The Chinese Communist Party’s public diplomacy programs in Australia look innocent enough.
From the delightful Wang Wang and Funi Event at the Adelaide Zoo, to the partially CCP-subsidised OzAsia Festival, from the more recent Chinese Music Performance at the Adelaide Town Hall to the ‘Chinese Singing Competition’ held at a South Australian university campus. Chinese culture is on display.
This is Adelaide alone. Such activities are rolled-out across the country and world.
These are simply ‘Chinese culture’, correct? These public diplomacy projects participated in by Chinese Government officials are permissible in a democracy such as ours, right?
Well, yes. But to a point.
It’s understandable for a foreign government to attempt to build relationships with individuals in other countries in order to cultivate a good reputation and win international backing for its ambitions.
However, multiple red lights flash when a foreign government is authoritarian, interferes with the domestic political discourse of a host country, and runs coordinated, covert operations for propagandist purposes.
The alarm bells ring.
This is especially true if the foreign government is currently engaging in aggressive expansionism, has a ‘Wolf Warrior diplomacy’ and has a notoriously shocking track-record when it comes to human rights.
Liberty Itch is gathering evidence of questionable tactics currently being used by Beijing in Australia to manipulate our political system and institutions in various sectors. Once our research is complete, we’ll share it with subscribers.
What Liberty Itch can say for certain is that much of this manipulation is managed and coordinated by an organisation called the United Front Work Department, a political body that aims to work on individuals and groups overseas to advance the CCP’s interests.
Again, instances will be revealed in future exposés on Liberty Itch. For now, we reveal themes and tactics which have emerged in their modus operandi.
In Australia, they are:
Providing financial incentives to lure Australian politicians into backing their views;
Appointing former politicians to well-paid consulting roles;
Lavishing funds on Australian university institutes that show unwavering support for the CCP’s policies;
Enticing Australian citizens and business owners with, first, useful connections and, subsequently, financial benefits;
Drawing-in influential people from Chinese diaspora groups to assist with local infiltration;
Targeting promising, younger Australian politicians whom they regard as having longer-term potential to ascend the heights of Australian political and corporate life over time;
Sending CCP-endorsed candidates to run for local councils and state parliaments;
Interfering in Australian elections by coordinating Chinese-owned Australian property investment companies and Chinese students to engage in ballot-harvesting;
Disseminating propagandist communication with the implicit threat they can muster Chinese-Australian voters to punish incumbent politicians electorally if they don’t publicly support CCP policies;
Infiltrating local Chinese community organisations or, where not possible, launching new competing groups, thereby giving the illusion of Chinese-Australian community backing; and
Intimidating Australians and their elected officials for expressing negative views on China.
Next time you attend a local Chinese community event or cultural performance (with the exception of the worthy Shen Yun), be sure to be observant, particularly if representatives from the Chinese Government are present. Your interactions, acquaintances, and relationships at the event will be studied. The United Front Work Department is interested in knowing who is connected to whom in the local community and work on relationships that can be developed and leveraged to advance the CCP infiltration agenda.
Last week, I commented on how spooky George Orwell’s predictions in his dystopian novel 1984 have become – a growing state, growing authoritarianism, the rise of rent-seekers and how our fellow citizens are being manipulated.
So, let’s talk more about our fellow citizens, what’s happening with them, and how we can help them to fight back.
Most people do not follow politics so have no idea what is happening around them and to them.
Often their only source of information is via social media – and who controls that? Those who want more government, more spending, more taxes, more regulation and more control, of course. Facebook, for example is censoring information which urges people to vote “no” in the upcoming referendum on the Voice. As former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said, “Big Tech is joining with government in trying to force the Voice through without a debate.”
Former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson said recently, “We live in an age of astonishing disengagement by far too many good citizens in the life of our nation. I suspect that without compulsory voting we’d have up to half the electorate not bothering to vote at all.”
