Way, The Truth and The Light and wo behold anyone who holds a different opinion as is consistently displayed on this website where anyone who does not comply to their view is attacked like a pack of rabid dogs.
Eco-fascists, Eco-terrorists, both alive and here in Tasmania.
This comment probably won’t be published but it’s ok to attack the Prime Minister, elected by the majority of Australians but it’s not ok to criticise extreme enviromentalists.
Terrence James
June 8, 2014 at 23:18
Yeah, on balance the Abbott rabble look like fascists. Mike Bolan @ #6 “We need to wise up and recognise that Australia is not a democracy and start fighting for our freedoms and for some sensible rights under law.” Damn right and Citizen Initiated Referenda would be a good start.
Kev Rothery
June 8, 2014 at 23:19
John’s question is well worth asking, and is well supported by his evidence. If Abbott’s government are not fascist, then they are bordering on it.
Denial of climate change, refusal to honour human rights obligations, and attempting to excise world heritage reserves, are all clear examples of Australia setting an abysmal example to the world. I view such irresponsible actions as nothing less than crimes against humanity.
It is not just the federal Liberals setting a poor example either. Senator Colbeck’s mis-information campaign concerning the world heritage excision is a classic local example. As The Wilderness Society were able to verify recently via an FOI request, federal Environment Department advice shows that only 8.6% of the nominated areas bear evidence of human disturbance. Senator Colbeck however conveniently ignores such statistics in his crusade of “World Heritage Mockery” media releases:-
http://www.richardcolbeck.com.au/2014_media_releases
In my opinion the 8.6% statistic makes a complete mockery of Senator Colbeck’s campaign.
Tonia Bott
June 8, 2014 at 23:59
The Abbott government certainly bears all the hallmarks of a fascist organisation. However it lacks one thing (thank heaven) and that is a charismatic leader. Tony under pressure is laughably witless and even his fellow-party members have begun to be nervous (albeit not the inner circle). I agree that Labor has shifted to the right of centre, however, and would suggest that both major parties have outlived their usefulness in the 21st century. We need new leadership that has the capacity to deliver social and environmental justice and recognise the real threat of Climate Change to our future economy. It’s hard to see which of the minor parties is best equipped to do this. The Greens, while laudably committed to these goals, seem to lack the organisational structure to survive in the top job. Palmer is only in it for control of environmental laws more favourable to his mining interests (despite his credible impersonation of ‘everyman’) and the remaining parties seem to new, too disorganised and too inconsistent to be able to shoulder the burden.
Certainly we need a more definite self-image as a nation than we have achieved to date. But imagine of this were happening in a republic modelled as hsa been proposed in earlier times! We would have no means of stopping this insanity short of bloodshed. A minority coalition of the larger minority parties and some intelligent, balanced independents may be our only solution. We have been too long brainwashed into imagining Lib/Lab are our only hope.
kim carson
June 9, 2014 at 00:35
#11 with respect anything more from 8 or 9 wouldn’t be a tad more interesting, it would the usual ill-informed zombie opinions that is offered in the way of an argument, but due to weak kneed left liberalism fail to give it the drumming it deserves.
Steve
June 9, 2014 at 01:16
#3; Very true Anne. I think a lot of people have forgotten that Hitler didn’t suddenly come into existence, there was a lot of support for his message.
Bruce Thomas
June 9, 2014 at 01:57
“This comment probably won’t be published but it’s ok to attack the Prime Minister, elected by the majority of Australians but it’s not ok to criticise extreme enviromentalists.â€
Ummm…45.55% of voters actually went for the Coalition parties in the 2013 election. So 54.45% didn’t and that’s a majority!!
TGC
June 9, 2014 at 02:08
I didn’t read the Dr Briggs’ Contribution: but I have no hesitation in disagreeing with it!
Kim Peart
June 9, 2014 at 08:53
Re: 13 ~ Jonboy
If we can be honest, we can find our way.
It is honesty that will allow us to work with science, rather than deny the facts.
We now know asteroids are a threat, but we appear to lack the will to face the facts.
