Australia - you're standing in it

Travel bans were put in place before the WHO endorsed them. I don’t see how anyone can criticise that as though what was going to unfold was foreseeable in January.

Important to note that in January and February basically the only ‘facts’ we knew about COVID were coming from a communist ruling party’s press (propaganda) departments, ruled by a dictator with expansionist and anti west ambitions. The information coming from the WHO was often contradictory and at best highly confusing.

Yeah, what happened during the Spanish Flu pandemic or the influenza pandemic or even with SARS or Ebola didn’t apply with Covid 19 so we were flying blind right? Wrong.

It’s worth noting the second waves of most of those pandemics were deadlier than the first.

“...same few day period ...”

For the record info it was 70 days from the date of our our first Covid case to the date Slow-mo closed the borders but with no quarantine arrangements in place.

If Scomo’s Covid response was as unforgivably bad as some here seem to think, Albanese should’ve and could’ve torn Scotty a new one.I think it was very good political sense on Albanese’s behalf that he didn’t and showed he has the poise and humility to be a good leader. Basically he knows when not to be a dick.

I’m also glad that Covid hasn’t become the hyper partisan, politicized issue that it has in other western democracies, well at least not on a federal level. I think it shows that overall, as far as it goes, it has been well handled by the Morrison government and I respect Albanese for not going on the attack.

There was no way in hell I would have voted for that pathetic offering Bill Shorten offered up last election. It was the best thing for the ALP to get belted in that election. Now they have a better leader - Albanese, who, if he can impart some of his sensibility into solid policies, I could imagine voting for.

Integrity sinks: Neither scandals nor evidence seem to matter in crony politics

In further confirmation that Australian politics is on a post-truth decline, it now seems easy-peasy for a minister of the Crown – in this case, Angus Taylor – to spout pompous rhetoric on the floor of the house during Question Time, at the same time as department officials are testifying in Senate estimates that he is (and long has been) talking utter nonsense. Today, when Taylor was asked a Dorothy Dixer about the government’s plans for a “gas-led recovery” from the pandemic, which would deliver “affordable, reliable energy”, he answered by saying that Australia “won’t have to choose between cutting emissions, lowering gas prices and jobs”. Yet it was only yesterday that Origin Energy chief executive Frank Calabria warned against unrealistic expectations for domestic gas prices. It was only yesterday that industry department officials confirmed that new, more accurate methods of measuring the climate damage from methane showed that Australia will emit approximately 150 million tonnes more climate pollution between 2021 and 2030 than previously estimated. So much for meeting and beating our 2030 emissions-reduction targets under the Paris Agreement “in a canter”.

The officials also confirmed that they had not factored in the government’s claimed 250 million tonnes of emissions associated with Taylor’s much-touted “Technology Roadmap”. When asked to explain this, minister Simon Birmingham (who was representing Taylor in estimates), said: “What we have in this Technology Roadmap are projections … don’t confuse commitments with projections.” 

So the nation’s biggest power company just told us that planned gas supply from the five new basins touted by the Morrison government won’t lower prices, while Taylor’s own department just told us that, firstly, the “gas-led recovery” is likely to blow out our emissions and, secondly, that their minister’s “Roadmap” is effectively meaningless – it makes no difference to the government’s policy settings except “by being there”. Yet this minister, without a shred of policy credibility, somehow defies political gravity, stands up straight in the house and acts the “conviction politician” so well that he deserves an Oscar.

He is very short on details, mind you. When the member for Warringah, Zali Steggall, asked Taylor a specific question today about plans to drill for gas north of Sydney (between Newcastle and Manly, along a stretch of coast with a gross regional product of $50 billion, much of it from tourism), Taylor sat on the fence, saying: “Any gas project which meets stringent environmental procedures, both state and federal, should proceed.” Unfortunately, Taylor did not have to answer a pointed question from Opposition business manager Tony Burke, who referred to Taylor’s connection to previous scandals on water buybacks, critically endangered grasslands, a fake City of Sydney document and now an ICAC investigation about land near Western Sydney Airport, asking: “Can the minister please name which scandals for this government he has not been involved with?” Speaker Tony Smith ruled that one immediately out of order. 

