Domestic terror is all very well but don’t forget class war
A new hate media emerges and Australia Institute polling finds we love furry kittens.
Imagine the uproar if Daniel Andrews said “domestic violence” instead of extremism. The Victorian Premier, doorstop, Thursday:
All of us, as Victorians and indeed Australians, have to accept that violent extremism is part of a contemporary Australia.
Yet that is effectively what Julian Burnside is saying. The Sunday Age, yesterday:
It’s time for our politicians to stop pushing the terrorism button and start concentrating genuinely on a much larger threat to people — women who live in Australia and who face a far greater risk than terrorism. It’s time for politicians to recognise that our anti-terror legislation is already more draconian than the scale of the problem justifies.
That moment when even the Greens won’t back your class-war approach. Scott Ludlum, Australian Agenda, Sky, yesterday:
I don’t know that it was tactically a good idea to try and personify the issues in the form of Malcolm Turnbull. The basic issues, themselves, I have no quarrel with ... Multinational tax avoidance or the structural magnifiers of inequality in our tax system are things that should be contested and should be in the public debate. But I don’t know that trying to pin that on Malcolm Turnbull or make him the, kind of, poster boy for that stuff has worked particularly well.
The Bolt Report’s Statler and Waldorf don’t spare the class warriors either. Michael Costa, Channel 10, yesterday:
Bill Shorten’s the bloke who took Richard Pratt’s plane to Beaconsfield. He should be the last bloke talking about friends of the rich and elitist approaches to things.
And Peter Costello:
(Sam) Dastyari must think his day’s been made. He’s now lecturing on corporate morality. This is the man who — by the way — was raising money to defend Craig Thomson as I recall on the grounds that someone had got inside his phone and booked all these prostitutes. He moves from that to lecturing everybody about tax affairs. I don’t think Sam could believe he’s getting away with this, but he is.
But naturally the new hate media at The Saturday Paper are determined to see the worst. Paul Bongiorno:
Turnbull took the high moral ground. He had invested in the Caymans to avoid a conflict of interest in Australia. He said that income from the investments is taxed in the hands of investors’ home jurisdiction. When he repatriates those earnings, he will pay Australian income tax. Of course, along the way his fund can take full advantage of the Caymans’ more “tax-friendly” arrangements and presumably earn more money. No illegality is being alleged. Maybe just a dashing of expectations.
Yes, and voters like furry kittens too. Mark Kenny is sold a pup, Fairfax, Friday:
Nationwide polling commissioned by The Australia Institute, an independent think tank, shows voters across the board ... have high expectations of Turnbull and ... want him to act ... The ... poll asked: “Do you think Malcolm Turnbull should take stronger action in the following areas, even if there is opposition within his own party?” The question was applied to five key policy fields: humane refugee policies; marriage equality; climate change; renewable energy; extra funding for school education. In every single category, the majority answered yes.
Asking the important questions. The Age website, Saturday:
Are gardens the new graffiti?