Similarly with the rising level of CO2 in the biosphere and all the changes that brings on. ~ We appear to lack the will to face the facts.
Now the robot revolution is upon us and will remove 50% of paid work and the income that flows there, ~ are we facing the facts and redesigning our economy to meet the needs of the new society?
I suspect that the solution to this problem runs back to the individual.
When an individual begins demanding honest facts with a view to a fair future for the whole society, then there will be the dawn of hope.
When honest individuals get together and begin demanding action, then there will be change.
What must we do to make the Earth safe from asteroids, win back a safe Earth from CO2 and design a robot-friendly society?
The trail of honesty leads to that knowledge, if there are fearless and compassionate people willing to act.
The story of the Good Samaritan describes the art of fearless compassion practiced by an honest individual who is not swayed by political appearance.
When we find our heart, we know our path.
Kim Peart
Karl Stevens
June 9, 2014 at 13:14
I think the real issue in Australia is ‘brainwashing’ pure and simple. That’s what worked for Hitler amd that’s what Abbott hopes will work for him.
Like Hitler, Abbott is a ‘foreigner’ who has no love for Australia. If he did he would be nurturing Australia not trashing it, and that goes for the rest of his Liberal ecological ‘death squads’.
It makes me angry that a Liberal whose family … can come to Tasmania and tell us to trash our forests and poison our oceans.
There are Liberals here who spent their whole working lives living on taxpayers money in the military. They didn’t ‘defend’ this nation but fought meaningless ‘offensive’ religious wars like Iraq and Afghanistan. One Liberal MP from Tasmania allegedly presided over torture and war crimes in Iraq. Look at how the ADF is raping its own personnel and imagine what they do to ‘detainees’ in Iraq?
All we have to do as Australians is ‘unbrainwash’ ourselves.
An unbrainwashed picture of history makes Abbott and his team look like grubby thugs and criminals in my view. Dictators like Abbott and Hitler hate the truth more than anything else. By the way Abbott was not popularly elected. He is party leader by one vote and that vote could have come from a Tasmanian senator who himself represents less than 1% of the Australian electorate.
John Broadbent
June 9, 2014 at 13:29
The human shadow appears in many areas on the world stage. I remember reading CG Jung’s ‘The Undiscovered Self’ which explains the psychological basis of fanaticism and fascism. Jung explains that the unresolved shadow of an individual, especially a world leader and his ‘team’ are often projected onto the ‘other’, making them more threatening than they really are. I read this just as GW Bush entered Iraq. Here was GW creating a fictitious WMD crisis to justify his agenda. Who has killed more Iraqis? Hussein or GW? While there is no doubt Hussein was a tyrant, was GW any less of one?
Here with Abbott & Co, we have exactly the same mechanism in action with the ‘enemy’ being asylum seekers, environmentalists, carers, pensioners, students, school-leavers, single mums …
Australians might have a latent racist underbelly but when push to comes to shove, we’ve always looked out for our neighbour in times of crisis. Compare the Brisbane floods to Katrina and New Orleans, and the contrasting ways our cultures responded.
Abbott is a dangerous man and unfit to lead our country. Only through education about his agenda, as per John Biggs’ article above, can we hope to make his time in office and short as possible. As Paul Keating noted, God Help Us!
#manunplugged
Kylie
June 9, 2014 at 13:45
A very interesting and well presented article and argument that Australia’s government is fascist.
John Biggs
June 9, 2014 at 13:49
#2. I didn’t look at the bizarre alignments of the Liberals in Tas, Karl, because my article was about the Abbott Government. But there is a great article to be written on Liberal Tas, and who better than you to write it?
#8,9,13,21. I made my case with defining fascism, outlining its more important characteristics, and seeing if actions by the Abbott Government matched those characeristics. And in most cases they did. If you disagree with my conclusions then by all means point out where I’m wrong, in my definitions or in my interpretations of what the Abbott government has done.
Instead what you have done is in part what I am accusing Abbott of doing: throwing around insults without making any case at all for your positions.
TGC, you’ll disagree without even reading it? Why don’t you stand for politics — as a Liberal of course, you’d feel at home.