Disengaging citizens from politics is not accidental. Keeping people in the dark, doing things that turn them off politics – parliament’s Question Time for example, where not only do politicians behave appallingly, but also brazenly claim to be acting ‘in the best interests of the Australian people’, when they are clearly acting in their own interest and the interests of the rent-seeking cartels. It is no wonder people are disillusioned and disengaged.
As we know, most people do not like confrontation and choose instead to ‘opt out’. They let the world be ruled by ‘those who show up’ as the old saying goes. The problem is that those who show up are not the ‘good citizens’ John Anderson has in mind.
What will it take to engage people – a catastrophe perhaps?
Australians are about to be mugged by reality. Higher mortgage rates, power blackouts, food and petrol shortages, price rises, a housing affordability and rental crisis are going to severely test the Albanese government.
Across the globe there is havoc. Ukraine, Taiwan, an energy crisis, rising interest rates caused by rising inflation, Covid, climate, the Voice, workplace relations changes aka more union power, rising electricity and gas prices. Shakespeare’s ‘dogs of war’ are growling, and Australia will not escape at least some of this havoc.
Here in Australia, Gillian Triggs, the former president of Australia’s Human Rights Commission received a standing ovation at a (former Greens leader) Bob Brown event, for a speech which included the line, “Sadly, you can say what you like around the kitchen table at home.”
I prefer the version of former US President Ronald Reagan, in his farewell address following his successful eight-year presidency when he said …
“All great change begins at the dinner table”.
In 2015, when former Senator David Leyonhjelm and I were in parliament, we tried to amend Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
The amendment we proposed in our Racial Discrimination Amendment Bill was relatively modest. It simply removed the highly subjective terms “offend” and “insult” from the Act. Words such as “humiliate” and “intimidate” remained. If the Bill had passed, the original intention of the Racial Discrimination Act would have been restored – freedom of speech and protection against racial discrimination. These two objectives would have been able to co-exist in equilibrium.
So I wasn’t happy when I discovered that some sparrows had been flushed through my water catchment pipes to the top hatch of a rainwater tank. The overflow on this tank is set too high so that, when the water level is highest, the water laps through the hatch. Bottom-line? My dead sparrows were sitting in the lapping water at the top of a full tank and potentially turning my water supply toxic.
Now I’m a rural pretender, a city slicker just trying to live and let live with some figs trees and a hammock.
I needed advice quickly about this water situation, perhaps a water test of some description.
Now I can’t for the life of me remember what I was thinking at the time but, for some reason, I had a brain snafu and did something 100% counter-intuitive for me: I contacted the government for help!
(I know. I know. Idiot!)
First the South Australian Department of Health. They had a rainwater hotline. I dialled. Got a voicemail. Left a message. No returned-call after two days. I called again, left a voicemail. No reply.
Hmmm.
So I called SA Water. Got a voicemail. Left a message. No returned-call after two days. I called again and, bingo, a person named Andrew.
I explained that I wanted to have my rainwater tested. He explained that they couldn’t help with water testing but they could refer me to the specialist agency which does this. They’re called the Australian Water Quality Centre. “Great. I’ll call them.”, I said. He added worryingly, “And if you need any help interpreting their reports, we’re the people to speak with.”
Feeling relieved at least I had finally found the correct organisation, I started reading the Australian Water Quality Centre website, which describes itself as “an independent business unit within SA Water, a South Australian Government enterprise.” My confidence grew when I read “We provide our customers with world-class, NATA accredited sampling, testing and analysis” including biology testing, which I imagined might be appropriate given that the problem was dead sparrows. There were extensive instructions on how to take water samples.
I took the samples, gave them to my wife to drop in to the AWQC, but needed to call them because some of the website information was unclear.
Nigel answered and the following conversation ensued …
Nigel: AWQC
Kenelm: Hi. I’ve got a water problem and you’re the man to fix it for me. (I was in a good mood!)
Nigel: What do you want? (He said briskly)
Kenelm: I just need to know where my wife should drop-off the water samples I’ve taken.
