Aupairs September: What's the bloody go with 'em?!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Aupairs September: What's the bloody go with 'em?!

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Eediot Jedi: Dec 25, 2007; This is where I begin to speculate what being a
man of my word costs me

Doctor Spaceman posted:

The bit of S44 that might apply to Dutton is, in principle, a lot more reasonable than the dual citizenship stuff.

Yeah you're right, I forgot his case was different. Burn them all down etc etc.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 15:39

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 7, 2024 11:25

SMILLENNIALSMILLEN: Jun 26, 2009

bandaid.friend posted:

Is Fatman Scoop going to hold Morrison to account, or is he going to make something entertaining? I was thinking of pollies who appeared on Hard Chat or Chaser, the minor embarrassment doesn't exactly hurt, it just makes them look game, brings out their human side

The onion didn't work for Abbott because he is entirely reptilian

morrisons going to stand next to him and, while doing his best impression of a human being (read: two sharks caps), talk about political correctnesss gone mad

SMILLENNIALSMILLEN fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Sep 14, 2018

# ? Sep 14, 2018 15:42

Moon Atari: Dec 26, 2010

bandaid.friend posted:

Is Fatman Scoop going to hold Morrison to account, or is he going to make something entertaining?

It doesn't matter what Mr Scoop does. I have absolute faith in Scomo's ability to gently caress it up.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 16:02

Moon Atari: Dec 26, 2010

I do want to believe that my beloved Fatman will receive a sufficient explanation of Australian politics to change his mind though.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 16:09

JBP: Feb 16, 2017; You've got to know, to understand,
Baby, take me by my hand,
I'll lead you to the promised land.

Speaker: Would the honourable member for New York please respond to the question from the opposition regarding national rail funding.

ScoopMo: Well if my train goes off the tracks pick it up, pick it up, pick it up, WHO'S FUCKIN TONIGHT, WHO'S FUCKIN TONIGHT, WHO'S FUCKIN TONIGHT

# ? Sep 14, 2018 16:12

Tokamak: Dec 22, 2004

Fatman Scoop is going to spend months getting hyped that Australia's PM will attend his show, only to be told on the night that he's now a former PM.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 16:20

Don Dongington: Sep 27, 2005; #ideasboom; College Slice

Julie Bishop, sitting on the back bench, idly googling "chicken head"

*Eyebrow shoots up*

# ? Sep 14, 2018 16:20

I would blow Dane Cook: Dec 26, 2008

Quasimango posted:

The funny part about journos/politicians quoting what they think are the most explicit lyrics of the Fatman Scoop song is that it shows they don't know what "chickenheads" means.

https://vimeo.com/197107060

# ? Sep 14, 2018 16:33

BrigadierSensible: Feb 16, 2012; I've got a pocket full of cheese🧀, and a garden full of trees🌴.

On the politicians and music thing:

A few years ago Rage did a thing where they got someone high up in each party to program Rage for a night, (not the whole night, but each person got 4 or 5 songs)

The Labour and Greens guys tried to be young and hip and picked some songs that would resonate with the "yoof"

Julie Bishop went "gently caress that, I am a 50+ year old woman. Popular culture has passed me by a long time ago" and picked Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell etc.

It made me like her a little bit more, coz she was being who she was, (a middle class white middle aged lady), rather than pretending to be cool.

The American equivalent was Paul Ryan pretending that Rage Against The Machine was his favourite band.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 18:07

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.

Moon Atari posted:

I do want to believe that my beloved Fatman will receive a sufficient explanation of Australian politics to change his mind though.

Just give him the episode of The Hollowmen on the Westminster System.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 19:50

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.

BrigadierSensible posted:

On the politicians and music thing:

A few years ago Rage did a thing where they got someone high up in each party to program Rage for a night, (not the whole night, but each person got 4 or 5 songs)

The Labour and Greens guys tried to be young and hip and picked some songs that would resonate with the "yoof"

Julie Bishop went "gently caress that, I am a 50+ year old woman. Popular culture has passed me by a long time ago" and picked Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell etc.