#9 “a tad more conservative than the last Labor Govt”? I don’t think you can have read the article if you think that. The Budget alone is extreme, not just a tad more conservative.
What I’d really like to read is not just bare assertions but a reasoned evidence-based case that the Greens and environmentalists in general are communist extremists. How about it?
Sel
June 9, 2014 at 14:03
Can we just let go of the who was born where thing? This is supposed to be a discussion about whether Abbott is democratic. 25% of Australians are born overseas. It stands to reason that some of them will make their way to the parliament – and so what if they do? All the better.
Biggs – Abbott didn’t exactly control the media but he did everything he could to avoid it (and after some recent footage, I don’t blame him). Nevertheless, whether he is good at dealing with the media or not – and he clearly has some problems with answering off-the-cuff – he has to. After all democracy is ‘rule by the people’ and with this government it seems like they are saying something like ‘oh we are representing your interests, but you little people need not worry your little heads with the details. We stopped the boats didn’t we’. Well who knows whether he actually has. It seems to me that the asylum seekers aren’t dying on the high sees (although it is difficult to actually get that confirmed); they are dying in scott morrison’s care instead by their own hand or by the staff employed by Morrison/Abbott.
For someone with just a smidgen of psychology in my background, both Morrison and Abbott exhibit symptoms of anti-social personality disorder. Calling asylum seekers ‘boats’ is indicative of this. As is turning them around, keeping them in custody on customs vessels and adding more asylum seekers to turned around boats (where the hell did they get those ones from anyway?).
And the wink? That was a clear alarm bell for a head shrinker. It wasn’t the fact that she works on the sex-line, it was the fact that she had just finished telling him how many of her chronic illnesses were life threatening – clearly he does lack compassion and empathy. A balanced person should have been horrified at her situation.
Nigel Crisp
June 9, 2014 at 15:18
You saved the best line until last John when you said “……. they’ll self-destruct, to peals of international laughter”.
Yes you are correct and I think it’ll be this government’s response to Climate Change that starts the self-destruct process.
After all who needs a Planet when you have an economy.
Jenny
June 9, 2014 at 15:34
More xenophobic garbage on display here from some posters.
#3.“Great Tasmanian representation – a German in the Senate, and a Serbian in the House of Reps. Fascism is a state of mind. We are well on the way.
#3 Ann is the above comment a quote or is this your opinion?
#2 Why is an Australian citizen’s ethnic background relevant. Your commentary across a range of threads features the consistent raising of politicians ethnic background. Why is this?
Sam
June 9, 2014 at 15:45
You are kidding, right? Jeez I would love to see you live under a truly fascist regime, and then you’d really have something to cry about.
Get your head out, look around and realise how lucky you are. Instead of wasting your time on this propaganda, perhaps direct your gaze at the current investigation into Union thuggery which could bring down Gillard and a whole lot of labour cronies. Or wait, does criticising Gillard make me a mysoginist?
Or maybe direct your vile at the greens, the group of socialists masquerading as environmentalists whose dangerous way of politics could truly see the demise of this nation.
You’re free to criticise Abbott and I have no issue with it. What I do have issue with it the misdirected tabloid style reporting in which you’ve decided to do it.
Des Pensable
June 9, 2014 at 16:09
Excellent article with compelling evidence that we have a form of a fascist government. Few conservative Australians will agree as the thought is too horrifying to concede. Those more progressive already have no doubt. I suspect that we will see over the next couple of years a growing divide between the conservative welded on pro liberal party followers and the rest of the community. This is probably intentional as neo liberal policy is antisocial and divisive. Perhaps it is timely as the Australian population has been isolated and complacent about world affairs.
thomas connelly
June 9, 2014 at 16:24
If Mussolini was right and “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”, then we have been fascist country for many years now.
Mike
June 9, 2014 at 18:51
Tony Abbott is not a fascist, he does not have enough power. He just happens to be the Prime Puppet for the time being.
To find out who the real fascists are that run Australia you need to look at the political donors. Especially the large ones that donate to both the Labor and Liberal parties at the same time.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/may/28/australia-political-donations-parties
It should be no surprise that apart from individuals, Banking and financial companies are at the top of the list.
