Australian Flag "Banned" As "Gang Colours"

Cancel The Big Day Out, Demands Prime Minister

The race riot at Cronulla Beach that gave birth to the whole flag "ban" controversy.

UPDATE : It was the flag “ban” that actually wasn’t.

But it was.

Kind of.

If you tell someone "don't bring Australian flags to this music festival" or they will be confiscated, is that a ban, or a recommendation?

The promoter who decided it was too dangerous to allow Australian flags at his outdoor music festival, because he believed they had become akin to "gang colours", didn't use the word "ban", but the Prime Minister sure did.

So did every other political leader who get their face in front of a TV camera.

They couldn't help themselves.

The opportunity to shout "I love the Australian flag!" loud and proud was too irresistible.

So did the Australian tabloid media. They didn't bother with " " around the word 'banned'.

So were they then quoting their own interpretation of what the promoter actually said?

Ken West, the promoter of the Big Day Out music festival to be held tomorrow in Sydney, planned to stop people from bringing Australian flags into his day long gig.

He said he chose to do this because he was worried about the Australian flag being wielded by drunk Australians in a repeat of the Big Day Out in 2006, when a number of people with dark skin (Muslims in particular) were approached by drunk white Australians and told they had to "kiss" the flag and "pledge their allegiance".

Or they'd cop a smack in the mouth.

The nastiness in 2006 followed the Cronulla Riot a few weeks before (see below)

It didn't seem to matter to the thugs, of course, that they targeted fellow Australians, or (ridiculously) tourists.

It was ugly, and demented, and as unpatriotic as you can get.

Australia's the greatest multicultural nation on the planet and Big Day Out promoter Ken West felt he had a duty to the music fans who had paid over $130 for their tickets to not have to cop that kind of crap from racist little turds.

So he was planning to announce that he didn't want people to bring their Australian flags along to the gig.

But then a Sydney tabloid paper got hold of the story and went to town.

Cue, a day of patriotic near mass-hysteria.

Up until quite recently, the only time the Australian flag would come up in conversation in Australia was usually when a discussion began about why the British Union Jack should be removed, seeing as we're not supposed to be under the dominion of the British Empire anyway.

Now the Australian flag is a firecracker that can launch a nationwide debate that quickly reaches nearly hysterical limits.

The “ban” on the Australian flag at the Big Day Out has now been transformed into “a request” not to fly the nation’s flag at the festival.

Or was it always just a request?

Hey, why spoil an all-in media and public pile-on?Australian patriotism is becoming a bloodsport.

Perhaps the most unexpected result for Ken West of the Big Day Out was the massive display of national unity on the issue. There were barely a few dozen commenters across a ream of Australian online media who said the “ban” was a good idea or who felt it was necessary.

It was a great day to be an Australian. But it was hard to be too outraged. There was next to no-one calling for a ban on the flag. Virtually everyone was signing the same song of outraged defiance against...well, nobody really.

But it was also a great day to be a politician, and they tried to ignore the fact there wasn't a chorus of calls for the flag to be banned.

The ‘Ban The Flag? You Bastards!’ story was exactly the kind of no-consequences issue that politicians love to get caught up in. They have wet dreams about days like this.

Thanking Allah, Jesus, Jehovah, Yoda and all the Hindu gods for such a wonderful welcome back from his extended holiday, John Howard said : “The proposition that the display of the Australian flag should ever be banned anywhere in Australia is offensive and it will be to millions of Australians.”

Which he followed with his acute observation that, “”flags don’t have legs and arms…” (ahh, yeah) in reference to his claim that the Australian flag was not the reason why the Cronulla Riot happened.

Continuing with the Quotes Of Outraged Outrage…

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said : “If they pulled this on Independence Day in the US, imagine what would happen. It’s just ridiculous.”

Ridiculous? Yes. But so is making comparisons to July 4, Independence Day. An overwhelmingly patriotic American celebratory institution for the founding of a Republic for which we have no comparable day or date.

We don't even have a Bill of Rights to call our own. Something American readers of this blog have reacted to with a stunned horror in the past.


The Big Day Out media release today read (in part) :

In recent times, there has been an increased incidence of flags brandished inconsiderately and this has led to increased tension. Our only goal in discouraging this activity at the Big Day Out is to ensure that our patrons are not subjected to or inconvenienced by this behaviour. We have no problem with people being patriotic, and we certainly do not have a problem with people wearing or displaying what they feel is important. Regardless of how it has been interpreted, this is about audience safety and enjoyment.

Amen to that.

It's remarkable how passionate and disgusted the Prime Minister can get about something so trivial as a sheet of cloth with more cloth sewn onto it.

But is he passionate and outraged about the Iraq War?

Eh. Kinda.

Education? Health care? Climate change?

Eh, eh, and eh.

Like I said, flag-related controversy is perfect for a politician. It is essentially meaningless and has no real political fallout, particularly when there is next to no-one to debate against, or be outraged by.

They basically went to war against...a misinterpretation.

John Howard is going to make the most of the controversy, however. He is giving a speech on Australia Day where it's rumoured he will demand that immigrants who become Australian citizens must adopt "Australian values". Whatever the fuck they are.


WE WILL UPDATE ON JOHN HOWARD'S "AUSTRALIAN VALUES" SPEECH HERE IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS. MORE SOON...


Australian Flag "Banned" For Association With Racism And Violence - A "Symbol Of Hate"

Australia In The Sights Of Hysterical, Hate-Filled Extremists - Michelle Malkin Fans The Flames


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Yesterday's story :

Australia's flag has become so connected with the vicious race riot that broke out on Cronulla Beach in December, 2005, that it has now been "banned" from the country's biggest music festival.

Any person carrying an Australian flag trying to enter the Big Day Out Festival next week in Sydney will have it confiscated as representing "gang colours".

The producer of the Big Day Out concert, featuring Australian and international rock, pop, dance and hip hop acts, said he decided to ban the flag because of its connection with violence and racism.