Nigel: What?
Kenelm: I read your site. It says if the rainwater from your domestic tank needs a lab test, drop the samples at the dispatch window. I can’t see your address. Where is the dispatch window, please?
Nigel: No.
Kenelm: Sorry. What?
Nigel: You can’t do that.
Kenelm: But it says on your …
Nigel: No.
Kenelm: Well, I followed the instructions to the letter and took the time to take the water samples from both from the top and bottom of the tank. And I thought if my wife could …
Nigel: That’s all wrong.
Kenelm: Pardon?
Nigel: What did you put the water samples in?
Kenelm: Separate, small containers as per the instructions on the website.
Nigel: What containers?
Kenelm: Like plastic kitchen containers?
Nigel: No. You’ve contaminated the samples.
Kenelm: Well, I followed the instructions to …
Nigel: The website is wrong. Disregard it!
Kenelm: Let’s start again. I have dead sparrows in my rainwater. I want the water tested.
Nigel: What type of test do you want?
Kenelm: I want to test the purity of the water for drinking purposes?
Nigel: No.
Kenelm: Sorry?
Nigel: Do you want a chemistry, microbiology, biology or ecology test, or a combination of these, or all of these?
Kenelm: How do I know which is most appropriate?
Nigel: SA Water can help with that.
Kenelm: (Starting to sense what I was up against) But if I said to you, I just want to test whether the water in the tank is potable given that there are dead sparrows in the lapping water at the top hatch, which test would you say is appropriate?
Nigel: I cannot give that advice.
Kenelm: (Back-peddling now. Treading carefully) Of course not. Not advice. What test would you ask for if you were in my situation?
Nigel: This is not advice, you understand. And this call is being recorded to confirm we don’t advise on what test to order. It is completely at your risk to select a biology test. It will test for impurities caused by biological matter.
Kenelm: OK. At my own risk, I’d like to order a biology water purity test. Could you give me the link on your website where I can order it please?
Nigel: No.
Kenelm: What?
Nigel: You need a contract first.
Kenelm: That’s what I’m saying. I’d like to order a water test. Where do I go on your site to make the selection, punch in my credit card and tick your terms and conditions box?
Nigel: No. We have to send you the contract.
Kenelm: What do you mean?
Nigel: Would you like me to send you the contract? You sign it and we can perform the test for you.
Kenelm: I can’t do that online?
Nigel: No.
Kenelm: OK. Send the contract.
Nigel: What’s your address please?
Kenelm: (I give my email address)
Nigel: No.
Kenelm: Sorry, what?
Nigel: I need your residential address.
Kenelm: To come out and take the sample yourself?
Nigel: No. So I can mail the contract to you.
Kenelm: (In disbelief, I snap) Is this a joke?
Nigel: No.
Kenelm: You can’t at least email the contract?
Nigel: It’s not normal practice.
Kenelm: No. Normal practice is a page on your website where you can pay and tick a box to agree with your contract. You want to post the contract?
Nigel: Would email be easier?
Kenelm: Yes. Easier than a physically mailed contract!
Nigel: I’ll email the contract within three days.
Kenelm: (The ‘three days reacquainted me with public service timeframes) How much is the test?
Nigel: That depends.
Kenelm: On what?
Nigel: Your exact location
Kenelm: If I bring in the samples to you, what does it matter where the water is from?
Nigel: In that case, $372.85. We accept bank cheques.
Kenelm: (Silently fuming now) So, let me get this straight. You post or email a contract. I sign it. I post it back to you with a bank cheque for $372.85. Then you send a kit out to me. I take the samples in your containers. And then my wife delivers the samples to the dispatch window. Is that correct?
Nigel: The contract must be notarised if you opt for a mailed copy.
Kenelm: (Laughing now. It can’t be true!)
Nigel: If you opt for a physically mailed contract, it must be notarised. If emailed, that requirement is dropped.
