Auspol June - Can't Afford the Education to Think of a Witty Thread Title

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Zenithe: Feb 25, 2013; _{Ask not to whom the Anidavatar belongs; it belongs to thee.}

"respecting the law" is about the most bullshit reason coming from our current immigration minister.

Breaking international law? fine
Breaking UN conventions? fine
Breaking universal human rights? fine

Spending a day or two in a country to attend the funeral of your young son? Nope, can't go breaking the rules now can we.

This cartoon villainy is pathetic and sad. Just as bad is that this move will have its share of supporters.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 03:17

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 00:39

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Mad Katter posted:

This really distresses me. Self immolation would be an absolutely horrific thing to endure, and I can't imagine the desperation that would drive someone to commit such an act.

The thing I find most troubling though is Australia's response. People just don't seem to care. The story of the monk setting himself on fire in Vietnam spread throughout the globe and captured the world's attention. Self immolation in Tunisia kick started a series of revolutions.

This happened in Australia and it barely registered a blip in the news. People are just like "whatever". It's absolutely hosed and I can't understand what is wrong with people.

Does his self immolation affect negative gearing? The block? Football?

Nope? Don't care.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 03:33

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Also the 'wouldn't want to live next to his type' like tub guts said the other day.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 03:35

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/05/emergency-dole-payments-will-be-funded-by-benefit-cuts-senators-told?CMP=soc_567

quote:

Emergency relief payments to young people who are cut off from unemployment benefits under changes in the federal budget will be partly funded by the money saved from not paying them the benefits, Senate estimates has heard.

The treasurer, Joe Hockey, said the payments to up to 500,000 under 30-year-olds during the next four years � were part of the government's "huge" safety net.

In the budget, the government announced young unemployed people would be denied benefits for six months if they were not in training or studying. Some people, such as single parents, would be exempt.

The Department of Social Services told the estimates hearings on Wednesday that the emergency payments for essentials such as food and bills could be available to under-30s cut off from the dole.

On Thursday Labor and Green senators tried to find out where in the budget the extra emergency payments would come from, and were told they would come in part from the $1.2bn being saved from payments in Newstart and Youth Allowance.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 03:40

CROWS EVERYWHERE: Dec 17, 2012; CAW CAW CAW; Dinosaur Gum

gay picnic defence posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/05/emergency-dole-payments-will-be-funded-by-benefit-cuts-senators-told?CMP=soc_567

Oh my god

# ? Jun 7, 2014 03:43

Seagull: Oct 9, 2012; give me a chip

You dumb motherfuckers.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 03:46

CROWS EVERYWHERE: Dec 17, 2012; CAW CAW CAW; Dinosaur Gum

Sure, we'll give you your money. If you loving beg for it.

*whipcrack*

e: Please no one think of Tony Abbott in dom gear.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 03:46

Vladimir Poutine: Aug 13, 2012

CROWS EVERYWHERE posted:

e: Please no one think of Tony Abbott in dom gear.

gently caress you.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 03:52

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Yeah I wouldn't have until you loving mentioned it.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:03

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Apparently plain packaging works, although The Australian would have you believe otherwise.

http://thekouk.com/blog/the-australian-s-claim-on-tobacco-go-up-in-smoke.html

quote:

The Australian is at it again. It is running another fact-less story with the express intent of undermining a key policy of the previous Labor government and what is disconcerting this time, is that it is pushing the line of the tobacco industry.

Today there is a Page One story by Christian Kerr which makes the sensational claim that "Labor's nanny state push to kill off the country's addiction to cigarettes with plain packaging has backfired, with new sales figures showing tobacco consumption growing during the first full year of the new laws".

The "exclusive" story based on "new data obtained by The Australian" claims that "tobacco sales volumes increased by 59 million 'sticks' ... last year". The source of this shock finding is "industry monitor" InfoView which is "backed up by retailers, consumer marketers and the industry". Only Philip Morris and the Australasian Associates of Convenience Stores are cited.

Fortunately, the story is wrong.

Consumption of tobacco and cigarettes is falling and has fallen sharply since the plain packaging rules were implemented in December 2012.

Just this week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the national accounts and buried in those accounts is a measure of the volume of household consumption of cigarettes and tobacco.

The figures from the ABS show that total consumption of tobacco and cigarettes in the March quarter 2014 is the lowest ever recorded � and this with the series starting in 1959. This is extraordinary. It is a Great Depression for tobacco sales.