Find out who controls those and you get the names of the real fascist puppet masters!
Christopher Nagle
June 9, 2014 at 19:20
‘Fascism’ has become a facile, crying wolf, fudging ideological cliche pedaled by people who have little idea what it is, to audiences who know even less.
However, the colonization of bourgeois democracies by demogarchs might mean that we have become subject to a very new kind of privatized totalitarianism, where mass consciousness has effectively been hijacked by marketers and PR firms.
We are now into a third generation of hardened overgrown adolescent shop troop who will buy anything given enough massaging stimulus. All the social software that might interrupt that process has been systematically marginalized over a 60-70 year period in a process of libertarian civil and market deregulation.
The results are high levels of market compliance and conformity to messages from the sponsors, and an existential and social hinterland that has had its guts ripped out, leaving civil populations helpless in the face of their rulers, and without the critical faculties necessary to do anything about it.
That is not even remotely fascism, but it is all the more insidious for that, for it exists below the social recognition software that would alert mass populations to the extent to which they have been suborned.
Kim Peart
June 9, 2014 at 21:30
Re: 26 ~ John Biggs
I would say that the stake in the heart of Australian democracy was hammered home when we were told by the US to turn our backs on the West Papuans in 1962, allowing Indonesia to march in and begin there regime of suppression, torture, rape and murder.
During the 1950s we had been working with the Dutch toward the independence of the whole island of New Guinea, which could have become one very large island nation.
I wonder if our path back to truth and liberty lies in revisiting our 1962 betrayal of the Papuans.
Then we may begin to find our independent mind.
Until then, our politics is shaped as a vassal state of Washington and later maybe of China, because we don’t know our own mind.
I wonder if our willingness to be dictated to has resulted in authoritarian styles, as this nation must be managed, rather then inspired as a vibrant democratic society.
Concerning the Greens, I have my own personal experience from when secretary of the Ralphs Bay group questioning the Walker marina proposal.
Some Green members decided to take control of the group and organised there own unofficial meeting, with a select list of invitees, who passed a no-confidence motion in myself and the president.
It was a rather brutal coupe that reminded me of the fascist approach to securing power.
It was a power play that ultimately served to deliver one of the plotters a ministerial position in State government.
I informed the Greens about the affair, but was met with stony silence.
I was shocked that the Green organisation tolerated such unprincipled and ruthless conduct.
When I raised this matter in the media, I was threatened with legal action for speaking the truth.
I told them to go for it, but they didn’t risk that.
It was the old developer’s tactic of threatening legal action that is then not pursued.
Since that experience I have washed my hands of the Greens.
Some experiences get personal.
Kim Peart
davies
June 9, 2014 at 21:43
If we truly lived under a fascist regime then this website would be closed and several authors and contributors would be jailed. Fascists, much like their more numerous and odious counterparts Communists, do not allow dissent.
These authoritarian regimes, and I include the Communists, quite happily kill their opponents…by the thousands, and for the really screwed up authoritarians by the millions. Under Mao approximately 50 million people were killed as a direct result of Communist rule, in Russia around 35 million, and in Cambodia around 30% of the population. And just to put that into comparison, Pinochet reputedly killed around 1300 political opponents which is the same number that drowned trying to get to Australia under Rudd and Gillard.
So now that we have an idea what a truly authoritarian regime is capable of doing let’s compare this to the evidence provided that this Australian Government is fascist.
Psychopathic tendencies – lacking empathy, no guilt, seeking revenge, compulsive lying, narcissism. Biggs provide 3 examples. Is that it? On Banton it was a stupid comment to make for which Abbott later regretted and apologised for. Doesn’t sound like Abbott experiences no guilt. The ‘shit happens’ example proves nothing, except he needs a better sound bite spin doctor. As for the last example, I would have laughed out loud as the story seemed like a total set up.
So any examples of seeking revenge? Narcissism? The guy has been doing community and charity work for years. Most of the time, and quite deliberately, with no media presence. Those that meet him and work with him seem to like him. Just an ordinary bloke they say.