The prime minster, John Howard, has called the ban an insult to all Australians as well as an insult to "the freedom" that the flag is supposed to represent.

Howard wants the whole gig cancelled.

Now who's being hysterical?

How exactly does the Australian flag represent "freedom" for Australians?

The flag has got a filthy great British Union Jack occupying the top right hand corner. Every time we see it, it reminds us that we're not truly free. Not in the way Americans are.

We are not a Republic, nor do we have a Bill of Rights. Our head of state is still Queen Elizabeth II. And when anybody starts a campaign to make Australia into a Republic, and sever ties with the British, and the Royal Family, mysterious donors pour millions into fighting against Australia becoming a Republic.

So much for "the freedoms" the Australian flag is supposed to represent.


The producer of the Big Day Out, Ken West, decided to bring in the ban of the flag because he believes Sydney has become "a hot bed of racism" (according to the Daily Telegraph)

West claims that during last year's Big Day Out, only weeks after the Cronulla Riot, gangs roamed through the crowd with Australian flags and demanded people pledge their allegiance. He said people at the gig felt intimidated and harassed.


During the Cronulla Riot, in December, 2005, hundreds of mostly white Australians brandishing flags and also wearing them as capes, chanting "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!" savagely attacked any person they could find with brown skin, including young women and tourists from India and Pakistan.

Their fury was directed at Australian Muslims, and Lebanese people in particular, who they claimed had "occupied" Cronulla Beach and harassed "our women" for wearing bikinis. A lifeguard was beaten up by a couple of thugs in the weeks before the riot broke out.

It has a weird parallel to the current controversy, in that there were hordes of supposedly patriotic Australians shouting and singing their "love" for Australia, but there were few people who they could identify as "not being Australian." So they tried to lynch anybody they could find on the day who happened to have brown skin. Well, skin browner than theirs anyway.

More than 20 white males tried to kill a man sitting on a train at Cronulla station during the riot, and police and paramedics were punched, spat on, abused and pelted with beer bottles, bricks, fence palings and chunks of concrete as they tried to rescue those being attacked.


Australia Day is celebrated on January 26, a national holiday. January 26 is the date that Captain Philip reached Sydney Cove, in 1788, and founded the first English colony.

Many Aborigines, who have lived on the island for more than 60,000 years, don't recognise Australia Day. They hold ceremonies of mourning on January 26, the day they call 'Aboriginal Sovereignty Day, or 'Invasion Day'.

From the Daily Telegraph :

Prime Minister John Howard yesterday condemned the Big Day Out's decision to outlaw the Australian flag as an insult to the freedom it represents.

"The event organisers should not ram their peculiar political views down the throats of young Australians who are only interested in a good day out," an angry Mr Howard said yesterday.

The flag "ban" has provoked reactions of outrage and dismay across the vast spectrum of Australian communities, from the RSL to Islamic organisations :

Keysar Trad, a confidant of the Mufti Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly and head of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said banning the flag was a ludicrous idea.

Mr Trad said the flag was just as much a symbol for Muslim Australians as it was for any other citizen. "Personally, I would like to educate people that the flag belongs to us all," he said.

A number of media reports providing background to this story have claimed that the Australian flag was "chosen by the people" back in 1900.

This is not true.

A competition was run through a number of Australian magazines in 1899 and 1900 inviting readers to submit their ideas for an Australian flag design to commemorate the Federation of Australia in 1901.

But the design chosen was not put to an official public vote, nor was it debated in Parliament.

The flag design also had to be submitted for approval to the King of England, who then took more than a year to get back to the newly federated nation, anxious to fly its own flag for the first time.

The design of the Australian flag has changed in significant ways since 1901.

More on that from 'Your New Reality' :

This is how an Australian flag looked like in 1901, the year of Federation.

The first prime minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, announced the above flag (with either red and blue backgrounds) was the winning design. There was plenty of controversy surrounding this decision, particularly because the people of this new Federation felt they had little say in how the final design was chosen.

Here's a magazine cover from the time announcing the winning design :


In 1953, after five decades of debate, a slightly altered version of the Australian flag was signed into law by the 1953 Flag Act. A seventh point was added to the main star, and the same blue hue as the British Union Jack flag (represented in the top right hand corner) became dominant.


A flag to represent Australian Aborigines was designed in 1971, and now flies alongside the 'Blue Ensign' flag (above) at a number of government offices and buildings.

"The black represents the Aboriginal people, the red the earth and their spiritual relationship to the land, and the yellow the sun, the giver of life." (link)


A people power push to change the 1953 version of the Australian flag to one that signifies reconciliation of England and European descendant-Australians with the Aborigines drifts in and out the public debate every few years.

This is one design for a new Australian flag that proved extremely popular.



History of Australia Day

Australian Father Gets Four Months In Jail For Burning The Australian Flag

Cronulla Riots - First Sentences Handed Down For Savage Attacks - One Month For Violent Bottle Assault, Four Months For Flag Burning

Small Town Runs Out Of Water As Scientist Warns Drought Could Become "More Acute"

Tankers Haul In Emergency Water Supplies

Wallabaddah is a small town in northern New South Wales which now portents a terrifying new reality for drought-devastated Australia. The town's water reservoir has run dry. The town of 300 has, literally, run out of water.

The only steady supply of fresh water for most of the town's residents is from the tankers now hauling in supplies.

This is going to get expensive.

From ABC News, Australia :

The Liverpool Plains Shire Council says the water reservoir in Wallabaddah became empty at lunchtime after the town well, serving about 300 residents, failed.

Council acting general manager Bob Stewart says the town has recently been looking for other sources of water because the well's levels were so low but the situation has now become critical.

"I've just ordered the carting of water at the moment to fill the reservoirs and we've replaced immediate level seven water restrictions, which basically bans all external use of water."

Australia's drought could become even more acute :

A stronger Asian monsoon could bring harsher drought to Australia, a new study by Dr. Mike Gagan, a palaeoclimatologist with the Australian National University has revealed.

Dr. Gagan and his team looked at how drought in Australia is affected by an El Niño-like climate engine in the Indian Ocean called the Indian Ocean Dipole.