Question Time today was dominated by questions about integrity. There were questions to the prime minister about the appointment of Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar’s old law firm, Ashurst, to investigate whether he’d misused taxpayer funds, and why Peter Crone, an economist and associate of former PM John Howard, had been given a lucrative contract with the National Bushfire Recovery Agency. In response, Scott Morrison attacked the Opposition for casting aspersions “on a well-respected legal firm”, and he defended the Crone appointment by saying: “If you are good at your job, you’ll get a job – that’s how it works!”

There were also a string of questions to Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack about his dealings with the disgraced state MP Daryl Maguire, the former member for Wagga Wagga who is now the subject of an inquiry by the state’s ICAC. McCormack admitted discussing road funding with him, but denied discussing land deals, and did not have to answer a question about when he last met with Maguire. Sounds like fertile ground. 

Most importantly of all, the government was repeatedly questioned about the long delay in introducing its draft legislation to establish a Commonwealth Integrity Commission, which officials confirmed had been sitting with the attorney-general since December 2019. That delay is looking more and more deliberate, and with a government facing so many questions about corruption in its ranks, it is no wonder why. The flipside of crony capitalism is crony politics, and that’s where the Morrison government is now.

-Paddy Manning

You've gotta cut Angus Taylor a bit of slack.... after all, he did save Christmas.

Gloves are off now . No point hiding it boys .....just get stuck in like a Federal budget version of Hungry , Hungry Hippos !

It's been revealed the powerful #COVID19 commission has had access to sensitive cabinet documents and even provided input ahead of the budget. | @vanonselenP pic.twitter.com/2Kq5G07vWy

— 10 News First (@10NewsFirst) October 20, 2020

Have I got this right ?

6 private businessman have just been given th3 keys to shape the budget in their preferred image because they go under the moniker “ COVID Commission “ ?

Yewwwww !

Sheepdog, The clearing of Sukkar and Kevin Andrews over their branch stacking is seriously taking the piss.
Sukkar's mates did the enquiry, they didn't call the key witnesses, and then breathlessly cleared the corrupt mother fuckers. These cunts belong in jail.
Don't get me wrong, branch stacking occurs in the Labor Party too, but when it gets too embarrassing, heads roll. The Libs just hold a sham enquiry and pretend nothing is wrong.
This is their MO. Nobody is ever held accountable for corruption. Shit gets swept under the carpet all the time, and MPs know they can be corrupt without consequence.
They are utterly shameless.

From Crikey:

Scandal-struck nation finds no cure for the real pandemic: corporate greed.