Kenelm: Email, please. Email.
Nigel: I will email the contract within the next three business days.
Kenelm: SA Water mentioned your reports are complex and require interpretation which they could help with. Could you tell me what output I’m getting if I go to all this effort? Is the report highly technical? Would a layman like me understand it?
Nigel: The report will give you a score out of 2,000. 2,000 means your water quality is very bad. I’ve never seen a score that high before.
Kenelm: What’s the lowest score, the score which means the water is pure?
Nigel: 0.
Kenelm: So, if the score comes back, say, 1,000, that’s average and acceptable?
Nigel: No.
Kenelm: Well, how does it work then?
Nigel: If you get 0, we will certify that your tank water is suitable for human consumption. If you get any score other than 0, we will certify that your tank water is unsuitable for human consumption.
Kenelm: But wait. What if the score is 1 or 7 out of 2,000? That’s pretty good, right? Water quality will be at near pure on that scale, yes?
Nigel: No. If you score 1 or 7, or any score other than 0, out of 2,000, we will quarantine your water tank and have a contractor come and empty the water. We’ll then require testing of the tank itself.
Kenelm: (Nervously changing the topic) One final question. Where is the dispatch window where we deliver the samples?
Nigel: Do you know where SA Water is?
Kenelm: Off-hand, no.
Nigel: Well, if you use that as your starting point and walk down that road about 50-100 metres, turn left and you’ll see a cream-coloured building with a jacaranda tree out the front. Two doors past that is a driveway which slopes downwards. If you walk down that driveway, around the back is a window with a sign “Receiving/Dispatch”.
Kenelm: *silence*
Nigel: Hello?
Kenelm: I was just after the address so my wife can drop off the samples. Could I have the address please?
Nigel: Start at SA Water and walk down that road about 50-100 metres, turn left and you’ll see a cream-coloured building with a jacaranda tree out the front ….
The contract was emailed 8 days later. It was 72 pages long. And yes, the AWQC still uses an Anglo-Saxon era address system!
If ever there were a government agency undeserving of taxpayer funding, this would be it.
In the end, I did what I should have done. I walked over the road to my neighbour, a flinty, old farmer who knew his stuff.
I told him my adventure with the Australian Water Quality Centre.
His laconic reply, “Streuth!”
He had a look at my tank. His solution, remove the sparrows and continue using the water. Seeing my city-slicker yearning for safety and security, he left and came back with some peroxide. As he added it to my tank, he said with a twinkle in his eyes, “Nothing more pure to drink than the tears of God with a little magic lovingly stirred in.”
Total time taken on this solution: 23 minutes.
Government is rarely the answer. Far better to stick with flinty, practical people who love and value their freedom and liberty.
With his face covered in goggles, protective gas mask and yellow hard-hat that symbolised the pro-democracy movement, Eldia was one of the students involved in the 2019 Siege of Polytechnic University in Hong Kong.
An estimated 1,300 people were detained during the turmoil. Eldia, 21, was among them.
Although he had taken part in the protest peacefully, he was arrested and ended up with charges of rioting, which would carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Coming from a respectable, educated, middle-class family, Eldia should have had a promising future in Hong Kong, prior to the breakdown of the rule of law in the formerly free and civilised city.
In a desperate attempt to escape the oppressive Communist Chinese regime, Eldia decided to break his bail agreement and flee to Australia on a visitor visa in 2020.
Two years on, his future remains uncertain.
Fearing incarceration upon returning to Hong Kong, he has submitted a protection visa application to the Home Affairs Department to safeguard himself from the world’s most totalitarian government.
Liberty Itch reached out to the Australia-Hong Kong Link, a non-profit organisation that works to promote the democracy movement in Hong Kong, to gain an insight into Eldia’s life as a political refugee in Australia.
Despite his young appearance, Eldia exudes a strength of character that belies his age. He has a quiet, unassuming demeanour yet demonstrates an unwavering commitment to advancing the prospects of Hong Kong.
