Labor's new Middle East strategy. I don't think it helps us
Why has Foreign Minister Bob Carr spent three days this week in Lebanon? Is the Middle East really a foreign affairs priority, when there is so much to be done to repair relations with our near neighbours? Or is this part of Carr's dangerous and divisive crusade to please Muslim voters in western Sydney?
27 May 2013Foreign Minister Bob Carr today condemned twin rocket strikes into Beirut's southern suburbs yesterday (May 26), injuring five. Speaking after Ministerial talks in Beirut last Friday, Senator Carr said the attacks demonstrated the risk of Syria's conflict spreading across national borders.25 May 2013Foreign Minister Bob Carr today announced $4.6 million to help Palestinian refugees, including those affected by the conflict in Syria. Senator Carr announced Australian support during a meeting with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi in Lebanon today...24 May 2013Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr today announced an additional $12 million to help international relief agencies respond to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Syria and neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Speaking from the Faour refugee camp in Lebanon, senator Carr said the funding lifted Australia's humanitarian support for the Syrian crisis to more than $78 million.
Mr Bowles : Again, the humanitarian increase is part of a suite of measures under the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers. The greatest thing to confirm to people who are coming irregularly that there is another mechanism for them to get here is the lived experience. Let us not forget that this is the first year that this program has operated in this way with this number. Once we get through this—and we are confident that we will reach the 20,000 target this year, with significant increases of people, particularly out of the Middle East region—we will actually have an impact.
On 21 May 2013 the Hon. Amanda Fazio and I had the honour and privilege are formally presenting the Holy Koran to the President, the Hon. Don Harwin, MLC, at an official ceremony in Parliament House attended by more than 100 senior members of the Muslim community, dignitaries and multicultural media. It should be noted that this was the first time in the history of any Australian Parliament—and possibly any Parliament in a Western non-Muslim nation—that a motion was formally voted on and agreed that a copy of the Holy Koran be presented to the Presiding Officer... I will always say and do what is right, even in the face of trash that I have read in the Australian Israeli media. One or two reporters writing in the Murdoch press—namely the Australian—have been attacking me and denying the truth of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and the killing and dehumanising of the Palestinian people. That is utter garbage. I accept the right of people to express their views, even when they are wrong, naive, ill informed, indoctrinated and blinded by the power of a political lobby group that is cancerous, malicious and seeks to deny, misinform and scaremonger. What I do take exception to is foreigners intervening in the rights of Australian politicians to speak out. Therefore, I say to the Israeli ambassador, Yuval Rotem, “Butt out and stay out. Your perceived right to bully as you do in the Middle East does not extend to the Australian political arena.” In today’s Australian Cassandra Wilkinson, lacking journalistic integrity and informed knowledge of Israeli occupation of Arab land, ... conveniently attacks others in the New South Wales Parliament who simply dare to criticise—as any ethical or moral person would do—the State of Israel’s illegal and criminal practices against the Palestinian people. I applaud all Muslim and Arab leaders for speaking out on these and other issues. I call on the Australian Arab Muslim community to unite and for once to speak with one Australian voice. I ask them to protect the right of their community to speak out and deliver a message of peace and citizenship on behalf of their community so that neither they nor their messages are misconstrued or misunderstood.
SIGNS THAT UKRAINE COULD ACTUALLY WIN THIS
It's a miracle. There are now signs the Ukrainians could actually beat the huge Russian army. Watch the evidence.
Real men: Ukraine’s heroes shame us
Ukraine's heroes have shamed us. These real men have shown us something that we in the West think we've lost, having had manhood and patriotism beaten out of us.
SO TALKING ABOUT FAKE ABORIGINES IS NOW ALLOWED?
Amazing. Now there's even a play about white people pretending to be black, and the woke Sydney Morning Herald praises it. What a change from the days when it joined the pack attack on me for writing about this astonishing race-shifting. Read on.
We can’t sell our freedom for Chinese-Australian votes
Australia has 1.2 million people of Chinese ancestry. Now there are warnings that the Liberals should go soft on the Chinese dictatorship, to keep those voters happy. That toxic identity politics is a danger to Australia and an insult to many of our Chinese. My column here.
ROY SPENCER: GOOGLE PUNISHED ME FOR REPORTING THE REAL TEMPERATURE
Dr Roy Spencer runs the world's most authoritative measurement of the world's temperature, using NASA satellites. Google has now demonetised his website, where he reports the results. It accuses him of spreading "harmful" news - which is that the planet is not warming anything like as fast as predicted. Here he speaks on The Bolt Report.
What worries me most about Albanese
The Liberals are trying to smear and smash Anthony Albanese. But they aren't talking much about his real problem - the one that worries me most. My column from The Bolt Report.