They found that a strong Indian Ocean Dipole involved a cooling of the eastern Indian Ocean, which in turn caused changes in weather patterns that decreases the amount of rain coming from the west to Indonesia and the south of Australia.

... a strong South Asian monsoon could drive winter rain-bearing winds towards the Southern Ocean, missing mainland Australia altogether.

"Over the years, everybody's been looking at the El Niño-Southern Oscillation as the driver of drought in Australia. It turns out that a lot of our drought is caused by changes in the Indian Ocean," said Dr. Gagan in his study published in the journal Nature.

Another town, Woy Woy, on Australia's east coast has water reserves down to only 14% capacity. Ironically, Woy Woy means "much water" in the language of the original Aboriginal inhabitants of the area :

Summer vacationers have arrived to find beachside showers turned off, and the lawns of rental houses are crispy brown because of a ban on watering. Local authorities have handed out four-minute shower timers and low-flow shower heads to every household, and most people now shower with an array of buckets underfoot to catch the precious “gray” water, the only thing that can be used to wet gardens or wash cars

Australia's Dwindling Fresh Water Supply Is Now A "National Emergency"

Lethal Snakes Move Into The Suburbs In Search Of Water

Crippling Drought In South Australia, Now Widespread Flooding After Huge Rains

Australia In The Sights Of Hysterical, Hate-Filled Extremists


According to Michelle Malkin's blog, this photo shows "the Moslems who rioted on Cronulla Beach".


By Darryl Mason

Right wing extremists in the United States, prone to calls for violence, have decided Australia is the new battleground in their lunatic-fringe war against all things Islam.

Clearly bored with the fact that good policing, improved intelligence gathering and calm, measured responses by the majority of Americans to the threat of terrorism have all helped prevent any more attacks since September 11, 2001, these hysterical hatefreaks are now fury-posting their clearly unhinged fantasy-world screeching that Australia is about to be over-run by Islamist hordes.

No delusion is beyond them. Even when there is clear video and photographic evidence to prove they don't know what they're talking about.

The best example is this post on Michelle Malkin's blog.

Her site is visited by more than 150,000 keyboard wannabe-warriors every day. That such a complete fabrication about such a famous event can be posted on such a widely read site, and left uncorrected for days, is a huge black mark against her credibility.

Particularly when you consider that she prides herself on hammering news agencies like the Associated Press for even the slightest error in its hundreds of daily news reports.

The Michelle Malkin site fabrication? Well, there's actually two huge ones :

(Sheik) Hilaly is "the leader of the majority of the Muslim community in Australia," a frightening thought indeed: if the Moslems who rioted on Cronulla Beach a year ago look to Hilaly as a great "leader," then heaven help Oz.

Sheik Hilaly is not the leader of "the majority of the Muslim community in Australia" anymore than nutbag Pat Robertson is the majority leader of the Christian community in the United States.

But it's the mindblowing fabrication about the Cronulla riots in December, 2005, that will do the most damage, seeing as it has, and will continue to be, picked up by dozens more extremist sites reaching millions of young Americans.

"....the Moslems who rioted on Cronlla Beach..."

All you have to do is Google 'Cronulla riots" Images to find hundreds of photographs and reams of video which all clearly show that Muslims were not the ones rioting on Cronulla Beach.

Thousands of young Australians, fed free booze and egged on by the bizarre rantings of pissed-up thugs and Neo-Nazis (after a week of calls-to-arms by talkback radio hosts who count the prime minister as a close friend), disgraced our nation when they chased down and beat up any person on or near Cronulla Beach that happened to have brown, or even slightly dark, skin.

One Muslim man was attacked while sitting inside a train carriage by dozens of white Australians clearly determined to kill him. They had to be beaten back by police. These coppers, who placed their own lives at risk, were abused and spat on by the utterly white rioters.

Women, too, were spat on, hit by beer cans, punched, kicked and had handfuls of their hair torn out in the full-blown race riot.

Two young backpackers from India and Pakistan happened to be in a side street. They were chased into their car, which was then smashed up, as thugs tried to break the windows to get at them.

Police, paramedics and emergency workers who tried to rescue those about to lynched were also punched, kicked, abused, spat on and injured by a rain of beer cans, bottles and broken bricks and rocks.

You have to be one seriously demented Islamophobe to look at even a fraction of the evidence and deduce that it was "Moslems who rioted".

But then, why let facts get in the way of a good hate-motivated beat-up?

Australians don't need any association with these demented American extremist loons. And we certainly don't need them to tell us what we should be doing in our country.

We are taking care of our problems, and those who call for violent jihad are being ostracised by other Muslims and, where possible, are being prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

We've contacted Michelle Malkin to point out these errors on her site, and her response was that she had been in Iraq and had not looked into the appalling errors of fact.

We'll let you know if, or when, the errors are corrected.


But perhaps even more disturbing than hate-orientated revisionism of one of the darkest days in modern Australia, is this spectacularly disgusting filth from Little Green Footballs.

Little Green Footballs is another site, visited every day by hundreds of thousands of young Americans, and thousands of Australians, that has now decided Australia must be defended from the 300,000 Muslims who live peacefully in our country and contribute enormously to our culture, economy, politics and general harmony within in our communities.

What is so damn creepy about Little Green Footballs is it doesn't zero in on just Muslim extremists in Australia, it is now attacking anything to do with Islam in Australia, again falsely and hysterically claiming that Australians are threatened by Islam and are widely opposed to Muslims in general.

Nothing is too trivial for the LGF legion to attack and foul with misinformed rantings on the comments boards.

Nothing. Even including, perhaps not surprisingly, the widely praised fashion mini-revolution that is the Birkini.

If these people think that a two piece swimsuit that has won praise from the Australian Cancer Council is a sign of the downfall of Australian society, they are perhaps already far beyond help.

According to the mindset of most LFGers, a liberated modern Australian woman must not protect herself against skin cancer and sunburn, and she must not choose to cover her body if so she wishes. Hell, no. Exercising that kind of freedom of choice means they are being oppressed.