Here is the interview with Eldia…
What activities were you engaged in to advance the democracy movement in Hong Kong?
I attended the demonstrations in Hong Kong on a frequent basis in 2019. I was non-violent the whole time. I took part in the protests, but I did not join the front line. The only thing I did was stay peaceful and helped other young people. I was in the vicinity of Polytechnic University to help students who were trapped in the university campus by hundreds of riot police. I now carry multiple democracy-related ‘criminal charges’. I was charged just for going to a protest, I actually did nothing but to provide moral support to students in need. But the police were charging young people at the scene who were simply wearing a mask.
Has the democracy movement completely stopped now in Hong Kong?
I don’t think the democratic movement in Hong Kong has completely stopped, but after the establishment of the Hong Kong ‘National Security Law’, Hong Kong has completely lost freedom of speech. In addition, there are often pre-trial sentences in the courts, which has been a major blow to the democratic movement in Hong Kong.
Even speaking online, you risk being arrested.
Are you in touch with other activists in Australia and overseas?
Being part of a pro-democracy organisation consisting of Hongkongers living in Australia, I feel privileged to be able to express my support for the Hong Kong diaspora and their cultural identity, as well as appreciate the democratic liberties of Australia.
What is life like as a political asylum seeker in Australia?
The thought of never being able to return to Hong Kong can be sad and heavy. I never thought that I would be a political refugee with ‘criminal charges’! Typically, Hong Kong students in Australia become skilled migrants, not political refugees who need protection.
But I feel very lucky to be able to live in Australia because I am free.
I think daily about the innocent people in Hong Kong facing years in prison. They aren’t forgotten.
I was already a student studying in Australia, so I have adapted to life here. I feel free, however, I am not allowed to go overseas as per the conditions of my protection visa.
Is Beijing still after you and do you feel safe?
I feel relatively safe in Australia because I’m not a public figure, so I haven’t been threatened too much. But make no mistake, I am currently a ‘fugitive’ in the eyes of the CCP Hong Kong Government. Needless to say, I am absent from the relevant court hearings in Hong Kong and worry that it may negatively impact on people around me because of my sensitive identity.
As we know, the Chinese Government’s tentacles are far and wide in Australia.
I am therefore staying low-key in supporting Hong Kong democracy movement overseas. Most people I interact with daily don’t know that I am an asylum seeker.
Where is your family and how do you stay connected with them?
My family is still in Hong Kong and I’m very worried about their safety. I hope they can leave Hong Kong as soon as possible.
Now I use anonymous software to communicate with my family and friends.
Are you still fighting for Hong Kong democracy? If so, how?
I’ll continue to fight for Hong Kong’s democracy and freedom until Hong Kong is liberated. I know very well that what we are facing is the world’s largest and the most-cruel dictatorship – Communist China. It will not be easy to liberate Hong Kong and it may not even be something that can be seen in my lifetime. But I will still insist on fighting for democracy and freedom, because many people have sacrificed their freedom for it.
If we give up, their sacrifice will be in vain. Therefore, I often remind myself to tell people in Australia what is happening in Hong Kong as much as possible, and let others know that democracy and freedom should not be taken for granted. Freedom is hard-won and easily lost. We need to continue defending our inalienable rights.
I intend to remain involved in operations conducted by Australian Hongkongers and joining with those who think similarly. I’m also looking to conduct more outreach activities in the future, for example, setting up a page devoted to my own observations and sharing them.
How do you build a fulfilling life in Australia going forward?
I plan to continue my studies and hope that I can make a positive contribution to Australia. I volunteer for the local community and through these volunteer activities, I have a better understanding of the lives of the locals, so that I can be more integrated into Australian life.
What else would you like the readers of Liberty Itch to know?