"It’s hard to remember a time when we’ve had such an avalanche of shocking scandals damaging the top echelons of government and the corporate elite in such a short space of time.
“But wait, there’s more!” That’s about all you need for a daily headline at the moment.
It’s hard to remember a time when we’ve had such an avalanche of shocking scandals damaging the top echelons of government and the corporate elite in such a short space of time. Even the media is finding it difficult to keep up with the daily — no, hourly — litany of atrocities.
On Thursday we heard all about Christine Holgate, the AusPost CEO who had been stood aside over handing out an armful of Cartier watches to her managers in the government-owned entity. Then, just 24 hours later, Friday was another red letter day.
It was hard to top but Senate estimates managed it with another bombshell revelation: our top corporate cop, ASIC chair James Shipton, was also standing aside after taxpayers footed the $118,000 tab for handling his tax affairs.
This wasn’t his tax bill — God knows what that must be — but just the bill to accounting firm KPMG for organising his financials after his move from his previous Harvard job in the US.
The original approved amount was a mere $4000.
As if that wasn’t enough we also found out that his deputy, Daniel Crennan, had received $70,000 in excess relocation expenses when he moved from Melbourne to Sydney back in 2018.
Perhaps we should be grateful he was only moving interstate to the same tax jurisdiction.
In the time-honoured tradition of pollies who repay the offending funds, so too did our two guardians of corporate behaviour — although there will be another inquiry to add to the Holgate one.
Jumping the gun, Crennan announced his resignation this morning, stating he was already planning to retire in July next year but would leave effective immediately “in the best interests of ASIC” so this would “not disrupt its important work”. Will Shipton be next? Stay tuned.
Not surprisingly the ASIC debacle overshadowed another story later on Friday from the current AusPost chair: he could find no board minutes of approval for the Holgate watch purchases. And for good measure, the total cost of the watches was actually $20,000 — not the $12,000 she claimed in the previous day’s evidence.
That didn’t stop some commentators jumping to her defence, starting with Eddie McGuire of all people.
In a lengthy rant about his “superstar” Collingwood board colleague, he attacked “hacks and dullards” and wasteful government members who engaged in the “politics of envy”. Given McGuire’s controversial and lengthy 22-year tenure as president of the football club, he is hardly one to lecture on good governance.
Meanwhile the rest of the media was doing contortions trying to work out which side they should be on in the fast-rising tide of muck.
Right-wing business commentator Terry McCrann attacked the Liberal PM’s treatment of Holgate as being “peak stupid”, “hysteria on steroids” and worse, and said it proved Morrison did not understand how businesses work.
He was backed up by another veteran business writer and stablemate Bob Gottliebsen, while the AFR went full conspiracy mode with the headline “Did someone have it in for Christine Holgate?”
Morrison meantime continued frothing about Holgate — “appalled, shocked, outraged” — which only inflamed debate over degrees of disgrace. He was attacked for his selective attitude to accountability and hypocrisy over his different treatment of recent scandals.
Shipton was far worse than Holgate, the argument (rightly) goes. But neither were apparently as bad as giving $30 million to Lib donors for a $3 million parcel of land, which is currently being investigated by the AFP. And what about those sports rorts?
Speaking of which, there was another damaging story overshadowed by the others on this Black Friday of news. It was at yet another parliamentary inquiry: this time a NSW one into Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s involvement in her own version of sports rorts.
In staggering evidence, two of her key staffers admitted they destroyed key documents shown to the premier to approve a controversial council grants program favouring Coalition-held seats.
“Poor Gladys” is now “Shredder Gladys”.
So it was no surprise that Premier Investments chose late Friday to drop the news that CEO Mark McInnes had pocketed a $5.4 million salary and Solly Lew some $24 million in dividends when the company was raking in $67 million from JobKeeper.
There were no “appalled, shocked, outraged” comments from Solly’s close personal friend Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. (It’s hard not to do the degrees of disgrace thing).
Thank goodness the Crown inquiry wasn’t sitting on Friday. Or did I miss something?"

“6 private businessman have just been given th3 keys to shape the budget in their preferred image because they go under the moniker “ COVID Commission “ ?”

Actually if you think about it this is the next logical step for neo liberalism, outsource the full role of government to private contractors.

Crikey that's a good summary of this weeks shitfuckery.

I reckon that NSW $250 mill council grants shredder fest is A1 corruption in plain sight.

As one commentator said, "At least the Federal Libs had a spreadsheet"

"At least the Federal Libs had a spreadsheet"
Well Gladys wasn't going to make that mistake. She napalmed the evidence.
Corruption has gone through the roof under Covid. The carpet baggers have used the pandemic to line their own pockets and Scumo has done fuck all to hold anyone to account.

Fliplid, it's inverted totalitarianism...

Speaking of 'ol Gladys I have no integrity beady eyes,

“It is unclear what the benefits of separating the [Greater Sydney Commission] from the balance of the planning system would be. Any transfer of administration of the GSC to a department other than [Planning] would have a significant impact in terms of the operations efficiency of the overall planning system in the Greater Sydney Region.”

From former NSW planning department secretary Carolyn McNally’s written advice, which argued against relocating the Greater Sydney Commission out of the state planning department.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian overruled the advice, bringing the GSC under her personal ministerial control, after complaints from her then partner Daryl Maguire, who was frustrated by the commission.

“Gladys and Daryl had gone to no small effort to keep their affair from their colleagues, and her family, who apparently learned of it only slightly before the rest of us did. So why is ICAC interested in it? In part, because if their relationship met the definition of ‘intimate personal relationship’ under the NSW Ministerial Code of Conduct, then she was under a legal obligation to make a declaration every time she took any action that ‘could reasonably be expected to confer a private benefit’ on Maguire. Awkwardly, the person she had to notify was the premier – herself – but she also had to place it on the Ministerial Register of Interests.”

Let me guess, she was just using him for sex? Awkward indeed!

You couldn't make this stuff up.

Gladys was in my work today giving my boss an outstanding community service award. She's quite petite in real life and much more feminine than she comes across on tele. I kinda think Daryl has punched way above his weight if he was getting favours, cash and some jiggy-jig.