To be truly free, if you think like most of the LGFers, then Liberated Australian Woman must get her tits out for the boys.

Clearly, some of these freaks have watched too many Girls Gone Wild videos and think the world, and Australia in particular, would be vastly improved by more drunk women degrading themselves in public.

Below you will find a handful of examples of the LGFers disturbing hatred of women and general intolerance.

Consider, too, that all of this demented bile was ignited by a photo of a young woman in a birkini and a story about her fashion designing dreams :

"...what next - Beachside beheadings?"

"why dont muslims try not being 7th century pigs?"

"Excuse me, does this bomb belt make me look Fatwa?"

"Perhaps the sharks can administer a few Darwinian Bitchslap"

"Maybe use them as decoys to distract the Great Whites from eating bikini girls"

"Give me a break. All the Muslims want to do is intimidate the other beach goers."

"Is there anything unclean in the ocean that would require it being cleansed before a scuzlim went in the water?"

"Why the hell did anyone think it was a good idea to let these vermon into our countries?"

"This is simply catering to those who want to kill us all."

"A sinister Christian/Zionist plot to dress Muslim women up as shark food and speed up the evolutionary process."

"The sight a woman draped head to heel in a black sack is calculated insult to Western values by 10th century retards who imagine their infernal religion is unstoppable and irresistible."

"...it's always nice to know the jihadettes are fashion conscious."

"Not even the sharks will want them."

"... it is an attack on our way of life..."

"There is something better: covering up Arab men, the ugliest-looking goat fuckers on the planet."

"...this awfulness of a burkhini maximizes attention; it's positively brazen and militant..."

Militant swimwear, eh?


LGFers clearly know absolutely nothing about Australian women.

While there are no doubt a tiny minority of Muslim, Christian and Hindu women still being oppressed by the religious dictates of their parents, relatives or husbands, the vast majority of Australian women are clearly in control of the choices they make when it comes to lifestyles and fashion.

Australian women take no shit, from nobody. That's why we love them so much.

But LGF and MM wouldn't report that, of course. Too many truths that would expose the lies of their paranoid fantasy world dreaming about the Islam-oppressed Australia that simply doesn't exist, in what we call Reality.


NOTE : These stories are being covered by this site because they involve distortions about Australian history and Australian society by American extremists.

You can rest assured that now these whackjobs have sunk their fangs into Australia as a subject, they won't let go.

So we will continue to demolish their propaganda.

The Definitive Account Of The Cronulla Riots

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You're Busted Prime Minister

Howard To Pay Back Thousands After Caught Out Using Government Jet As Private Holiday Taxi

The Australian prime minister has been caught out using a government jet to ferry him to and from his holiday on Cable Beach, in Western Australia.

The reaction from the Australian public was swift and furious. Within hours of the story breaking, Howard was getting his army of PR people to try and spin the mini-scandal. But it was too late. He offered to compensate the Australian taxpayers for the 'oversight' and then tried to claim that he had always intended to pay for the use of the jet.

Yes, of course he did.

We all believe him. No, really. We do.

So honest and open is the prime minister about telling the truth, he is now refusing to answer any more questions on the matter.

The silence that incriminates...

from the Australian :

John Howard has agreed to refund taxpayers the cost of two commercial flights after his VIP plane was forced to return to Broome yesterday to collect the Prime Minister and wife Janette after their barefoot beach holiday.

As he boarded his VIP plane last night en route to Brisbane, Mr Howard's office would not confirm whether he decided to make the refund offer before travelling to the West Australian resort town....

Mr Howard's plane was diverted to Broome to drop off the Prime Minister and his wife on Tuesday and is believed to have then travelled on to Sydney with government advisers.

(Howard) will make a donation equivalent to the cost of a commercial flight, up to $3760 one way for each Qantas business-class flight.

Mr Howard is expected to face further questions on the use of the VIP plane for his short holiday, with Labor assistant Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen saying the "Australian people would expect that a holiday should be paid for by the person having the holiday, not by them".

Mr Bowen said some families could not afford to take holidays.

"They need to have what appears to be a taxpayer-funded holiday justified to them and they can make a decision on whether John Howard's decision in this case was a proper use of taxpayers' money," he said.

The Prime Minister's office said last night he would not be making any further comment on the "Labor smear".

So John Howard thinks a trip on a private jet is only worth the equivalent of two business class tickets?

If he hired a private jet to act as his private holiday taxi service he would have forked out more than $30,000 for the luxury rides back and forth across Australia.

Some government officials tried to claim that Howard had to use the jet for "security reasons".

Really?

So the Australian prime minister faces greater threats to his security than British prime minister Tony Blair?

Blair recently flew to Miami for his holidays, and took two seats on a British Airways flight. In first class, of course. The tickets were believed to be freebies, or heavily discounted. The cost to the British taxpayer for Blair's jet setting?

Zero.

Maybe some day, the Australian public will get to see an audit of the vast wine collection they paid for, and pay to have restocked every year, that John Howard and his mega-millionaire mates regularly quaff their way through, as they come up with new and even more inventive ways to stitch up the Australian workers.

The Enemy Within?

Australian Air Force Man Charged With Possessing Explosives And "Homemade" Bombs

He worked as an engineer with the Australian Air Force. He had access to jet fighters, including the F/A-18 Hornet. He also happened to keep a personal stash of high-powered explosives, detonators and "homemade devices" - presumably bombs.

But don't worry. Police don't think he has any connection to 'terrorism'. Does this mean the man is a white Christian?

From the Daily Telegraph (excerpts) :

His arrest follows the discovery of more than 5kgs of Power Gel explosive found by transport company employees in a car at Toll Transport’s Autologistics vehicle yard on Robert Rd, Greenacre, on Tuesday of last week.

The aqua-green Ford EA Falcon had had been transport to the centre from Queensland as part of the RAAF employee’s move interstate.