It’s no secret that China is the world’s second largest economy, and Australia cannot avoid economic and trade ties with it. Nevertheless, I plead with the Australian government to balance its desire for high-growth trade with the need to expose human rights abuses in China. And remember, in the last few years, Chinese infiltration and interference has been rampant, putting Australia’s freedom and autonomy in jeopardy. We must remember the people who have borne the brunt of the CCP’s oppression in Hong Kong, East Turkistan, Tibet, Taiwan, and other regions. Australia needs to break its reliance on Chinese trade and quickly diversify its investments.
‘Itch’ (noun) “… an irritating sensation on the skin that makes one want to scratch the affected part”.
What may have started as ‘an irritating sensation on the skin’, regrettably has developed into a full-blown cancer affecting the nation’s vital organs.
I am talking about authoritarianism.
Shortly after World War II, George Orwell published his novel ‘1984’. The story was set in a country ruled by ‘Big Brother’, a supreme dictator in an all-powerful, one-party state. The central character, Winston Smith, whose job it was to re-write the nation’s history books to fit the current narrative of the state, was continually tormented by his task. The department in which he worked was called ‘The Ministry of Truth’.
Orwell’s novel exposed the true nature of authoritarian governments which hold on to power by generating fear, distorting facts and censoring alternative views. For a book published in 1949, his description of surveillance technology to track and trace citizens is downright spooky.
“Know everything in order to control everyone,” said Adam Weishaupt.
Technology and mass surveillance allow governments to do just that – know everything.
‘The long march through the institutions’ is nearing completion.
More government, more spending, more taxes, more regulation, more state power, more state control. Income tax, payroll tax, land tax, petrol tax, the goods & services tax, stamp duty, excise duty on alcohol and tobacco, power company dividends, water company dividends, the River Murray Levy, the Emergency Services Levy, the Regional Landscape Levy, the Solid Waste Levy, the Medicare Levy, Council Rates and many, many more. Local, state and federal governments taxing us at every turn.
And of course, that most pernicious of all taxes – inflation tax. Pernicious because it so disproportionately affects those who spend a higher percentage of their income on food, petrol, electricity and gas, which are more susceptible to price rises.
Naturally, the government blames everyone else for the price rises – greedy businesses, supply chains, Vladimir Putin … anyone but themselves.
As US economist Peter Schiff puts it, “Inflation is caused by governments spending money they don’t have, accompanied by compliant central banks who not only forsake their mandates to keep inflation under control by putting up interest rates and punishing governments who overspend, they instead indulge governments by printing the money for them!”
Following the 1980s excesses, the Reserve Bank of Australia increased interest rates to 17.5% and the Hawke-Keating government copped a mountain of pain. Yet, despite massive deficit spending over the past three years – the highest in the nation’s history – the RBA last month lifted interest rates to just 3.1%.
So, what happens when spending is not accompanied by revenue measures to pay for it? Where does the money come from? Inflation. Instead of higher taxes, consumers pay higher prices.
The bad news is it is going to get worse.
And when it does, the Albanese government will again try to blame greedy businesses and introduce more price controls on them – like the recent coal price cap. Not good times ahead.
Then there’s the government’s bagmen accomplices, the rent-seekers – companies that base their business models on providing goods and services to consumers that are either paid for by the government or the government prevents or limits competition. It is another layer of taxation which disproportionately affects low-income families – those who can’t afford to install solar panels on their roofs, for example.
These rent-seekers are now everywhere – energy, superannuation, pharmaceuticals, higher education, land development, indigenous groups, public transport, manufacturing – you name it. They are a scourge. They tarnish the political process, distort the market and in the case of so-called ‘renewable energy’, distort the entire economy.
Renewable energy rent-seekers have leapt onto the climate change bandwagon with unbridled zeal and are raking in billions of dollars gaming the system, raising energy prices, impoverishing consumers, destroying jobs, and fleecing taxpayers.
Along with unions and industry superfunds, these new Australian oligarchs have limitless amounts of money to both shore up their own positions and resist anyone who might try to challenge them.