Standard practice in government should be to keep all such records for 5 years at least. This is both policy and often a legal obligation under records management acts. These days scan the copy and drag and drop into the records management system. Same with emails of a material nature.

Super dodgy to destroy such records

frog. The grants system was set up with no checks or balances. Gladys was handing over taxpayer cash to local governments who didn't even ask for it. The application process was non-existent, Gladys handed out the slush fund for political purposes, and all the paperwork and electronic records were destroyed and deleted.
This, on the back of her bent boyfriend, makes her position untenable. She's a crook.

Remember Peter Slipper? Hounded to court by the Federal and Qld Liberal Parties over the misuse of $1,100 in cabcharge dockets. Small beer compared to the level of corruption these days brought to you by the same party opposed to a federal ICAC.

^^^

Beware the poison dwarfs crg!
Big powerful women arouse greater interest and hence more scrutiny.
It's the MO of the truly EVIL type to slip under the radar.
Recommend rapid termination.

From a mainstream journo. Easy to read and digest.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/10/27/paul-bongiorno-integrity-comm...

After reading, let this Joshy Frodoberg quote linger:

“Thatcher and Reagan are figures of hate for the left because they were so successful.

One got two terms, which was the maximum that you can get in the United States. Margaret Thatcher got 11 and a half years.

But the reality is that Thatcher and Reagan cut red tape and they cut taxes and delivered stronger economies.”

Australia! You're standing in it, indeed!

Thatcher and Reagan restructured their economies so that far far less of the benefits of a strong economy flow through to the average citizen. I would suggest this change is a significant factor behind the unrest we see in the US and social friction we are seeing in the UK.

When a large segment of your society cannot afford to buy a house and live a decent life while working full time - you're gunna have problems. This is the future that ongoing conservative government in Australia will deliver for us.

Thatcher was a fuckin mole
NZ followed her lead in selling off state owned enterprises and fucking over wage growth for decades while making the top end of town richer. Hence the mass exodus of kiwis to OZ where unions kept wage growth moving north.

I reckon there’s more to it than that.

Facts Matter: Fake News Harms Our Democracy

A full-page advertisement was published in The Courier-Mail on Monday 26 October 2020 featuring Australia Institute research exposing the Queensland Resources Council’s (QRC) false jobs claims.

The QRC has a long history of using questionable economic modelling, known as input-output modelling, to exaggerate the number of jobs its members create.

In fact, the Australian Bureau of Statistics was so concerned about the misuse of ‘multipliers’ of the type used by the QRC that it stopped publishing them, stating: ‘their inherent shortcomings make them inappropriate for economic impact analysis. These shortcomings mean that (input-output) multipliers are likely to significantly overstate the impacts of projects or events.”

“While there will be legitimate debate on the best and most effective economic policies, it is important that information is factual,” said Dr Richard Denniss, chief economist at the Australia Institute.

“We have seen here in Australia and overseas the harm that fake news does to a functioning democracy. For the QRC to suggest mining creates more jobs in an electorate than there are registered voters in that electorate crosses the line.

“We have seen the mining industry long-make jobs claims which can be described at best as highly exaggerated, but these latest claims are just silly.

“Our research shows Australians now over-estimate the contribution mining makes to the Australian economy, to the detriment of support for other industries. The fact is while 64,700 Queenslanders work in mining, 97 percent of Queensland workers do not.”

- The Australia Institute

Mates first policy: Scott Morrison’s No. 1 value is seeing the country rot from the head down - Bernard Keane, Crikey

When 'looking after our mates' is your foundational value, those who work for you will get the message: taxpayer funding is there for the taking.

"Remember, my value is: we look after our mates."
Scott Morrison, September 6 2018

Everywhere you look in the Morrison government, you see sleaze and self-interest, if not outright corruption. Merely itemising the current scandals on foot is an arduous task.

The million dollars paid to a Liberal mate for government advertising without the inconvenience of a tender. Christine Holgate’s spending habits at Australia Post, all approved by a Liberal-stacked board. The expenses scandal at ASIC that has already cost that regulator a deputy chairman and is likely to cost it the chairman. The ongoing investigation into the 1000% mark-up on the Leppington Triangle for a Liberal donor.