It made me like her a little bit more, coz she was being who she was, (a middle class white middle aged lady), rather than pretending to be cool.

The American equivalent was Paul Ryan pretending that Rage Against The Machine was his favourite band.

What the actual gently caress is this post

The special was the deputy leaders

Albanese was for Labor and everything he played was from 70s to 80s punk and rock scene and Albo is a well heeled member of that scene, he still goes to givs.

For Greens it was Bandt who played mostly 90s and 2000s electronica such as Daft Punk and Chemical Brothers it was a bit blase admittedly and rote but it was mostly in a genre

Bishop played literally nothing but top 40. She couldn't pretend to be cool as she doesn't know music beyond that.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 19:54

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

monkeu posted:

https://twitter.com/scottmorrisonmp/status/1040580720899571713?s=21

I can't wait until this current phase of Auspol needs to be accounted for by historians.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 21:37

teacup: Dec 20, 2006; = M I L K E R S =

JBP posted:

That Scomo vid gives me fond memories of Room in Hawthorn circa 2001.

Christ

This post got a little too real for me. That place was awful / amazing

teacup fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Sep 14, 2018

# ? Sep 14, 2018 22:33

ewe2: Jul 1, 2009

Some political stats porn about Wentworth:

quote:

Wentworth (see Poll Bludger preview) is a Federation seat and as such stands alongside Kooyong with a nearly spotless record of Liberal victory. It has been won by the endorsed (or an endorsed) Liberal-or-precursor candidate every time but one, the exception being 1929. Incumbent Walter Marks was one of the rebels who voted with Billy Hughes to bring down the Bruce government. Marks was not endorsed for his troubles, but beat the endorsed candidate anyway. The seat was so safe for the conservative side that in 1931 both candidates were endorsed by the United Australia Party, and Marks was defeated by the other UAP candidate. No current federal seat created before 1949 has a completely perfect record of being always won by the endorsed Liberal-or-precursor candidate, though Barker (1903) has always been won by a conservative party of some kind.

Wentworth hasn't always been super-safe. It almost fell in the 1943 Curtin landslide, and in 1993 then Opposition Leader John Hewson had an unconvincing 55.5% 2PP result. In 2007 Turnbull (who had wrested the seat from Peter King prior to the 2004 election) was held to 53.9% 2PP. Overall it was inside 60-40 at every general election between 1984 and 2007. Margins blew out from 2010 with Turnbull's status as former Opposition Leader and then Prime Minister.

But that might all be about to change. An independent might with the appropriate preferences, and no one is really sure what the electorate prefers. I sure as hell wouldn't take those betting odds of Liberal 1.65 Labor 3.00 Independent 5.00 Greens 24.00.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 22:43

I, Butthole: Jun 30, 2007; Begin the operations of the gas chambers, gas schools, gas universities, gas libraries, gas museums, gas dance halls, and gas threads, etcetera.
I DEMAND IT

Lid posted:

What the actual gently caress is this post

The special was the deputy leaders

Albanese was for Labor and everything he played was from 70s to 80s punk and rock scene and Albo is a well heeled member of that scene, he still goes to givs.

For Greens it was Bandt who played mostly 90s and 2000s electronica such as Daft Punk and Chemical Brothers it was a bit blase admittedly and rote but it was mostly in a genre

Bishop played literally nothing but top 40. She couldn't pretend to be cool as she doesn't know music beyond that.

Albo does have some grounding in the modern Sydney music scene too, and has even reached out to help noted poo poo band Sticky Fingers with a US visa issue at some point.