Making this record low consumption of tobacco all the more fantastic is that the fact that the consumption numbers are not adjusted for population growth which, by definition, means per capita consumption of tobacco and cigarettes is also at a record low.

Making a mockery of The Australian's story is the fact that, in seasonally adjusted volume terms, consumption of tobacco is 5.3 per cent lower in the March quarter 2014 than in the December quarter 2012 when the plain packaging laws were introduced.

It seems like The Australian is pushing, in a high profile front page story, baseless information fed to it from pressure groups with a vested interest to sell more tobacco and cigarettes. With sales cascading, there are looking for any pressure to change the rules that are obviously working to reduce tobacco consumption.

And just to round out a few more facts on the wonderful success of the anti-smoking campaign over the past few decades, the overall consumption of cigarettes has fallen 51 per cent since the mid 1980s, a time when Australia's population has risen by just under 50 per cent. Wow!

This is good news indeed, despite the tripe and flotsam dished up, yet again, in the Australian.

I've never really followed Stephen Koukoulas, is he alright?

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:05

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Those On My Beet posted:

I've never really followed Stephen Koukoulas, is he alright?

He's a Labor economist so he can be a bit partisan at times, but he's generally pretty good.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:08

Bifauxnen: Aug 12, 2010; Curses! Foiled again!

gay picnic defence posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/05/emergency-dole-payments-will-be-funded-by-benefit-cuts-senators-told?CMP=soc_567

This is so circular I had to laugh.

Since the Guardian actually has good comments, I had a look and found a very nice analogy:

quote:

Actually they are not broke goran, but if you insist, as does Abbott, in equating national economies with personal finances (and they have about nil in common), then every Australian that is currently paying of a house is also broke and should stop feeding their children until they pay off the mortgage.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:09

Vladimir Poutine: Aug 13, 2012

Those On My Beet posted:

Apparently plain packaging works, although The Australian would have you believe otherwise.

The place I'm housesitting at gets the Australian delivered, and in case you were wondering, that is literally the banner headline.

I'm not opening it :colbert:

I think every single issue has an anti-Labor or anti-Palmer article (or both) on the front page.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:13

Drugs: Jul 16, 2010; I don't like people who take drugs. Customs agents, for example - Albert Einstein

Koukoulas is an absolute master at trolling the Dogfucker

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:19

Seagull: Oct 9, 2012; give me a chip

TURNBULL PASSES ON CHANCE TO KILL LEADERSHIP TALK

What will this mean for Christopher Pyne's leadership ambitions?

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:23

hooman: Oct 11, 2007; This guy seems legit.; Fun Shoe

Kevin Rudd, next leader of the Liberal Party.

But what does this mean for Kevin's leadership ambitions?

Holy poo poo, the media is loving relentless with this bullshit. They must have realised it sells.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:26

thatbastardken: Apr 23, 2010; A contract signed by a minor is not binding!

More like Pisstopher Crying.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:27

tithin: Nov 14, 2003; [Grandmaster Tactician]

In a better world, newspapers deliver news, not political propaganda.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:36

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Vladimir Poutine posted:

The place I'm housesitting at gets the Australian delivered, and in case you were wondering, that is literally the banner headline.

I'm not opening it

I think every single issue has an anti-Labor or anti-Palmer article (or both) on the front page.

The people whose place you're house sitting pay to have The Australian delivered?

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:45

I would blow Dane Cook: Dec 26, 2008

Next time you see something in the Australian that annoys you just stop and ask yourself, "when was the last time I saw someone reading the Australian?"

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:46

Cartoon: Jun 20, 2008; poop

No, Hammy old chap, things that are delivered come out of a different hole.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:47

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Cartoon posted:

No, Hammy old chap, things that are delivered come out of a different hole.

Noice.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:48

Vladimir Poutine: Aug 13, 2012

Those On My Beet posted:

The people whose place you're house sitting pay to have The Australian delivered?

Yeah, they're Greens voters too :iiam:

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:48

i got banned: Sep 24, 2010; lol abbottwon

Can you pay money to have it not delivered?

Maybe it's a case of keep your friends close and your enemies even closer

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:48

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Next time you see something in the Australian that annoys you just stop and ask yourself, "when was the last time I saw someone reading the Australian?"