Now compare that to a true narcissist like Rudd or Obama…
Rules by slogan – Doesn’t all parties? All parties feel the general population is pretty dumb and cannot be trusted (Labor and the Greens particularly think this which is why they try for nanny statism at every opportunity). As for the insults Abbott got and still gets more than any other PM. Not surprising when the impulse to insult is a core socialist tactic.
Culture of Lying – That ‘Independent Australia’ article was the best laugh I had in a long time…until I realised they were being serious. All politicians lie, yet this light comic relief article tries to state that Rudd lied only once and Gillard never!!!! I think you may need to read about the Royal Commissions.
Maintains an Underclass etc – Again sounds like most Governments. But I would argue that it is much more important for a socialist government to maintain an underclass since they can control it and get it to vote for them. Nothing better for a socialist government than having an underclass reliant on state welfare, state jobs, state transport and state education.
As for every positive initiative by Labor. Seriously? Under Labor, Gonski was not a national scheme since they provided no funding to WA, QLD and NT. Under Libs, it became a national scheme. Now Gonski is a pile of crap, but only under the Libs is a pile of crap that all States and Territories can enjoy.
NDIS under Labor was barely a thought bubble. It will not work because it is simply unaffordable.
Gambling reforms. These the reforms Gillard promised to Wilkie in return for his vote? No wait, Gillard reneged on those. Some would say lied!
NBN! Really you want to mention this? It is an absolute disaster from the kick off. Which is what you would expect when two politicians get together and hatch a policy written on the back of an envelope. The Libs look like they may be trying to save the project, probably not trying too hard, but is it savable? On current estimates the Labor plan of fibre to the home would take another 15 years and cost $120B. By then of course it will probably be obsolete.
Budget…stop ya sooking. Sure it could have been better targeted but it is hardly tough.
Filters information – I am sure they do, just like every other Government but obviously not as much as you do.
cont
davies
June 9, 2014 at 21:44
cont
Controls the Media – Think your one Government too late on that assertion. Unless of course proposed internet filers, government control of media companies, and directly ringing editors to abuse them is ok when a Labor Government does them. That would make your position a tad hypocritical would it not?
Militaristic – Really? Of course the humane policy under Rudd and Gillard only killed 1300 or so men, women and children so I can see why Abbott’s policy is militaristic. Just on that, Sarah Hanson-Young’s response to those drownings was a rather flippant ‘accidents happen’. How does that fit into your psychopath response kit?
Poor World Neighbour – just your opinion. According to a number of diplomats, Abbott is way superior to Rudd who just lectured everyone.
Takes over industry – in your own words ‘this is not so in Australia’. But never mind it still means fascism!!!
You write well but your argument that this Government is fascist a joke and an insult to those that have lived under a fascist or communist regime.
You hate Abbott. That’s fine. You can mount an effective argument against some of his policies and directions very effectively without going completely over the mark and calling them fascist.
Ian Carter
June 10, 2014 at 01:38
Look at Abbott’s performance and his ideology; what inspired him?
Perhaps the evidence will be found in his work-book:
“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.â€
― Adolf Hitler
“What luck for rulers that men do not think.â€
― Adolf Hitler
“It is not truth that matters, but victory.â€
― Adolf Hitler
“By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.â€
― Adolf Hitler
“The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.â€
― Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.
Steve
June 10, 2014 at 01:56
#29; Jenny. Good to see you’ve dropped the racist taunt in favour of xenophobia.
Xenophobia is more relevant as the application is subjective. Do you consider that Karl and others are displaying irrational fear of foreigners? If you do, your description is probably apt.
Karl Stevens
June 10, 2014 at 03:01
Today we see ‘insurgents’ have captured the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Taliban are attempting to re-take Karachi Airport.
So what did career-soldier Andrew Nikolic achieve by earning decorative medals invading these 2 countries? What did the Howard ‘war cabinet’ of Tony Abbott and Erich Abetz achieve by carrying-out an illegal invasion of a soverign nation based on breakfast cereal box intelligence?