Previously, entrepreneurs went to the marketplace to make their fortunes.
Today the public purse is the mother lode.
When the NDIS was announced in 2012, it was forecast to cost $14bn a year. In April 2022, actuary firm Taylor Fry estimated that by 2030 the cost will blow out to $64bn a year– a $50bn a year increase.
How was this allowed to happen in such a short period of time? Simple – professionalised politics and sophisticated rent-seeking.
The story is told of a forest that was continually shrinking – but the trees kept voting for the axe. The axe, you see, was very clever; it was able to convince the trees that because its handle was made of wood, it was one of them.
Apparently, many are adding or removing Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, from their Christmas card mailing list.
Here are the notable ten …
Novak Djokovic, added. Despite new covid cases being less last year on 30 Dec 2021 at 33,811 when Mr. Djokovic was in Australia last and the numbers being higher now at 39,695 on 29 Dec 2022, the tennis superstar is just grateful to play in Adelaide and Melbourne. Logic? Huh! Plus, the PM overlooked that the ace still hasn’t had the jab. All cool Mr. Djokovic. All cool.
Andrew Gee, added. The obscure National MP who resigned to campaign for The Voice will need all the political friends he can get on the crossbench. Liberty Itch hears the last-term Member for Calare will be sitting snugly between Zali Steggall and Adam Bandt. Wowsers!
Kevin Rudd, removed. Despite the PM appointing him US Ambassador, the livid Mr. Rudd reportedly demanded Albo lobby the US President on his behalf for DNC Chair and UN Secretary-General too as part of a salary-stacking package. Air stewards understandably taking leave without pay to avoid the Brissie to DC route.
Jakob Stausholm, added. The Rio Tinto CEO is grateful for the $450 million government largesse to counter the coal and gas price caps. Public-private partnerships in a controlled economy. What could go wrong!
Justin Trudeau, removed. The Canadian PM reportedly ticked to learn Albo won the Xi Jinping Popularity contest at G20 Bali despite drawing on all his experience as a part-time drama teacher to strut his stuff and put on the theatrics on the world stage.
Matt Keen, added. The NSW Liberal Deputy Leader enjoying an infatuation with the Labor PM over coal and gas price caps. Centralised command and control. A Modern Liberal’s delight. Merry Christmas.
Sanna Marin, removed. Finland’s social democratic PM disappointed that Australia is not weaning itself off CCP economic reliance. Who’s have imagined? Common sense.
Sanna Marin. Prime Minister. Finland.
Xi Jingping, reportedly added. Relieved. He’d take anyone after Scott Morrison.
Isai Ing-wen, added then removed. Any parliamentary delegation from Australia would have been welcomed by the Taiwanese President. Then Albo spoiled it by sending Barnaby.
Oil and Gas Protesters, removed. The PM is a climate-denying RWNJ, don’t you know.
Set aside Mr. Adams’ incorrect claim that Sir Donald Bradman deemed Nelson Mandela unworthy. The opposite is true. They were fond of each other. Mandela regarded Bradman as a hero for his 1972 decision to withdraw Australia from playing South Africa. Bradman sent gifts to Mandela. They corresponded.
Instead, after Kamahl’s post regarding his positive first-hand experience of Sir Donald, focus on Mr. Adams’ incendiary reply.
Here’s my question for you, dear reader:
POLL
Was Phillip Adams’ “Honorary White” comment to Kamahl racist?
Yes
100%
No
0%
13 VOTES · POLL CLOSED
If you voted ‘yes’, this raises the issue of whether we as a society should be funding such racism. ABC, and therefore Mr. Adams’ salary, is funded by your taxes, after all.
So, here’s a second question:
POLL
Is it ‘systemic’ or ‘institutional’ racism for ABC to continue to employ Mr. Adams?
Yes
100%
No
0%
11 VOTES · POLL CLOSED
If you answered ‘yes’ here and you call yourself a ‘liberal’, a ‘classical liberal’ or a ‘libertarian’, write to the ABC’s Managing Director and your local MP now. Call for Mr. Adams’ termination.