# ? Sep 14, 2018 22:57

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Don Dongington posted:

Julie Bishop, sitting on the back bench, idly googling "chicken head"

*Eyebrow shoots up*

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ? Sep 14, 2018 23:27

Starshark: Dec 22, 2005; Doctor Rope

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-15/fatman-scoop-slip-up-will-see-crackdown-on-parliamentary-footage/10249864

quote:

"Broadcast material may not be digitally manipulated for rebroadcast," Serjeant-at-Arms James Catchpole told the ABC.

"The Prime Minister's Office has been reminded of the terms of the media rules.

"The Serjeant-at-Arms' Office will remind other Members and their staff of the provisions of the rules in due course."

Look at this idiot - Catchpole had to have gone to Uni, yet he can't spell 'sergeant'. Sheesh.

# ? Sep 15, 2018 00:53

this broken hill: Apr 10, 2018; by Lowtax

BrigadierSensible posted:

Julie Bishop went "gently caress that, I am a 50+ year old woman. Popular culture has passed me by a long time ago" and picked Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell etc.

i try so hard to hate this person

# ? Sep 15, 2018 01:18

this broken hill: Apr 10, 2018; by Lowtax

Lid posted:

What the actual gently caress is this post

The special was the deputy leaders

Albanese was for Labor and everything he played was from 70s to 80s punk and rock scene and Albo is a well heeled member of that scene, he still goes to givs.

For Greens it was Bandt who played mostly 90s and 2000s electronica such as Daft Punk and Chemical Brothers it was a bit blase admittedly and rote but it was mostly in a genre

Bishop played literally nothing but top 40. She couldn't pretend to be cool as she doesn't know music beyond that.

lid to the rescue

# ? Sep 15, 2018 01:19

I would blow Dane Cook: Dec 26, 2008

Who loving tonight?

# ? Sep 15, 2018 01:21

Cartoon: Jun 20, 2008; poop

NTRabbit posted:

No but I imagine you're required to be a citizen of a country you're representing as an ambassador, with no loose ends

Your imagination is a fever dream. Why 'gut feeling' poo poo when you are well equipped to actually check. So many Australian ambassadors have been dual citizens it is hard to find an example as a distinguishing feature. In the early days they were dual Australian/British citizens. In the current era the only eligibility requirements for a diplomatic posting are the ones required by the Public Service. Excluding someone from a posting (once they have passed vetting-which you can easily do as a dual citizen) on the ground of dual citizenship would end up in the AAT and DFAT would lose if that were the only ground given. More to the point the actual international requirement is the Vienna Convention https://www.quora.com/Can-one-only-become-a-diplomat-for-the-country-they-hold-citizenship-for. People of all stripes and nationalities may be made ambassadors by direct appointment.

I do know JBP isn't safe with the chickenheads.

# ? Sep 15, 2018 01:48

I would blow Dane Cook: Dec 26, 2008

quote:

But that is not what Senator Gichuhi told colleagues. It�s understood that when a Senate colleague had tried to guilt her into signing the petition, insisting it was her duty as a Christian, she pushed back.

She is believed to have found his approach so insulting, she replied: �I might be a black woman but I�m not dumb.�

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2018/09/15/exclusive-duttons-record-cabinet-recusal/15369336006853

# ? Sep 15, 2018 01:53

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Abbott only won 70% of his preselection vote despite running unopposed :laffo:

# ? Sep 15, 2018 02:06

froglet: Nov 12, 2009; You see, the best way to Stop the Boats is a massive swarm of autonomous armed dogs. Strafing a few boats will stop the rest and save many lives in the long term.

You can't make an Omelet without breaking a few eggs. Vote Greens.

Abbott is the perfect use case for "seek other candidate".

# ? Sep 15, 2018 02:23

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2018/09/15/exclusive-duttons-record-cabinet-recusal/15369336006853

What an odd thing to say?

# ? Sep 15, 2018 02:36

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

Christian duty to elect potatos

# ? Sep 15, 2018 02:37

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Solemn Sloth posted:

Abbott only won 70% of his preselection vote despite running unopposed

Lol

# ? Sep 15, 2018 02:47

Box of Bunnies: Apr 3, 2012; by Pragmatica

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2018/09/15/exclusive-duttons-record-cabinet-recusal/15369336006853

"Look, I got into this racket to bully the gays, not to have others bully me!"