On Tuesday this week, the day after police arrested the man, they intercepted a removalist truck near Newcastle and recovered a large locked box that contained a couple of detonators and home-made devices, as well as old firearms.

The Australian Army is believed to be examining the devices, believed to be makeshift explosives.

All this follows recent shocking revelations that rocket launchers capable of taking out a tank had been stolen an Australian Army base, and are believed to have been sold on to suspected terrorists.

At least seven of the rocket launchers are still missing.


The Hunt Is On - Rocket Launchers Missing, APEC World Leaders Summit Draws Closer

Rocket Launchers Stolen From Australian Defence Force Allegedly Sold To Man Now Being Held On Terror-Related Charges

Howard's Horror : Fear Of Terrorism Falls In Australia

Huge Majority Of Australians More Concerned About Effects Of Climate Change

75% Reject Government's Plans To Beat Global Warning With Nuclear Power

Can John Howard now re-brand himself as a climate change-fearing, tree-stroking environmentalist who smacks around Australian corporations for not doing enough to fight global warming?

More importantly, can he undertake and complete this re-branding in time for the late 2007 federal election?

A stunning new poll reveals that this is exactly what Howard will have to do if he wants to cruise to victory.

Australians simply don't trust Howard, according to the poll, when he talks about the environment and climate change. They believe, for the most part, in the reality of global warming and climate change.

Not as a theory, but as a harsh New Reality.

But they don't believe that Howard believes in it like they do.

At least, they don't believe he has become a true believer. Not like they have.

They think he's spouting spin, and that he's only now appearing concerned because this is what the polls are telling him he must do.

These poll results clearly indicate that Australia's are deeply suspicious of their leader, and they're seriously concerned about the future. A future that they no longer believe John Howard will do his best to protect and take care of, for the generations of Australians to come.

So not only does Howard have to undergo a re branding from global warming sceptic to true believer, he must also be seen to undergo a Green Values conversion of monumental magnitude.

Plus, his political spin machine will have to completely repackage almost his entire slate of environment, energy and climate change-related policies if he is going to sell John 'New Green' Howard successfully to the Australian public.

And he's got less than ten months to get all that done.

This is going to be one seriously entertaining election.


I'll throw out a theory here that I have a feeling will gain a lot of ground in the coming months. I look forward to being proved completely wrong, but I doubt it :

Australians aged from 30 to 80 are no longer concerned about themselves. They think they're doing okay. They're not overly troubled about their finances or interest rates. They been made to feel financially secure, for the most part.

They don't fear interest rate rises, or losing their homes to economic upsets. They're not overly worried about losing their jobs and then not being able to find another one.

But what really freaks them out, what really sends the ice-shivers of fear up their spine is when they look at their kids, or their grandkids, and they think about the future that lies in wait for them. A dark future, where the wild and freakish weather is the greatest, most dangerous, most deadly enemy of all.

Far more dangerous, far more deadly, in fact, than any terror attack.

They believe, for the most part, that climate change is real, they can see it happening all around them. State wide fires and endless droughts and freezing mornings that melt into blistering afternoons.

They believe that the effects of global warming are going to spell out some m-a-j-o-r d-o-om for their kids and their grandkids.

And they don't believe Howard is capable of facing that still vastly mysterious threat and defeating it. Or at least, they don't believe Howard will do what needs to be done to fight back the onslaught of severe climate change as hard as he can.

It won't be fear of terror or a widening Christian Vs Muslim world war, or nervousness about interest rate rises, or paranoia about economic devastation, or gut-grinding dismay about getting screwed over in the workplace that will determine their voting choice come election day.

It will be a general Fear Of The Future, spawned primarily of their concerns for the next generation and alive with near daily confirmation that a severe climate change -induced Hell on Earth is rapidly becoming the New Reality.

A New Reality that the prime minister, and his government, appears unable and uninterested in effecting some dramatic change to stop it dead in its tracks.

Howard must be wondering what the hell has happened to his country. How did everyone get so caught up in all this climate change business? Like an all consuming new religion, climate change terror has devoured the commonsense and dirt-standard distrust that most Australians once had for nearly all things connected with environmentalism, and conservationism.

It's Howard's worst nightmare in blinding neon : The Greenies Were Right. And Most Of Australia Now Knows It.

Howard must be shaking his head in shuddering disbelief about how once such deeply-embedded scepticism of all the major 'Green Issues' has melted faster than an Greenland glacier into mass acceptance.

Australians never used to believe in global warming. It was smelly hippie-enviro-leftytrash-
conspiracy guff.

But that was then, as they say. And this is now.

Australians have become true believers. Passionate ones.

Perhaps worst of all, this is not Howard's territory. It's so far out of his traditional stomping grounds he can't even get the boots to fit his feet.

Howard's hopeless at the long-term vision thing, particularly when it involves the detailed construction of a brighter tomorrow. He's a salesman, not a prophet. A huckster, not a futurist. A white-knuckle gambler who's run out of chips and can't hock his pants to match the bets now on the table.

He has traded on fear and paranoia for a solid decade, refusing to acknowledge mistakes of the past, and point-blank ignoring the dangerous possibilities that were always lying in wait around the next corner on the Prosperity Highway.

Global Warming? Climate Change? Carbon trading credits?

What the fuck?

Howard never wanted to know about all that Green Future paraphernalia. He certainly never thought he would have to start spouting it, let alone debating it.

He just wanted to get good seats at the cricket, and move in the kinds of social circles that he would never have gotten anywhere near if he hadn't become prime minister of the greatest country on the planet.

It used to be so easy for Howard. All he had to do was freak the public out about all the evil terrorists who were trying to smuggle themselves into Australia disguised as asylum seekers so they could blow themselves up at the footy grand final.

But these poll results reveal that, despite the daily tabloid-talkback media trumpeting about the imminent explosive threat of Muslim terrorists in our midst, the number one global issue that raises the most worries and concerns with Australians is climate change.

It trumps fears about terrorism, immigration, you name it.