I read that edition on Friday at Oporto.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:49

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Vladimir Poutine posted:

Yeah, they're Greens voters too

Well now you've said they're greens voters I'll keep my suggestions to myself.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:51

hooman: Oct 11, 2007; This guy seems legit.; Fun Shoe

Doctor Spaceman posted:

I read that edition on Friday at Oporto.

How to Auspol wrong, 2014, Spaceman, D.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 04:51

Nibbles!: Jun 26, 2008; TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP

make australia great again as well please

Just to go back to Morrison remember that the minister has final say and can reject or approve any application they want regardless of departmental findings. So much compassion.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 05:01

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

hooman posted:

How to Auspol wrong, 2014, Spaceman, D.

I only read it because the Telegraph wasn't there.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 05:14

Zenithe: Feb 25, 2013; _{Ask not to whom the Anidavatar belongs; it belongs to thee.}

Those On My Beet posted:

Apparently plain packaging works, although The Australian would have you believe otherwise.

http://thekouk.com/blog/the-australian-s-claim-on-tobacco-go-up-in-smoke.html

I've never really followed Stephen Koukoulas, is he alright?

There was an interview yesterday on ABC radio which was made of solid gold.

basically, a cigarette company spokesperson was trying to explain that

A) Labor are bad
B) Plain packaging laws do nothing
C) Plain packaging laws are bad for business
D) Plain packaging laws increased sales
E) There is no conflict of interest in a cigarette company paying for this research

# ? Jun 7, 2014 05:23

Ronald Nixon: Mar 18, 2012

Mad Katter posted:

This really distresses me. Self immolation would be an absolutely horrific thing to endure, and I can't imagine the desperation that would drive someone to commit such an act.

The thing I find most troubling though is Australia's response. People just don't seem to care. The story of the monk setting himself on fire in Vietnam spread throughout the globe and captured the world's attention. Self immolation in Tunisia kick started a series of revolutions.

This happened in Australia and it barely registered a blip in the news. People are just like "whatever". It's absolutely hosed and I can't understand what is wrong with people.

Is it because people don't understand what it means? Most of middle Australia have options, and in every life horizon they can see they have alternatives that are roughly on par. There is no imaginable situation for most people where setting yourself alight becomes the best option open to you, so there's no ability to relate to it. Therefore, it's just a strange thing that someone did, that as far as most people can tell, has no explanation.

To go further, and I have to put my hand up and say I didn't grasp this until well into adulthood, protests like this and hunger strikes etc are aimed to give an ultimatum to the government - do something or someone dies. People dying from hunger strikes in particular are a manifestation of the government's inability to protect its citizens (or refugees I suppose) from death. But I don't think most people understand to make this link.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 05:58

Mattjpwns: Dec 14, 2006; In joyful strains then let us sing
ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FUCKED

So. Today a Young Liberal decided I was "just a bogan" because I'm against the proposed cuts to welfare.

This Is A Thing That Happened.

:psyduck:

# ? Jun 7, 2014 06:12

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Mattjpwns posted:

So. Today a Young Liberal decided I was "just a bogan" because I'm against the proposed cuts to welfare.

This Is A Thing That Happened.

So not a commie or whatever, a bogan?

# ? Jun 7, 2014 06:16

ewe2: Jul 1, 2009

Going back to Abbott in Wonderland and the officials of Doooom story, I don't think it's simply a matter of cluelessness or climate change that is at the base of it. Think about the ideological bent of this government and the kind of interests here and in the US, and it seems more likely they're trying to control the message.

They know they can't control what the officials bring back from such meetings but they can shake the tree a little by such reports and try and learn something from the reactions. Yes, that is mad, paranoid and more than a little silly but that's the tea party way. Abbott has people to placate who are more than a little worried that he'll be forced into some kind of track on policy and they're looking for some wiggle-room so that he can at least pretend to look independent and not sign anything they hate.

If they can't stop that (and I don't think they can stop policy dictated by the big boys), they can at least look like it wasn't with their agreement or it's a complete surprise to them or any number of other tactics that will completely fail to fool anyone with a brain cell and 5 minutes to spare. The joke is that they'll be judged on it in the future anyway so it's all bullshit.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 06:17

Nibbles!: Jun 26, 2008; TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP

make australia great again as well please

They know there's no basis for a lot of their policies and for their inaction on climate change. Why put themselves in a position to have it pointed out when the objective isn't to address the issues, it's to push their ideological view point?