# ? Sep 15, 2018 03:29

SMILLENNIALSMILLEN: Jun 26, 2009

This was a cool piece

quote:

SUBSCRIBE LOGINSEARCH

LOGIN

NEWS OPINION CULTURE LIFE FOOD QUIZ SPORT THE BRIEFING PAST EDITIONS

Edition No. 222 SEPTEMBER 15 – 21, 2018

OPINION

Nayuka Gorrie
Abbott’s envoy appointment derisory

As an Aboriginal person, a leadership spill is an interesting phenomenon to observe. There is a lot of earnest frustration – this isn’t who we voted for! – and there is a feeling that important decisions are being made about your life without you being involved. This is a feeling many black people are familiar with. I know that on some cellular level there is a difference between Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull, but in effect it is just a different white face dictating your structural position.

Within days of his ascent to the prime ministership, Scott Morrison created and offered Tony Abbott the position of special envoy on Indigenous affairs. Nigel Scullion remains Indigenous affairs minister, with Ken Wyatt being made Indigenous health minister – a position that sits alongside Greg Hunt in the health portfolio. In the days between Morrison making public that he had offered Abbott this role, and the former prime minister accepting it, the choice was met with almost unanimous derision. There was, and still is, a feeling that literally anyone else would be better for the job.

ABBOTT CANNOT FORESEEABLY DO THIS JOB. BLACK PEOPLE CAN AND ALREADY DO ADVOCATE OURSELVES.

Abbott demonstrably has little regard for black people and what we want for ourselves. He explicitly believes white people and colonisation were good things for black people and this country. He subscribes to the terra nullius colonial fiction, describing Australia as nothing but bush before colonisation and the country as benefiting from British investment on “then-unsettled or scarcely settled great south land”. Abbott has always seemed to regard black people with disdain. Prior to the apology, he claimed such a statement would reinforce a victim mindset. In regards to the forced closures of Aboriginal communities in Western Australia, he said he didn’t want to fund the lifestyle choices of remote Aboriginal communities.

Even if we were prepared to give Abbott a go – and by some miracle he was capable of shifting his paternalism – his statement to The Daily Telegraph demonstrates he hasn’t learnt anything in the past few years. Ideologically, he remains where he has always been. “What I expect to be asked to do is to make recommendations on how we can improve remote area education, in particular, how we can improve attendance rates and school performance, because this is the absolute key to a better future for Indigenous kids and this is the key to reconciliation,” he told the newspaper. This statement indicates that for Abbott the Aborigine is someone who lives in the bush. But today most black people live in towns and cities. We are just as black and just as proud, but we are inconvenient to the noble savage myth that Abbott projects onto people living in remote communities. It is worth noting that even his own colleague Ken Wyatt once told Abbott that his comments referring to Wyatt as an “urban Aboriginal” were unhelpful.

Outside of his evocation of the remote Aborigine, Abbott’s crude logic places the blame on black people. It is not remote education outcomes that are responsible for a lack of reconciliation in this country. This logic implies that as soon as black people have the same life outcomes as white people, our structural position in society will magically improve. This is not how racism works. Our structural position is maintained through racism and paternalism; unless we start to erode these forces no number of three-word slogans will change anything. If a health-care system is racist, it will produce worse health outcomes for black people. If an education system is racist, it will not know how to educate black children. If a criminal justice system is racist it will arrest, incarcerate and kill black people in huge numbers.