Wake-up Australian Liberal Party, you claim there is a ‘budget crisis’ when you wasted out boom times on childish wars that undermined our national security. Shame.
bazzabee
June 10, 2014 at 03:06
Having just read this string it seems to me that a lot of people many of whom should know better, but clearly don’t, are confused by just what Fascism is.
The most common mistake here is that most of the correspondents are assuming that National Socialism as described by Adolf Hitler in Mien Kampf and Fascism are one and the same horned beast they aren’t. And what is more they never were.
That the two political beliefs shared some common ideas does not make the two synonymous.
Fascism mostly associated with Benito Mussolini and Italy was to a greater or lesser degree a political force in most countries in the first half of the 20th century including Australia.
Whereas National Socialism was tragically and uniquely German. Although some countries and their leaders were willing to adopt it during WWII notably Croatia, Ukraine and Rumania. The latter two countries had along with Russia and Prussia a long history of violent even murderous anti-Semitism. But it was their shared hatred of Russian Bolshevism that really cemented their loyalty to Hitlerian Germany.
Historically Fascism and National Socialism had their beginnings in the mid part of the 19th Century although the virulent/murderous anti-Semitism of Adolf Hitler had a far darker and longer past than Italian, Spanish or for that matter Australian Fascism.
And while I share many of the opinions about Tony Abbott and some members of his government and party he isn’t a Fascist. Abbott isn’t even a social fascist, a broad brush term invented by mid 20th century communists, to describe some if not all of Stalin’s social democratic enemies even members of the Left such as the British Labour Party, ILP and Fabian groups.
Fascism is far too serious to be used as a political label of convenience to be attached easily and thoughtlessly to one’s political foes just because they march to a different drumbeat albeit one I also in this case dislike.
Having said that it doesn’t harm in fact it is I feel essential that those of us who still of the Left remain vigilant because Fascism is once again on the rise as we have seen recently in Greece, Holland and France.
C
June 10, 2014 at 10:39
The Fascism may be closer to home than you good people think. I find Really Very Interesting indeed that Will Hodgman’s threats to legislate for mandatory sentencing for protesters, made some time towards the end of last year, seem to have vanished now that he is ensconced as Premier. Perhaps he’s biding his time. If he proceeds with it he’ll need to explain where the funding is coming for the extra prison he’ll need to build.
And Mr Nikolic, the Facebook Liar…don’t get me started. I saw him in action during the federal election campaign while I was handing out how-to-votes outside a pre-polling centre, for Peter Whish-Wilson. I swear one day Nikolic turned up to smile and look stupid with a couple of bodyguards. You cannot make this shit up. I also (because I’m Really Very Polite) had to shake Eric Abetz’s hand while performing that service for the Greens. Now that’s taking one for the team.
Karl Stevens
June 10, 2014 at 12:18
Steve 40. Call it xenophobia if you like but why is Bass in Tasmania represented by what I term a ‘Serbian Warlord’?
Why can’t Australia have an Australian-born prime minister anymore?
Why have our ‘foreign born’ prime ministers shut down our entire manufacturing sector?
Why is our ‘foreign born’ prime minister holding an inquiry into who paid for Julia Gillards house when he didn’t have an inquiry into why his government slaughtered up to half a million Iraqis and destabilised the entire Middle East?
Why does the ‘lucky country’ have to beg for investment from 3rd world countries just to support it’s massive, bloated tax system and archaic ‘British Empire’ public service?
Why has our ‘foreign born’ prime minister declared war on the people he made unemployed by shifting manufacturing to Asia?
Why is our ‘foreign born’ prime minister forcing Australians to work up to the age of 70?
Why is our ‘foreign born’ prime minister continually lying to Australians and cheating them out of every minor asset including their unused bank accounts?
Pamela
June 10, 2014 at 13:05
I’ve studied psychology both formally and informally, with a particular interest in psychopathy. From my observations the whole front bench of this Far Right Wing party ticks all the boxes on the Psychopath Checklist.