Some 75% of respondents told pollsters that they were now paying close attention to the issues of climate change, in a personal way. Meaning they were choosing to walk instead of drive, where possible, and were looking into alternative energy. For starters.

They believe that John Howard should sign up to the Kyoto Protocols licketysplit, and go one better. He should come up with a new plan of reining in climate change that will leave the current carbon-emission targets for dead.

But the poll results also reveal a most curious, and fascinating, anomaly. More than than half of all Australians believe that other Australians are "poorly informed" about climate change and global warming.

The anomaly is described in this story as "mass public confusion" about the relevant issues.

But some three out of four Australians are not confused about nuclear energy. They don't want it. Full stop. And they don't believe that rolling out nuclear reactors across the country is the solution to stopping global warming, or meeting the future energy needs of Australia's air-conditioners.

The distrust the Australian public feels about the government's views and actions on global warming are palpable.

And a stunning 82% of respondents don't believe that Australian businesses will do the right thing, or will take the necessary action required to stop global warming, unless they are forced to do so.

You can take it as gold standard then that the majority of Australians do not believe Howard will push businesses to make the emissions cuts required of them.

John Howard has invested an enormous amount of energy in the past year in trying to sell himself as a leader concerned about the environment, about global warming and climate change, and as someone who understands the public's growing concern about the crippling drought, the ferocious storms and the chilling onset of water shortages.

Howard has tried to flog himself as new and improved, and suddenly enlightened, but he has failed spectacularly.

And then there's the Australian public's changing views on the Iraq War, the torture-dosed imprisonment of an Australian citizen by our American allies, the general future of our alliance with the United States and John Howard's ceaseless echoing of President Bush's talking points and endless support for BushCo.'s 'War on Terror'.

But that discussion will have to wait for another day...

On issues relating to the environment, climate change and global warming alone, Howard's exit is coming up fast. You can see it already, just ahead, on the Left.


Go Here For The Full Story On How Australians Now Fear Climate Change More Than Terrorism


The Australian Debate About Climate Change Rages On Here. Scepticism Abounds.

Australian Soldiers Battle Insurgents In Baghdad Streets

We don't hear much about exactly what Australian troops are actually doing in Iraq, but every now and then the Defence Department throws out a few bones

There's about 120 Australians doing security detail in Baghdad for Australian diplomats, primarily. Here's a report about a blitzing encounter between Australian troops and insurgents.

Reports don't yet reveal whether or not the Australians were targeted specifically by the insurgents, or whether they were just the closest Coalition of the Willing patrol to insurgents ready to launch an attack :

The patrol was attacked on Tuesday evening, with Iraqi gunfire causing superficial damage to the vehicles.

The soldiers returned fire with more than 400 rounds. No Australian soldiers were hurt.

The patrol, which included three Australian light armoured vehicles and personnel from the Australian Security Detachment, was attacked by at least three armed gunmen.

Some more details here :

The three ASLAVs and an unidentified number of soldiers from the Australian Security Detachment (SECDET), which is charged with protecting Australian embassy staff in Baghdad, were on patrol at about 5.40pm local time when the insurgents struck.

Around three insurgents fired on the vehicles as they approached a road overpass.

"A number of rounds hit the ASLAVs, however, there were no injuries to Australian personnel," defence officials said.

"Australian personnel returned fire with machine guns and Steyr rifles as they moved through the incident location.

"There were multiple strikes against the Australian vehicles but the exact number was yet to be confirmed."

Last week, Australian soldiers opened fire with mounted machine guns on an Iraqi truck that approached a checkpoint some 200 metres away out from the Australian embassy.

The driver allegedly refused to stop and he was killed after three bursts of gunfire, five to ten rounds fired in each burst. The incident is being investigated.

Police Look To Digger's Past To Find Possible Motive For Beheading

Exactly why an 82 year old World War 2 veteran was beheaded in the backyard of his country New South Wales home remains a complete mystery.

Police don't have a motive, or a weapon, not yet anyway. More background in our earlier report here.

Police are now sifting through the elderly man's personal history to see if they can find anyone who might have wanted him dead. The fact he was brutally beheaded has left police believing whoever did it really must have hated the old guy something shocking.

Unless, that is, there is a motive completely unrelated to the digger's history. The ongoing investigation has shut down whole parts of the country town of Armidale. Naturally, locals are shocked almost out of their minds by what has happened.

Mark Hutchinson was a fit and agile old bloke. He used to walk six kilometres into town every morning for a cup of coffee at his favourite cafe. His table sits empty this morning in his honour.


Bush Fires Black Out Australia's Second Largest City - "Don't Turn On Your Air-Con!"

Amazing scenes in Melbourne today and tonight. Ash clouds and choking smoke are blanketing towns and villages and hazing the city centre. A sweltering gridlock blocked key roads in the city after power failures shut down traffic lights. Broken down vehicles forced delays of buses as people queued hundreds deep to find a way out of he city after work.

Hundreds of thousands of homes have no electricity after the bush fires that have ravaged the state forced the shutdown of power supplies to almost one third of the entire state of Victoria.

Heatwave temperatures struck today and are expected for days to come, but people across Victoria are being asked to lay off the air-conditioning, to ease power drains on the damaged grid, which could lead to more widespread, and longer, blackouts and power cuts.

The bush fires have been burning for a solid month. Tens of thousands of firefighters from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and, recently, the United States have fought battles to save towns and villages.

Tonight, more than two dozens towns still lie in the path of the fires, which have laid waste to a stunning One Million Hectares of bush, national park, pasture and farming lands.


Shocking Outbreak Of Violence At....The Tennis?

Nothing funny about a couple of packs of aggroheads going at each other in a public space, but there was something almost Monty Pythonesque about the news reporting surrounding the all-in brawls between Australian-Croats and Serbs at a Melbourne tennis competition yesterday.

You can watch the flag-related kick-fist-fest here.

It just sounds so very, very wrong.

Outbreak of violence at the footy? Sure. Outbreak of violence at the cricket? Maybe.

But an outbreak of violence at a tennis match? A tennis match?