On Monday this week, a young Aboriginal boy was found in Perth’s Swan River. The next day, water police found another boy’s body. It emerged that both boys had been chased on Monday afternoon by police who were responding to calls about the teenagers “jumping fences” in the suburb of Maylands. According to police reports, the officers chased the boys on foot until the pair ran into Swan River and disappeared under the surface. “Two boys are believed to have got into difficulties in the middle of the river and succumbed to the conditions and were not seen to resurface,” Western Australia Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said. This language, much like Abbott’s language, places the responsibility of these deaths on these boys. The adult police – and the structural view of black people as deviants and a decision to pursue children near a river – are not responsible. Like reconciliation, the black children are responsible and complicit in their own deaths. Only some boys will be boys and only some boys will always be boys. The boys’ deaths will be treated as deaths in custody – another two to add to the 407 black deaths in custody since 1991, according to an investigation by Guardian Australia.

And yet, in the wake of these deaths, it seems white Australia is more interested in debating whether a nine-year-old girl who refuses to stand for the national anthem because it “completely disregards the Indigenous Australians” is a traitor to the nation. Alan Jones and Mark Latham both discussed Harper Nielsen on radio, with Latham urging her school to “kick her out”. On Today, Karl Stefanovic was “exasperated” by Nielsen, blaming her parents. Australia is obsessed with the culture wars and ideology, but far less interested in the tangible impacts of white supremacy and colonisation.

Beyond ideology, Abbott’s time in power was a perilous period for black organisations, and his actions as prime minister worked against the interests of black people. He oversaw the implementation of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy, which slashed $500 million from black expenditure. A senate inquiry found that in the initial round of funding for the IAS, more than half of the funding went to non-Indigenous organisations. His message at the time was clear – black people cannot handle their own affairs. The impact of this was devastating. Community organisations that serviced members of local Aboriginal communities were gutted, while non-Indigenous non-profits without a nuanced understanding of local communities swelled with black money.

The term “envoy” is generally used in a political context by organisations, such as the United Nations, as a title for someone going into another country to run some kind of peacekeeping operation, often in a developing nation. More generally, it’s understood as a negotiator, an intermediary, an ambassador. That black Australia would need a peacekeeping negotiator ironically seems to be a small recognition that we are our own people.

Abbott cannot foreseeably do this job. Black people can and already do advocate ourselves. The most depressing part, undoubtedly, is that Scott Morrison knows all this. Abbott’s appointment sent two distinct messages. The first is that Morrison does not know much about black people. We know he knows at least one black person, Ken Wyatt, but it’s hard to believe someone who has lived a life as privileged as Morrison’s could understand or be interested in the day-to-day realities and dreams of black people.

The second message is that black votes and black lives do not matter in this country. An election will be held in the not-too-distant future. Anyone who was worried about how putting someone like Tony Abbott anywhere near Indigenous affairs would affect your numbers in black communities would not, in the interest of self-preservation, do this. A prime minister who was genuinely interested in accommodating black people would have asked black people – any black person – what they want. The resounding answer would have been: Tony Abbott is not it. Our lives matter so little that bizarre appointments such as this can be made with little regard to the people affected by it.

This appointment comes down to politics. Tony Abbott has been a pest inside the Liberal Party. It is generally accepted he was one of the cogs in the machinery forcing the leadership spill. His vendetta against Malcolm Turnbull cost Turnbull his prime ministership. This appointment was ultimately about making Abbott feel special. He is not important enough for an actual ministry but he’s too annoying and vindictive not to be rewarded. Black people are forced to suffer at his hands yet again for the sake of perceived peace in the Liberal Party. With any luck the job doesn’t mean anything, and we can all keep doing what we have been doing for the past few years, pretending he doesn’t exist.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on Sep 15, 2018 as "Abbott and the politics of envoy". Subscribe here.

YOU HAVE READ YOUR ONE FREE ARTICLE FOR THE WEEK

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2018/09/15/abbotts-envoy-appointment-derisory/15369336006857

# ? Sep 15, 2018 03:46

ewe2: Jul 1, 2009

And here is an appropriate companion piece, because it describes their worldview:

quote:

With the ascendancy of a Pentecostal Christian leader, the Liberal Party slides further to the religious right. But can it find salvation without the coffers of Malcolm Turnbull? By Mike Seccombe.