My personal test is by the eyes, they are cold, hard and ‘dead’ of any feeling (particularly those of Julie Bishop). Their favourite feigned emotion is anger because they’ve learned it’s a handy tool to use to control others. Any charm is also affected and used as a ploy to reach their own goals.
Keith Antonysen
June 10, 2014 at 13:11
An interesting article in relation to Canada.
https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/what-happened-to-canada/
bazzabee
June 10, 2014 at 14:55
42/44 There was one historic characteristic that I failed to address at #42. It was a characteristic particularly prevalent in National Socialism and that was extreme nationalism.
It could be argued that it was Germanic nationalism that was the clearest difference between National Socialism and corporate and militaristic Fascism. In Germany nationalism had had a long and deadly tradition which when mixed with overt Prussian militarism saw German expansionism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nationalism appeals to a false highly structured often hierarchical but mostly imaginary interpretation of a peoples, not a country’s, shared history. Hitler argued for the and finally achieved if only for a few years Germanic unity when he invaded Austria, annexed the Sudetenland and conquered Poland thus taking back what had been vast amounts of land in the east land that had been for centuries part of Prussia.
Nationalism is like Fascism once again a growing force in Europe. In Eastern Europe extremist Nationalist groups are well organized in Ukraine they are also well armed and only too willing to kill.
A dangerously militaristic Nationalism is on the rise in Russia where President Putin has not been averse to mix and manipulate religion and nationalism, a highly volatile combination, in order to combat democratic opposition forces in that vast country. It would also seem that nationalism has to lesser extent gained a foothold in the UK with the rise of the somewhat dubious right wing breakaway Tory group UKIP.
Closer to home I suspect from the almost incoherent ramblings of Clive Palmer and some of PUP’s Senators elect that nationalism is the base of their political beliefs. Added to which in Clive Palmer’s case gross self-interest may play more than a small part as he clearly feels cheated that his years and years of support for the Queensland coalition failed to pay the financial dividends he feels were his due return.
Firstly, in Queensland and then nationally Nationalism and xenophobia formed the base of Pauline Hanson’s beliefs and that of many in her party. Just as it clearly does in Karl Steven’s xenophobic response at #40 when he describes the latest Federal member for Bass as a “Serbian Warlord” and suggesting that the government has been it would seem deliberately been “shifting manufacturing to Asia”.
Joan Emberg
June 10, 2014 at 15:03
‘Is the Abbott government fascist?’…YES
Jenny
June 10, 2014 at 15:09
#44 Seeing a pattern now Steve?
Search back through TT archives.
We can quibble all day about whether stevens is a racist or xenophobe. Either way his extreme views on so called foreign born Australians are IMO more extreme & bizarre than any of the Liberals xenophobic policies.
I dont want views like stevens censored. Publish them. Give them enough rope & let TT correspondents with an ounce of guts call him out.
Leonard Colquhoun
June 10, 2014 at 15:21
This thread needed Comment 43, otherwise it would have been at serious risk of becoming a collection of childishly absurdist rants which even many of today’s under-prepared undergrads would have been deeply ashamed of.
Particularly timely is its warning that “Fascism is far too serious to be used as a political label of convenience to be attached easily and thoughtlessly to one’s political foes just because they march to a different drumbeat”; the same could apply to that other pejorative of the malignant Left, ‘Racist!!!’
An indiscriminate, brainless and infantile use of these two terms as the argumentative equivalent of the head-butt is offensively demeaning to actual victims of real fascism & racism.
Besides, if a TT thread has other purposes than just venting brainless slogans, this sort of rubbish preaches only to those of like mentality – it can never be persuasive to thoughtfully mature people with minds open to, and with hearts welcoming of, other rational viewpoints.
TGC
June 10, 2014 at 15:46
Oh, come on #45- that’s just absolute piffle.
Cut it out!
C
June 10, 2014 at 16:56
Piffle is in the eye of the beholder, TGC. Gosh knows you’ve written plenty in your time.
Leonard Colquhoun
June 10, 2014 at 16:58
Sorry all: my Comment 50 should have started with “This thread needed Comment 42 . . “.
(Probably from upscrolling from the Comments box.)