Tommorow's headlines : Savage Brawls Over Undercooked Scones Mar Lawn Bowls Finals.


She thought she had atoned for her sins, but not yet. 34 years ago, this woman abducted a four year old girl, smashed her head with a brick then tried to slit her throat. Twice. The woman was convicted for her crimes and spent time in a mental institution. Now she works for the Juvenile Justice Department, and recently recieved a reward for her work with troubled youth.

But her victim, now in her late 30s, claims she is still suffering from the attack, and is outraged that such a reward, and recognition, has been given to someone who still haunts her nightmares.

"She doesn't deserve a dog bone," said the victim.

"Here is someone who has turned themselves around," says the woman, who now fears she will lose her job.


The 'War' In A Country Town To Allow Sudanese Refugees Fleeing War zones To Start New Lives

This is a story we'll come back to in some detail, because it's a pretty amazing one.

The last place you might expect to find families of Sudanese refugees from African warzones is an Australian country town like Tamworth.

A raging controversy over whether or not the local council would block plans by the federal government to place Sudanese families in the bustling little metropolis has kicked off yet another 'race debate' in Australia.

There are already Sudanese-Australians in Tamworth. But the local council had voted a Big No to any more, with some of the councillors telling the media they "feared the changes these people would bring".

The story became national, and international, news, but it's got a happy ending.

The council was forced to take another vote, one that was to reflect the feelings of the majority of Tamworth's residents, instead of a few bigoted and ill-informed councillors. Tamworth will now open its arms to some 20 new families of Sudanese-Australians.

The people of Tanworth want the new Australians to feel right at home. And some of them might get there just in time for the Tamworth Country Music Festival. An absolute iconic event on the Australian social calendar now. If you like country music, that is.


An Australian woman claims she has had a near miraculous recovery from a severe brain injury after undergoing stem cell therapy treatment. She didn't get the cure in Australia, of course. She had to fly to Germany and spend more than $40,000.


Water May Be Shipped To Sydney From Tasmania In Solar Powered Supertankers

Pretty amazing plan, but damn scary to think that Sydney could get so dry that we have to actually ship in fresh water so the city doesn't have to be abandoned in decades to come.

A plan to fight the drought that is now gaining vast interest is one that would see hundreds of millions of litres of fresh Tasmanian water being loaded into massive supertankers, powered by solar energy and shipped up the coast to Sydney, the Central Coast and even up as far as Brisbane.

Is the drought going to get so bad that we'll be down by Circular Quay with our empty buckets queuing for fresh water? Probably not. But if the drought doesn't break, it's going to see people paying five times, at least, more for their fresh water than what they're paying now.

One of the chief reasons why the Fresh Water Supertanker ideas is gaining interest, and true believers, is that it is so much cheaper than laying pipelines to cross the thousands of miles of Australia's vast spaces.


50 kangaroos are set to get their hopping orders to move on from their favourite munching grounds to make way for a supermarket.

Not so long ago, a couple of blokes in a ute would have been brought in to shoot them. Not now. The supermarket developer is going to have to pay about $2000 each for every kangaroo that needs to be relocated.

Christian Australians Just Don't Understand Arabic Humour... Apparently

The Australian mufti Sheik Taj el-din al Hilaly caused a mostly media-only shitfit in Australia when he went on Egyptian television and said Muslims had more right to be in Australia as they brought tickets to the colonies, whereas most English/Scots/Irish Australians were transported here, for free, in chains as slave labour.

"The Anglo-Saxons who arrived in Australia arrived in shackles. We paid for passports from our own pockets. We have a right in Australia more than they have,"

Funny stuff.

Oh, wait, some people didn't think it was funny at all. Well, the prime minister John Howard thought it was funny, at first, before he quickly realised that the "Society of Perpetual Outrage" - that is, Australian right wing politicians and commentariat - were going to run this non event into the ground.

And thus, a four day long media roasting followed.

In the Daily Telegraph today, Hilaly's unofficial spokesman, Keyser Trad, attempts to claim that Hilaly's outrage-inducing "exaggerations" are in the tradition of great Australian tall-tale tellers like Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson, and is a melding between Australian storytelling traditions and something uniquely Arabic.

"...the use of exotic, colourful or exaggerated generalisations – familiar to readers of Lawson and Patterson – remains a feature of contemporary Arab culture," says Trad.

Err, yeah. Good luck with that.

The Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said no-one takes the mufti seriously anymore. We should listen to Downer. If anyone knows all about what it's like not to be taken seriously, to be regarded as a joke and an idiot of true supremacy on the world stage, it's Alexander Downer.

But Hilaly says he doesn't hate Australia. No. In fact : "I love Australia. I respect the Australian nationality, Australian society, the land of peace. Australia is the best country in the world."

You got that right, buddy.

While he has been off target and stunningly offensive in the past, Hilaly can also be right on the money as well when it comes to John Howard's endless bowing and scrapping at the blood-stained heels of BushCo.

Hilaly calls the Australian prime minister, "Mr Me, Too".

As in Howard waits until he hears what BushCo has to say about a world or war related issue before he agrees with the White House, wholeheartedly.

There's a bit of bitter truth that most Australians would find hard to deny.

It's always interesting to note that when these debates flare up in Australia about who is more Australian, what it means to be Australian, who should or should not be allowed to be Australians, you never hear the opinions of any Aboriginals.

So much for balance.

82 Year Old World War 2 Veteran Found Decapitated In Country Town

"It's Like A Horror Film In Our Neighbourhood"

Mark Hutchinson survived the jungles of Burma and New Guinea, fighting the Japanese. He made it home, and two decades ago, returned to the New South Wales country town where he had first signed up for what had then been promised to be, "The Great Adventure".

Too many old War World 2 veterans have been murdered in terrible ways in the past decade in Australia. Muggings gone wrong, home invasions, mowed down outside their local RSLs.

But Mark Hutchinson's death is one of the most unusual of all.

An elderly man living in a small country town, regarded as quiet and friendly by the locals, he was found dead in his own backyard by visiting relatives. He had been decapitated.