The Liberals� religious right

Mal Washer is no longer a federal Liberal MP, which is probably just as well for him, because it�s really not his party anymore.

Washer is a man of science, not faith, a medical doctor and an atheist. For 15 years, from 1998 to 2013, he represented not only the Western Australian seat of Moore, but also a dwindling strand of science-based progressive liberalism.

During his time in Canberra, Washer had a number of notable run-ins with the party�s powerful religious right wing. He took on Tony Abbott when Abbott sought to ban the abortion drug RU486. He fought the party�s right over its opposition to stem cell research.

Though Washer was ultimately on the winning side of medical history on those issues, it hasn�t softened his disdain for those who opposed him.

�I fought this type of religious ideology right through,� he says. �� And I saw this tribal behaviour, where they�d bring their religious ideologies and come and talk a bunch of crap that didn�t stack up scientifically or logically. It was ritualistic thinking.�

Climate change was another one. Washer was on the relevant parliamentary committees on climate and the environment, and, during Malcolm Turnbull�s first stint as Liberal leader, chaired the Coalition�s backbench environment committee.

�I resigned after Turnbull lost the leadership the first time. These faith-based people don�t believe the science,� he says. �Yeah. I�ve got some bitterness.�

These days Washer�s old environment committee is run by Craig Kelly, a Christian conservative, climate sceptic and coal advocate with no scientific background. The seat Washer used to represent, Moore, is now held by Ian Goodenough, a pillar of Globalheart, a Pentecostal church that has deeply infiltrated the Liberal Party in the west.

Washer says there is now a certain irony to the old Liberal clich� that the party is a �broad church�. In fact, he says, it is a narrowing church.

He says the Liberal Party he believed in was a party of free enterprise and sound economics.

�But when people go to vote � and I think I know people, having been a doctor and a member of parliament for 15 years � they don�t vote just on economic issues. These days the people, most of them secular, are voting for a more liberated view on social issues as well.�

Yet his party, increasingly influenced by the religious right, is becoming more distant from those views � �on climate, on women�s rights, on freedom of choice on abortion, on new ideas about sexuality, about a whole range of things � Basically they are out of date and out of step with community views. They are bloody damaging, to be realistic.�

It�s not that there are so many of them, he says, but they are �tribal� � organised, ideologically committed and not averse to bullying. And as the party base narrows, those of more moderate views �tend to walk away from the show�.

Washer�s assessment is simple: �They defeat us, and we deserve it for our apathy.�

He is not alone in his views, although few will say so publicly. But, really, they don�t need to. The evidence is everywhere. It is there in recent stories from this paper and others about the Christian right and the Mormon push into the Victorian party, the dominance of the Abetz faction in Tasmania, the threats against the preselections of any members in Queensland who vote with their consciences in favour of abortion law reform.

The influence of the religious right was clear in the debate over same-sex marriage, where, supported by the Australian Christian Lobby, it worked so diligently to block change.

Many of the same religious conservatives were prominent again in the recent leadership turmoil within the Liberal Party, pushing and in some cases allegedly bullying their colleagues to dump Malcolm Turnbull.

Lucy Gichuhi � herself a devout Pentecostal Christian � testified to it.

On Monday last week, before Scott Morrison succeeded in persuading her against naming in parliament those alleged bullies, Gichuhi confirmed on Radio National that she been pressed �as a good Christian woman� to vote for Peter Dutton.

�That line is used a lot in the party, on the conservative side of things, and that is a culture,� she said, adding that such intimidation and harassment were anathema to her beliefs.

That goes to the heart of the issue with religious influence in conservative politics: it is not religion, per se, that is the problem, but the way it manifests itself as a reactionary force.

Marion Maddox, a professor at Macquarie University and perhaps Australia�s foremost expert on the intersection of politics and religion, says this has not always been the case.