Mattjpwns posted:

So. Today a Young Liberal decided I was "just a bogan" because I'm against the proposed cuts to welfare.

This Is A Thing That Happened.

People have some weird US rhetoric towards the dole and if you're on it or support it you must be a bludger rorting the system. Of course it tends to be from people who've wanted for nothing in their lives.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 06:25

Lid: Feb 18, 2005; And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.

# ? Jun 7, 2014 06:44

Seagull: Oct 9, 2012; give me a chip

And yet Abbott doesn't even appear.

:laugh:

# ? Jun 7, 2014 06:47

Chicken Parmigiana: Sep 12, 2007

John Safran posted:

White nationalists have called a rally in south Brisbane today. They huddle on one side of a street that runs along a park. Behind the park poke the cranes and skyscrapers of the city skyline. Getting wind of the rally weeks ago, a counter-protest has gathered on the other side of the street, to show support for multiculturalism. Two olive-skinned Greek men stand proud as a mob of angry white faces turn red, screaming and hectoring them.

Before we go any further, there's something you need to know. The olive-skinned Greeks are part of the white nationalist crew. The mob of angry whites are the anti-racists. White nationalism is confusing in 2014.

"Fascist Scum! Off our streets!" bellow the 200-odd anti-fascists at the 20 or so nationalists, a police line dividing the two.

In Greece, Golden Dawn is a fascist party that stands against immigration and multiculturalism. Its leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, has just been thrown into jail, awaiting a trial, charged with forming a criminal organisation. Australia First is our far-right party, also anti-immigration. In solidarity, it is protesting the jailing of Michaloliakos.

But it is not the only group here. Some Greek-Australians have formed a local Golden Dawn. That's how the Greeks have ended up standing on the same side of the street as the white nationalists. But ... but ... aren't Greek-Australians an immigrant community?

A young white guy in a shiny suit and sunglasses appears to be leading the Australia First contingent. "Abolish multiculturalism!" he yells through his megaphone.

"So you're cool with Greek-Australians?" I ask.

"Absolutely," the guy says, pulling the megaphone from his lips. "Greek-Australians. European-Australians, in general."

"So Italians are okay?"

"Yeah, they're okay."

"But back in the 1940s, wouldn't your equivalent have been against Greek-Australians because they were the 'wogs' who were coming here as immigrants and ruining white Australia?"

He shrugs his shoulders, apathetic. "What was going on in the 1940s ... we weren't around in the 1940s, so we can't really comment about what we would have done back then."

Next to him, an old man in a Golden Dawn baseball hat, brandishing a huge Greek flag, smiles like a kindly grandfather. I think he says his name is Paul but honestly I can't tell for sure. His accent is too thick.

"Isn't this a racist thing?"

"My girlfriend is a Chinese woman," is his answer.

The leader of Golden Dawn Australia, Iggy Gavrilidis, unfurls a big Golden Dawn flag. It looks remarkably like the Nazi one, while having wiggle room to claim it's just a coincidence that it's a crooked black symbol on a white background surrounded by red. Gavrilidis positions himself next to the old man with the Chinese girlfriend and the big Greek flag.

"What if a Muslim was flying a Saudi Arabian flag in Australia, would that be okay?" I ask.

A man with a British accent interrupts. "Different species," he says. Greeks and Saudi Muslims are like apples and oranges, he explains. Europeans are more evolved, culturally, and perhaps in other ways, too.

"Are you Greek?" I ask.

"I came here as a Pommy bastard in 1968. My mother is Greek Orthodox. Some of my family is originally from Syria. They had to move out and were refugees in Egypt. Now I prefer Australian culture. That's why I'm here."

He motions across the road, sneering, at his rowdy anti-fascist enemies. "If they really want their culture, they should go back home."

I'm confused. He's making out like a rainbow coalition of ethnics are gathered across the street. But besides one Islander and one Eurasian, all I've seen are white people.

"But what's their culture?" I ask. "They look like white Australians to me."

"Yes, but they want multiculture."

"But aren't you a product of multiculturalism?" I ask the Greek Orthodox British immigrant.

"No. God no."

"But you were born in England ..."

"Of course."

"To a Greek mother ..."

He looks at me coyly.

"I had an Egyptian mother ... just Greek Orthodox religion," he says.

This really is the "It's A Small World" ride of white nationalist rallies.