And, for now at least, no-one can seem to work out why. There appears to be no motivation behind this brutal murder that has shocked the whole town of Armidale.

The way in which Mark Hutchinson was murdered holds errie parallels to the jungle wars he survived in World War 2, where at least a few dozen young Australian men were decapitated by their Japanese enemies, by the use of ceremonial swords.


From 'The Australian' (excerpts) :

Family members discovered the 82-year-old World War II veteran's severed head next to his body in his backyard on Saturday afternoon.

The pensioner and old gunner had lived alone at the same house for two decades and was well-liked by neighbours in the New England city in which he enlisted 63 years ago.

The quiet northern NSW town has been shattered by the news.

Local resident Dianne Burton said: "Armidale is a pretty small town and most people know each other, but apart from being very sad this is pretty scary.

"It's like a horror film in our neighbourhood, in our streets. Everyone is talking about this. Everyone is stunned."

Local RSL president Keven Smith told Seven News: "He was just a mild mannered, fine, upstanding gentleman, and I just can't possibly imagine why anybody would do what they've done."

Mr Hutchinson served as a gunner in the 2/12 Field Regiment in World War II, having enlisted on May 10, 1943, fighting in New Guinea and Borneo.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

Police have searched the adjacent parkland for a possible murder weapon and other clues.

"He was just a mild mannered, fine, upstanding gentleman, and I just can't possibly imagine why anybody would do what they've done,'' local RSL president Dr Kevin Smith told Seven News.

Armidale mayor, Peter Ducat, said the murder was distressing.

"I'm shocked to think that something like this could happen in Armidale.

Most people would be sickened that an 82-year-old person has been murdered in their own home,'' he told Nine News.

Neighbours said Mr Hutchinson had lived alone at the house after moving there in 1985.

Neighbour Jenny Schultz said the man was well-liked in the area.

"I just can't believe it, he was so friendly. The whole neighbourhood thought he was wonderful,'' she said.

Is This Australia's Sexiest Woman?


Come November, Deputy Leader of the Australian Government, Julia Gillard.

Poll Shock : Kidman Out, Gillard In

Possible Future Prime Minister = Absolute Hornbag

FHM Magazine runs one of the more popular, and well read, 'Australia's Sexiest Women' polls.

This year, Nicole Kidman didn't even make the cotender list, but the deputy leader of "alternative government" is up there in the rankings.

Could it be true? Is Julia Gillard Australia's Sexiest Woman?

Considering the absolute multitudes of brilliant, beautiful, funny and talented women in Australia, she might have some trouble making the Top Five. Competition is fierce.

But, voting is still open.

Gillard is the rising star of Australian politics, and the old-school, pigheaded blokeworld ministers of the Howard government are clearly troubled every time they have to face her in parliment. She takes no prisoners, and she can be funny as hell.

And Julia Gillard has a better shot than most of the current crop of parlimenarians at becoming a future prime minister of Australia.

Can't wait.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

While Ms Gillard made a list of 87 contenders for FHM magazine's "50 Sexiest Aussie Babes" survey, another well-known redhead Nicole Kidman missed out.

The list of contenders includes the usual array of soap stars and supermodels.

But convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby makes the cut along with fellow one-time Bali prison inmate Michelle Leslie.

Kidman might have been excluded, but Australians on the list with a Hollywood profile are represented by Naomi Watts and Toni Collette.

FHM deputy editor Ben Smithurst said: "Australia has the most beautiful women in the world, as well as the most talented."

Gillard Makes Top 50 List Of Australia's Sexiest Women

Iconic 'Anzac Legend' Image Deemed Inappropriate For Army Recruiting

$50 Billion Spent On Massive Arms Build-Up



The above image is one of the most famous in Australian war history. It shows two Australian soldiers crossing a river in New Guinea during World War 2. One soldier is clearly wounded, and his mate is helping him.

It exemplifies everything that Australians hold dear about what it means to be Australian. You don't leave your mates behind, you help them. This is the Anzac legend in action.

It is widely regarded as the iconic image of Australians at war.

But not anymore.

Too much reality, perhaps?

The image, from a series of newsreels, was considered to be included in a series of ads that will form part of massive $1 billion advertising splurge aimed at swelling the ranks of Australia's military, but it was deemed "inappropriate" and "overdone".

The Australian government is desperately trying to ramp up recruitment numbers, to meet a target of 57,000 full-time soldiers by 2016. An increase of more than 8000 on present numbers.

At the same time, the Defence Department is the process of spending more than $50 billion on new Naval ships, aircraft and second-hand Abram tanks from the US Army. Tens of billions of dollars from massive outlay of taxpayers dollars will go to defence industries in the United States and Israel.

Per head of population, Australia's annual military budget is now soaring beyond even that of the United States.

More than $20 billion is expected to spent on defence in 2007, to 'defend' 21 million Australians.
A military spend that almost equals the official defence budget of China, a country of more than 1.3 billion people.

The purchase of dozens of 'refurbished' M1A1 Abram tanks from the United States proved particularly controversial, as they are virtually useless for deployment in the heavy tropical jungle terrains of countries in the Australian region, such as East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islands nations.

The tanks were designed, and refitted, for desert warfare. Which would make them handy to have if the Australian government is expecting to see major action in the next decade in Iraq, or Syria, or Iran.

Or the Australian outback.

Being a "close friend" of the United States does not come cheap.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

The military faces an enormous challenge to reach the target set by the Government of boosting defence numbers by 8000 to 57,000 in 2016.

To meet targets, entry standards are being relaxed to allow in overweight recruits, former recreational drug users and the heavily tattooed.

Up to $700 million will be spent improving wages and conditions.

From next year, $306 million will be spent on a "military gap year" scheme for school leavers to spend 12 months in the Defence Force with incentives to join up after completing their studies.

Foreign military are also being snapped up. In the past two years 125 British ex-soldiers have joined the Australian Army, 103 ex-Royal Navy have joined the RAN and 56 ex-RAF have joined the RAAF.