The festering sore of the Community Development Grants program, a scandal 10 times bigger than sports rorts. The soft pedaling of the ACLEI’s investigation into Home Affairs and Liberal donor Austal. The long-running harassment and prosecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery for exposing the corruption of the Howard government in Timor-Leste. Allowing executives of fossil fuel donors to write energy policy.

And, of course, the now years-long wait for even a pale shadow of a federal anti-corruption body.

Of all of these, Scott Morrison only confected high dudgeon about Holgate, his marketing skills having alerted him to the toxic combination of the words “Cartier” and “not taxpayers’ money”. Otherwise, his moral compass remains unmoved.

A number of the scandals have their genesis in the Abbott and Turnbull governments; Morrison only inherited some; others are of his own creation.

But all reflect two themes that have run through this government from day one in 2013: that it’s OK to use taxpayer money, and taxpayer-funded positions, for your own benefit, and the benefit of your mates, and for the benefit of your party; and that there are no consequences for failure and scandal, unless political calculation necessitates them.

Those themes are potent indeed. Governments do not operate in a vacuum. The tone and example set by governments has impacts that ripple outward. First to the bureaucrats who serve governments, then businesses that work closely with government, then the broader business community and then, eventually, the whole community.

When a government appoints scores of former Liberal MPs and staffers to publicly funded offices like the AAT; when it hands a million dollars to Liberal-connected pollster without process; when a deputy PM creates a taxpayer-funded job for his new girlfriend; when it gives over $440 million to a tiny Great Barrier Reef charity run by people connected to the Liberal-allied Business Council without process; when it carefully spends taxpayer money to service its electoral needs; when it hands tens of millions of dollars to its mates at News Corp without process — it sends a clear signal.

Taxpayer funds are there to help you and your mates. And looking after mates is the explicit foundational value of the Morrison government.
The message has filtered out to the bureaucracy. To Australia Post. To ASIC. To someone in the department in charge of valuing land in Western Sydney. To the Health Department, which looked the other way rather than do anything about Bridget McKenzie allocating grants without any legal authority.

It has filtered out to one of the government’s favourite consultants, KPMG, and every other major consulting firm that has latched firmly onto the taxpayer teat in recent years while delivering what ministers want to hear rather than quality policy advice. To its shipbuilder Austal. And it filtered out to the Leppington Pastoral Company plenty good.

And when ministers are caught out lobbying for their family’s business interests, or pedalling forged documents without consequence; when a department like Home Affairs can be repeatedly assessed as incompetent in the use of its powers and its expenditure of billions of dollars without any repercussions for its secretary or minister; when over a hundred thousand Australians can be targeted by an illegal scheme like robodebt without a single bureaucrat or minister suffering any consequence; when forensic independent reports by the auditor-general are dismissed by senior bureaucrats and the funding of the Australian National Audit Office is cut, when those who seek to hold the government up to scrutiny are raided, rather than rewarded, that too sends a signal.

Accountability doesn’t matter. You don’t need to fear the consequences of misuse of taxpayer funding.

“The standard you walk past is the standard you accept,” David Morrison famously said. For the Morrison government, it hasn’t merely accepted the low standards that have mired federal politics in sleaze, it has actively promoted them.

This is the result.

The irony of Facto putting up a post about “ Facts Mattering “ is some next level insidious shit.

And then he puts up a post about accountability......

Question: Would Comrade Queef dare say any of his vagina puff accusations face to face to anyone ?

Yeah.

You.

Except you scare me.

In a Robin Williams 'One Hour Photo' kind of way.

Haven't you got any mates in the, y'know, real world?

Oh the Irony of Blowin complaining about another poster for saying Facts Mattering(sic).
Blowin, you said 90% of overseas student were Chinese, 50% of Australians were born overseas, and my all time blowin Bullshit favourite, the anti-white hate crime that was covered up by the courts and the police,
You are truly one of the internets biggest bullshit artist. Facts do matter.

Facto....do you know Pinhead Geoff ? Do you ever travel with him ?

Is he a mate of 'Queensland Pete'?

Hang on...what's that godawful racket?

Shit!

The bunny boiler alarm is cutting sick!

Help!

Nah, I’m just trying to figure out who you are for myself. After you’ve acted like the ultimate detestable clown for years , someone who goes out of their way to provoke bad feelings in others , surely you can understand why I’d be interested in who you really are ?