In the early days of John Howard�s prime ministership, �the mainline or major churches were a major force of criticism of conservative social policy on refugees, the environment, Indigenous rights, social welfare and women�s rights in the workplace,� she told a forum convened by Sydney Criminal Lawyers earlier this year.

Howard, though, �really set out to cultivate conservative churches as an alternative constituency�.

�Within any religious tradition,� said Maddox, �there are people who hold a whole range of political and theological views.�

But conservative politicians had not only allied themselves to the religious right, they also drummed up a bogus concern about a �threat� to religious freedom.

Maddox worried in particular about current Coalition moves to legislate accordingly, suggesting that �the freedoms that are going to be given the force of law are those at the most conservative end�.

She suggested it would amount to entrenching their right to discriminate against those who held other views.

�The whole time that we were having the marriage equality debate we kept hearing about the religious freedoms of those who didn�t want marriage equality,� she said. �What about the religious freedoms of gay Christians? Forty per cent of gay and lesbian couples in Australia identify as Christians, and some of them want to get married in churches. What about their religious freedoms?�

It�s a good question, and all the more pressing now Australia has its first Pentecostal prime minister. Arguably no leader � not John Howard or even Tony Abbott � has pitched himself so blatantly to the religious right as Scott Morrison.

For his first major speech last week, in the birthplace of his party, Albury, Morrison offered little in the way of policy, and certainly no reason for the dumping of his popular predecessor. Instead he talked about faith, religion, ritual. The need to protect religious freedom � from unspecified threat � has been the most consistent feature of his many media appearances since.

Take this example, from his discussion with Alan Jones this week about Philip Ruddock�s inquiry into religious freedom: �I�m going to protect it. I�ve got the report back from Philip Ruddock and I�m working through that now as we speak. I�ll be making some announcements about that over the next few months�

�I think, if you don�t have freedom of your faith, of your belief � and in whatever religion that is � then you don�t have freedom in this country at all.�

We�ll see what comes of the Ruddock report, on which the government has been sitting for months. We know nothing of its recommendations, only that it prompted some 15,000 submissions.

The new government is running it hard. Morrison�s attorney-general, Christian Porter, also seized on the slim evidence of religious discrimination to argue the need for legislative protections.

A report in Guardian Australia this week shows videos of Pentecostal pastors responding to Morrison�s victory, variously asserting that it was divinely inspired, claiming to have received messages from God predicting it, exhorting the flocks to fast, pray and vote for him, and predicting �darkness� and the persecution of Christians if he lost.

Father Rod Bower, an Anglican priest and archdeacon for justice ministries and chaplaincy in the diocese of Newcastle, points out that Pentecostalism is a broad stream. But having watched Morrison and those videos posted by his Pentecostal supporters, he is concerned.

�Of course, the PM is free to express his faith in any way he chooses, and that�s a right I would uphold strenuously,� Bower told The Saturday Paper. �But the issue is whether we, the Australian people, want a prime minister whose world view is framed by a narrow faith?

�We�ve seen in recent days with his statements about transgender people and gay conversion therapy � the fact that he didn�t come out clearly and strenuously against that kind of behaviour is cause for concern. Clearly, too, that particular pastor in the video, that this idea of almost a divine right that God had called this man to be our prime minister � when this particular person has behaved in a manner utterly contrary to the Judaeo-Christian narrative on asylum seekers and refugees, in particular, is quite disturbing.�

Bower worries that �the prosperity gospel is certainly part of the Pentecostal stream of theology, which is essentially the religious version of trickle-down economics�.

�I think that is a cause of great concern, if you have a prime minister who seems to have an economic architecture that holds to that trickle-down model� and if that economic architecture is sanctified by a theological architecture, that makes for a very dangerous mix.�

Ironically, the rise of Morrison has not helped the prosperity of the Liberal Party. As former leader John Hewson notes, Malcolm Turnbull was the biggest single donor before the 2016 election, putting in $1.75 million of his own money.