There is no place for institutional racism in Australia.
Federation University’s Verity Archer discovered a letter written in 1975 by Sir Donald Bradman, the greatest cricket batsman ever to play with an unparalleled average of 99.94, to newly elected Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser.
The 1975 federal election was undoubtedly a fiercely contested battle. Emotions were high. As any citizen was and is entitled to do, Bradman took a side and wrote:
“A marvellous victory in which your personal conduct and dignity stood out against the background of arrogance and propaganda indulged in by your opponents.”
Bradman next makes a prediction, which you would have to say history shows to be prescient:
“Now you may have to travel a long and difficult road along which your enemies will seek to destroy you.”
Cricket was a sport for amateurs in The Don’s day. Big money had not yet influenced the sport. Players therefore had to develop a career independent their sporting masters. They were tough men on long, self-funded tours, most unlike some knee-bending virtue-signalers and sandpaper betting-agency grubs you are more familiar with from more recent periods. In Sir Donald’s case, he was an accomplished and successful stockbroker in his own right with an advanced understanding of the regulatory framework of his time. Writing about regulations on capital, Bradman consequently wrote:
“What the people need are clearly defined rules which they can read and understand so that they can get on with their affairs.”
Seems fair enough. Sounds like Financial Disclosure Statement (FDS) rules decades later. He then adds:
“The public must be re-educated to believe that private enterprise is entitled to rewards as long as it obeys fair and reasonable rules laid down by government. Maybe you can influence leaders of the press to a better understanding of this necessity of presentation.”
There are four points in that paragraph:
Belief in private enterprise. This is straightforward enough of an idea. It’s the basis of our Western, capitalist liberal democracy;
Gaining the rewards of its initiative. Yes. Private enterprise offers goods and services to the public in return for a profit. This is basic economics. Got it;
Some fair and reasonable rules. Well, let’s not have any rules if possible but, if we must, light-touch and easy-the-understand, sure;
Explain this to the media. Not a bad idea for a government to share with the press the direction it would like to take the country. All good.
What’s to disagree with here?
Yet, out come the socialists and 1975 ancient historians with an axe to grind:
Broadcaster Phillip Adams wrote, “Sad. Lost letter from Bradman to Fraser after Whitlam’s dismissal reveals ‘the Don’ to be a RWNJ.”
Unaccustomed to shorthand slurs from journalists, I had to find what RWNJ meant: right-wing nut-job, apparently.
To some boomer-era, battle-axe activists-come-journalists, supporting free-enterprise, light-touch regulation and transparency with the media is radical. Apparently these positions are extreme, wild enough to be branded a right-wing nut-job!
At what point in Australian progress did free enterprise become a dirty word?
Or can we say Mr. Adams is the radical one for slandering a long-deceased Australian sporting icon because he believed in free enterprise.
Or …
… maybe, just maybe, Mr. Adams has another axe to grind. Perhaps he just hates supporters of Malcolm Fraser over the Political Crisis of 1975.
All Liberty Itch says in response is:
Mr. Fraser won in a record landslide still not bettered today. Mr. Adams is surely not saying the vast majority of Australians including Sir Donald were RWNJs, is he?
Mr. Fraser’s successor, Bob Hawke, thought highly enough of Mr. Fraser to appoint him to the Eminent Persons Group to tackle racism in Apartheid-era South Africa. Mr. Adams is surely not saying Bob Hawke was a right-wing nut-job as well for supporting Mr. Fraser, is he?
Like you, dear reader, I was taught never to speak ill of the dead.
It seems Mr. Adams wasn’t.
Long after Mr. Adams meets the Lord, free enterprise and Western liberal democracy will prevail.
I do hope though that the practice of throwing mud at men long dead and unable to defend their reputations will cease, for Mr. Adams’ sake you understand, dear reader.
