BF2S Forums Australian politics thread.

I think Peter Dutton has comfortably taken the coveted spot as the Government's Top Cunt. So much so that it's hard to say anything else about him, he's just a complete and utter cunt. It is the essence of his being.

And he thinks people should be comfortable with him being given the power to strip people of citizenship, even potentially rendering them stateless?

FINALLY we've had a Police shooting.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout … 7395764083

There should be an immediate inquiry to determine:

Why only one shot was fired - those officers had assault rifles with high-capacity magazines - why weren't they emptied?

How the second suspect made it to prison alive and unharmed.

We pay our taxes and have a right to know.

The dog's heart doesn't exactly look in the game either.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2015-06-13 06:07:55)

Yes, a white man holding a gun was shot, not a black man not holding a gun - its like bizarre-world.

I guess that's another question for the enquiry, I hope so.

SuperJail Warden wrote:

That's pretty progressive of Australia. You know, shooting a white guy

Not liberal enough to kill him though.

yeah we got all those in NSW

Australia is going to have a Commissioner for Wind Farms tasked with addressing the terrible problem of infrasound and the health impacts linked to them. Tomorrow I expect the announcement of the Commissioner for Jet Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams.

Seriously Australia, I can't deal with your shit at the moment. It's literally impacting my health being exposed to it every day. I'd take some time off work but unfortunately it seems its impacting my colleagues in the same way so I'm stuck.

The utter overreaction about Zaky Mallah on Q+A is shameful. Mallah is an attention whore and an idiot but he was invited because of the unique perspective he brought to a relevant debate. The initial question he asked was perfectly reasonable too despite being shrouded in his own sad excuse-making and blame-distributing. All he did was express the concern about a minister being given judicial powers to determine guilt from evidence that never faces the scrutiny of a court. This has been a concern held by constitutional lawyers and Abbott Government ministers. Sure he was later provoked into a bit of a rant by Stephen Ciobo - who by the way didn't even attempt to answer the question before attacking Mallah for his past - but even the content of that wasn't particularly controversial. Is suggesting that radicalised youth may be influenced by pull and push factors really the sort of thing that Australian ears are too delicate to hear? Reminds me of when anyone who suggested the 9/11 terrorists may have been motivated to attack due to the United States' own actions was shouted down and condemned for daring to give voice to the fact that sometimes actions can have adverse reactions.

Coincidentally all this exploded on the same day the Government introduced its bill to strip suspected terrorists of their Australian citizenship with Tony Abbott flanked by no less than ten flags as he stressed how scared everyone should be of the bus load or so of Australian jihadists and insinuated the ABC was practically an arm of the ISIS propaganda machine by allowing a controversial person to give his opinion on a show that practically exists for this sole purpose, (last week it got Fred Nile to talk about LGBTI issues for fuck's sake.)

This bill by the way casts an incredibly wide net. It refers to people supporting, knowingly or unknowingly, terrorist groups - a term it leaves undefined for the minister's judgement - and pledges to assume guilt and automatically strip them of citizenship. It sees offences like "destroying commonwealth property" or "owning a terrorist related thing"  - thing is also undefined - as worthy of a person being stripped of their citizenship. The former of these offences currently carries a maximum sentence of ten years, it's essentially extends this "Allegiance to Australia" bill to cover vandalism.

It has cast a wide net to cover as many eventualities as possible. And while understandable from a Government's perspective given they don't want to later find out what they want to do is illegal by their own laws, (as they have found with their offshore processing laws which they are rapidly amending at the moment before a scheduled High Court hearing,) I have to ask how often anyone really thinks there will be a need to strip someone of their citizenship? Even at the moment Australia is only dealing with as many as a hundred or so of their citizens possibly fighting for ISIS. Of those how many people would really return to Australia? Most will be killed or will never come back to Australia for fear of being prosecuted. I imagine the real need to strip a terrorist of their citizenship might come up about ten times. Yet apparently it's worth all this fuss and the significant erosion of natural justice and the rule of law. A foot in the door.  A test to see just what people will accept. Terrorist losing their citizenship is okay. People who fund them is okay. People who express support for them is okay. Maybe the Government will find people are okay with vandals being targeted as well. Protesters too maybe. Anyone who suggests a view that someone else could argue sympathises with terrorists.

I'm not one for conspiracies or the slippery slope argument but the net has been cast far too wide for my comfort.

I'm not even an Australian citizen but this has made me feel deeply uneasy. It goes against so much of what a modern nation should stand for. Every bit of rhetoric that comes from the government is steeped in language that stresses how scared everyone should be while wrapped in ten layers of the Australian flag and accompanied by outrage over anyone expressing a contrary opinion and condemning them as being "against Team Australia". While it isn't directed at me, (I'm still subject to it,) I am fucking sick of being told I should be scared and accept everything the Government wants to do without question. I can't see how so many Australians seem to be comfortable with it. Are Australians really so scared of terrorism that they attack free speech and are comfortable with the rule of law being disregarded?

And all of this is made so much worse by the fact that the Opposition and it's leader are hopeless ineffective Muppets that will roll over at any hint that them doing so would improve their polling position or any hint that actually standing up for something might leave them open for criticism.

Sorry about that. I'm just sitting here having to listen to this stuff and it's put me in a lousy fucking mood.

Brah UK has worst laws Ty.

I see the legislation as extending current treason laws.

I do agree the courts should be the ones reviewing whether or not someone should be revoked of their citizenship. But the treason law has been in place since 1947 and given the power to a .gov minister.

The main reason of revocation of citizenship can be boil down on giving other intel agencies their location and we won't have any responsibilities to them when they get hit by a drone strike given by an ASIS agent.

But the threat out there is real yes it is overplayed, but Australia is really over-represented in a western country with people joining ISIS.

Our intel agencies fucked up when they didn't pick up ISIS flags being used during teh 2012 muslim protests.

Ty wrote:

The false outrage of this whole situation has really affected me. It just seems evil how opportunistic and greasy it is. We all know Abbott's feelings on the ABC, to turn this non-event  - which was really just a result of free speech operating as it should - into such a circus just feels so deeply deeply wrong to me. The fact that so many people are ignorantly being swept up in the frenzy created by things like those News Ltd front pages and the rhetoric from Abbott and not actually understanding what they are meant to be so offended by just adds to it.

I think Tony is smart enough to know how to 'take down an enemy'. He has successfully pulled off politically brilliant stunts. Think about it, a man who stood next to a ditch the witch and bob brown's bitch sign attacking a female PM has SOMEHOW not only kept his job but won the election and got her booted from her own party.

Of course it's stupid to suggest the ABC shouldn't have gotten him to go on Q+A. I'm surprised they didn't take that opportunity and 'show' Australia the threat of islamic extremism and convince the populace. That guy IS THE poster boy of pursing their new citizenship laws.

So whats your suggestion Ty?

Vote for fascist fuckwits who are at least trying to run the country?

Vote for corrupt faux-trotskyists who are out to line their own pockets and fuck the country?

A few years ago ABC would have put Mad Monis on. Putting someone like Zaky Mallah on is appalling judgement and gives Abbot a huge pile of balls to kick goals with.