And the former deputy leader, Julie Bishop, was one of the party�s most successful fundraisers.

�And they�ve just canned the top end of town in terms of tax cuts,� says Hewson. �They�ve threatened a royal commission into the power companies. They�ve dumped the NEG [national energy guarantee]. From a business perspective, there hasn�t been anything positive in what Morrison has said. I reckon it�s going to be hard to tap business for funds.�

Michael Yabsley, a former Liberal Party treasurer both federally and in New South Wales, agrees. �They are running on empty,� he says. �There�s no secret about that.�

And so we are left with the question: how deep are the Pentecostal pockets?

It�s an important question at this point, because you can�t win elections on faith alone.

# ? Sep 15, 2018 05:33

LIVE AMMO COSPLAY: Feb 3, 2006

It's cool and good that we essentially have a two party system so the LNP will be back eventually no matter how crazy they get.

# ? Sep 15, 2018 05:39

JBP: Feb 16, 2017; You've got to know, to understand,
Baby, take me by my hand,
I'll lead you to the promised land.

LIVE AMMO ROLEPLAY posted:

It's cool and good that we essentially have a two party system so the LNP will be back eventually no matter how crazy they get.

They'll probably be back in ten years as some kind of totalitarian five star movement if this continues.

# ? Sep 15, 2018 05:54

birdstrike: Oct 30, 2008; i;m gay

LIVE AMMO ROLEPLAY posted:

It's cool and good that we essentially have a two party system so the LNP will be back eventually no matter how crazy they get.

not if the greens rebrand and get there first

:madmax:

# ? Sep 15, 2018 05:59

Reclines Obesily: Jul 24, 2000; Hey Moona!; Slippery Tilde

ewe2 posted:

And here is an appropriate companion piece, because it describes their worldview:

# ? Sep 15, 2018 06:05

LIVE AMMO COSPLAY: Feb 3, 2006

...and as much as I hope for the LNP to tear itself apart I keep in mind the people predicting Trump would destroy the Republican party pre-election.

# ? Sep 15, 2018 06:09

Frogfingers: Oct 10, 2012

LIVE AMMO ROLEPLAY posted:

...and as much as I hope for the LNP to tear itself apart I keep in mind the people predicting Trump would destroy the Republican party pre-election.

Trump oozes personality. I doubt MAGA hats did anything for his profile, but Scott is pulling out every hat in his garage to at least create the facade that there is a thinking, feeling creature under the skin. Before/during libspill Scott polled pretty poorly because nobody knew who he was, but now there's a face to the name he's desperate to cultivate some sort of image, because right now he is just the Liberal antipode of Bill Shorten, a deeply uncompelling white guy careerist.

# ? Sep 15, 2018 06:22

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

Frogfingers posted:

Trump oozes under the skin.

# ? Sep 15, 2018 06:59

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

A less interesting Bill Shorten is a fairly damning condemnation.

EDIT: Less Zingers, more Religion

# ? Sep 15, 2018 07:27

drunkill: Sep 25, 2007; me @ ur posting; Fallen Rib

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-term-is-a-no-go-zone-how-labor-killed-the-q-word-20180914-p503qz.html

quote:

Helen Kroger, the chair of the Liberal Party's federal women's committee, has "no problem with quotas", she says. But still, she is unable to endorse them.

�The Labor party has killed the term �quota� for us by adopting it,� she says.

�Personally I have no problem with quotas � [but] the term is a no-go zone and it�s purely because of Labor.�

Quotas are banned because of labor cooties

# ? Sep 15, 2018 08:54

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 11:25

Amoeba102: Jan 22, 2010

A good summation of the LNP ideology. Blind opposition to Labor.

Amoeba102 fucked around with this message at 11:05 on Sep 15, 2018

# ? Sep 15, 2018 09:08

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Aupairs September: What's the bloody go with 'em?!

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