One thousand Greeks are on this street, just not exactly here. To encourage Greek participation, Australia First called the rally on a strip that holds the Greek Club and a Greek Orthodox Church. Those 1000 Greeks have chosen to attend a funeral service instead of this. Inside the church, the black-cassocked Father Dimitri Tsakas isn't happy. "The fascists kept talking about meeting at the Greek Club, so I went out in the morning, I made sure our flags were down, I made sure the doors were shut, I made sure there were guards on our gates.

"How could a people that, for a century, have migrated to every other nation on Earth, to make a living, to be a part of those societies, possibly, really support a party that beats up migrants on the streets of Athens?!"

I decide to check out what's going down on the other side of the street. I pass a small team of neo-Nazis: black caps, black sunnies, black everything, head to toe. These men, who are distinct from Australia First, serve as the menacing presence of the far-right, so the anti-fascists think twice before starting anything. Their modus operandi is to stand still as statues, cross-armed, and not peep a word, even if someone tries to strike up a conversation. Nevertheless, one mutters at me as I walk by.

"Pardon?" I ask.

"Liked you on Race Around The World," he says.

Cries of "Immigrants welcome! Nazis not!" thunder up and down the street. The anti-fascists include anarchists waving black flags, university lefties (one holding a placard of Cookie Monster saying "Bad Nazi No Biscuit"), a man in a dress and bonnet, and an army of trade unionists from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). In fact, about 100 of the counter-protestors are fit, mainly white, young men from building sites, wearing fluorescent safety vests.

The police line is porous and far-righters and anti-fascists have met up at points, but only a subset of anti-fascists, the trade unionists. The hippies and others are standing well back. A dozen big men surround one skinny Australia First guy in a leather jacket.

"Why's he shaking, mate?" an old, grey-haired man from the CFMEU sarcastically asks a colleague.

"Because he's poo poo-scared," a handsome young guy with a red beard replies.

"Is he?" sing-songs Mr Sarcastic.

"He's petrified," says Red Beard.

"You mean he's scared of us spilling some of his claret on this cement?" continues Mr Sarcastic. He turns to his army. "None of youse would spill any of his claret on the cement now, would ya?"

"Nah!" scream the workers.

"F...in' oath!" announces one.

An Islander goes nose-to-nose with the petrified Australian Firster, whose name is Michael Cole. "Welcome to the future," snaps the Islander.

Cole ducks between the men.

"Weak!" one man shouts after him.

"NAZI SCUM OFF OUR STREETS!" roar the rest.

A shuddering Cole pulls at his leather jacket lapel. "I've got my grandfather's British Legion badge on from when he fought in World War II," he says, trembling. "He was with the Black Watch and I'm a Nazi? I go to dawn service, I wear my grandfather's medals and I'm a Nazi?"

Mr Sarcastic and Red Beard have moved onto another nationalist, in black hoody and sunglasses.

"C...-sucking human being!" shouts Red Beard.

In the far-right rally in my head it would have been a fascist, not an anti-fascist, shouting this.

Mr Sarcastic asks the nationalist what he's doing. He explains he's protesting to free the Golden Dawn leader.

"See ... see, this is not Greece," says Mr Sarcastic. "This is Australia!"

"You're in Australia!" adds Red Beard.

Another phrase that, in the far-right rally in my head, the fascist, not the anti-fascist, would be saying.

A pasty young Australia Firster with a ponytail and acne is drifting through the crowd, waving a large Eureka flag featuring the Southern Cross. A workman stabs his finger in the air. "Don't f...ing use our union flag, you heap of poo poo," he says. "Forty-five nationalities at Eureka, you f...ing clown. Docile f.... Go read a bit of history, genius, hey?"

Four unionists pounce on the pasty kid. Next thing he stumbles out of the pack with his flagpole stripped. Soon I see a young trade unionist walk out from the crowds wearing it as a cape. That's what this is reminding me of. The television footage of the white kids at the 2005 Cronulla riots in Sydney.

The Australian Firster in the shiny suit comes to try to calm things down. "Love your op-shop f...ing suit!" screams an anti-fascist. The crowd of university anarchists and greenies and workers laugh at his cheap suit.

"Look at you - you little anorexic f...," spits the Eureka Historian. "You f...ing dog, you're the hard man in the crew, are ya?"

Laughter rolls through the crowd again.

"You were the c...s that got picked on in school!"

The Australia First rhetoric has morphed over the hours. Under fire, they now speak of another political way. "This is about democracy!" the shiny suit man says. "About people having freedom of movement."