If anyone’s a bunny boiler it’s you. Christ , you follow me around Swellnet like I’m someone who’s led you on on Grinder.

HELLLLLLLLLLLLP!

Jeez Blowin . Facto writes an excellent post regarding the corrupt LNP Government's lack of accountability and you have to go on a personal attack.
Get a life mate.

From a time ago, and as sadly relevant today:

"Mate, your online persona here is a grubby archetype that needs constant skewering.

It's a cultural cancer, always lurking, sometimes in remission, but full-blown since the mid 90s till now. And our body politic has suffered. It is suffering. My optimism is that it's not terminal. Cancer can be beaten!"

Small minded...petty...willfully ignorant...bigoted...boorish.

Bog standard.

Blow in.

What was once referred to as the 'ugly Australian', now celebrated/patronised as ProMo's 'quiet Australian.'

'Cept you ain't very quiet on here, Blowhard. Figures. Real world would be a different deal, I reckon, but who in their right* mind would want to endure that**?

* I emphasise right mind not 'Right' mind

**Stu excluded. He's suffered enough.

It sure was a good summation of the state of things at the moment.

""Mate, your online persona here is a grubby archetype that needs constant skewering.

It's a cultural cancer, always lurking, sometimes in remission, but full-blown since the mid 90s till now. And our body politic has suffered. It is suffering. My optimism is that it's not terminal. Cancer can be beaten!""

which personality said that?

a quote of a quote of a quote?

In your 'human centipede' relationship with Blowie, at least this has finally got through to you, Sepp.

Took a while.

Info must be next.

Good times.

I thought the above post was brilliant. A must read for all Australians in my opinion.

But I can't help but wonder if the ALP got in and managed to govern for two or three consecutive terms, would things change? Would the ministers, the officials, the lobbyists become accountable? Or would it be just full steam ahead- same suit, different necktie?

Well written btw Facto.

Geez Zen. You genuinely thought Facto writes anything but catty criticisms of people who actually do put their opinions down on record ?

https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/10/27/scott-morrison-government-corruption/

Maybe not on this occasion then, but still, a good piece nontheless.

And he does write well, as do you.

Zen, if you want to really go down the Scomo rabbit hole then this is a must watch. Funny as fuck at times

Yes, a good read there, Zen (Though you missed the Bernard Keane citation? Unless you were talking about my own blowhard excoriation? Hah!).

Speaking of opinions and opinion making, informed and/or otherwise, and the power imbalance of legitimated media concentration (call it propaganda?), there's 5 days left to get involved in the biggest e-petition to parliament in the history of this country to date:

https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN1938

For every Bernard Keane toiling away online on a small but true and ethical journalistic platform, and 'speaking truth to power' in an ethical and true journalistic manner, there are multitudes of Murdoch megaphone minions - Bolt, Devine, Jones etc etc etc - in diametric and diabolical opposition.

Is our country best served by such a hostile foreign actor?

(Cards at the ready. SBB, B/SBB will commence. Eyes down for a full house...)

Signed.

But I can't help but wonder about all these politicians that become altruistic after they were in a position to effect meaningful change in the first place.

Seems like the same petition that this guy shows how easy it is to manipulate, bit of an eye opener, unless these petitions can be proven to not be easily manipulated they should count for nothing.

Speaking of Krudd
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/terje-rdlarsen-quits-afte...

BTW. Wasn't it Keating that opened the door that allowed Murdoch so much dominance?

Anyway the whole Murdoch fear thing is a joke it's 2020 not 2000, he has less power now than ever, gone are the days people rely on TV or newsprint for news, the whole landscape is more level than ever with the internet and social media etc

Most people especially young people get their news online and reality is most Murdoch press is paywalled, you get some viewable links on some Murdoch media like above, but you only get a few articles a week and then your will get paywalled but websites like Herald sun 99% of articles are paywalled.

Shit. Forgot about you in the beer bingo stakes, Info.

Nah, I didn't. You're always forgettable.

Zen, short or no memory of the Labor commisioned Finkelstein review, and the subsequent reception when the pissiest of measures were put forward by the Gillard government?

Reception fuelled by who in the media, I wonder?

Ashamed to say no memory of that.

And there you go, a perfect example of the nefarious forces at play outlined above.