"You're in Australia, you f...wit," explains Red Beard. "There's no freedom of movement when you're a f...ing scum dog, mate."

"F...ing just hook him bro, hook him," adds the Islander.

Half an hour later, like everywhere else in the world, the white nationalists and anti-fascists have all started fidgeting with their smartphones. Everyone in the street looks out of energy.

Soon after, we all slog over to the nearby Greek Consulate, so the Australian Firsters can demand the release of the Golden Dawn leader. Both sides are manic again. City workers walking by are confused.

"They don't like Greeks?" one asks me.

"No, some of them are Greeks, but ... they ... you see ..." It's too hard and I give up.

No one from the Greek Consulate comes out and the far-righters, with panicked eyes upon the unrelenting trade unionists, roll up their Golden Dawn flags. With the police protecting them, they slink off to a nearby maxi taxi. An Indian taxi driver spirits the white nationalists to safety.

Everyone left is in a jolly mood. My smartphone vibrates in my pocket. It's a Facebook message from a stranger, one of the anti-racist protesters. "Saw you before. I wanted to ask what did you think of the protest? I found it a little weird. Kinda like we were the Nazis."

"Why did you feel like you were the Nazis?"

"Because we were a bigger mob harassing a smaller mob. What message are we sending them? That intimidation is okay, that's fine, you just have to have the bigger numbers? The other odd thing was marching people under the hammer and sickle flag. Is this 1945? Where people under the Soviet Union flag are chasing Nazis through the streets? It was like cosplay."

It may have been cosplay today, but Australian white nationalists have been hands-on in recent times. Last year, a neo-Nazi in suburban Melbourne plead guilty to hoarding pipe-bombs and guns. In the same city, two young skinheads are serving time for bashing a Vietnamese international student with a brick in 2012.

The violence rolls on back. Twenty-five years ago, the present-day chairman of Australia First, Jim Saleam, provided a shotgun to two skinheads who fired into the home of the African National Congress representative in Australia. Saleam was sentenced to three-and-a-half years' jail for his involvement. Perhaps today's rallies would have turned out differently had the unionists not got visceral. Maybe multiculturalists should be grateful that men more sinewed than hippies have got their back.

Just before midnight, away from the flags and fluoro vests of the Brisbane CBD, my phone vibrates again. It's Michael Cole from Australia First. He wants to tell me what happened after they escaped in the maxi taxi. "These trade union guys stormed the pub we were at this afternoon and put three blokes in hospital."

Cole sounds shaken. "Now, do you remember speaking to an elderly Greek gentleman today?"

"With the Chinese girlfriend?"

"Yeah, well, that elderly Greek gentleman is currently lying in hospital under observation because he was severely kicked to the head. He's pretty dejected. He's doped to the eyeballs."

The Queensland Police media unit confirm the essentials of Cole's story. Six to eight men stormed the Red Brick Hotel in Woolloongabba, bashed some patrons and fled. Five men were injured, three taken to hospital. A man in his 30s received a possible fracture to his cheek. A man in his 20s was left with a possible broken hand. A 66-year-old male was pushed to the ground and kicked and left with swelling and bruising to the rear of his head. No one has been arrested. The police won't confirm the men were trade unionists.

The next day, Cole will not return my calls and Australia First is spinning the story a different way. Jim Saleam has written on the party's Facebook page: "A couple of activists experienced minor cuts. However, their spirit was undeterred. The responsibility for the violence today does not rest with any worker tricked into action by the CFMEU leader-group. It rests with this small core of union officials and organisers."

CFMEU head office tell me they have not heard from police about the punch-up in the pub. They say they condemn fascism, but do not condone violence.

Saleam has two things to spin. First, his men came up short under "might is right", the very system the far-righters want. Second, his men's sense of self is built on believing they're standing for the real Australians, against the so-called leftie rabble. But what happens when the archetype real Australians - young, white working men - stand with that rabble, surround you on the street and tell you to piss off?

I stare at Jim Saleam's surname and start wondering why it kind of sounds like the Arabic word for peace. I find an old magazine article from when Jim was planning a run for parliament. He denies it, of course, but people who knew Jim's parents and grandparents from his old hometown of Maryborough, Queensland, say this: Jim's from a Lebanese immigrant family.

That's the cherry on the pavlova. Australia: where even the immigrants hate immigrants. And where even the anti-racists bash wogs.