Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott has gone in insanely hard against Brian Burke and anyone having a meeting with him or inhaling in his presence.
He has even called him the "devil" and lashed out at those dealing with Brian Burke as exhibiting "very serious error(s) of judgment."
Today we reveal why.
He protests too much because he clearly was once very enamoured of the former Western Australian Premier and thinks his once lavish praise might hurt him now. What a coward.
In this Bulletin article from 1986, in an incredibly friendly report journalist Abbott lavishes Brian Burke with the highest praise of his political language which he usually would reserve for the Pontiff, B.A. or Himself:
■ "Old Style, Unashamedly Pragmatic"
■ Abbott writes approvingly of the government seeking economic advice from business leaders
■ "Burke's government is conservative"
■ "Cautious"
■ "Anxious to secure the votes of the little people"
■ Agreeably quotes Burke's own description of his policies as "very conservative"
■ Points out that Burke is "a far cry from the social engineering and anti-business posturing that many Labor personalities adopt."
■ He concludes "There is little likelihood that the West Australian ALP will be radicalised while in office, at least while Burke remains leader."
It's an amazing piece that shows that Abbott and Burke clearly once got along very, very well.
Now that politics has got in the way, Abbott has trashed his old opinions and stuck the boot in in a ridiculously over the top way which has had the effect of labelling some of Australia's most successful businesspeople as corrupt.
With the insane zealousness of the frenzied convert, Abbott's ugly tactics remind us that to get into the sewer one usually has to descend from a higher place.
Game on.
THE FULL TEXT
Brian Burke: old style, unashamedly pragmatic
By TONY ABBOTT
WEST AUSTRALIAN Premier Brian Burke is an old time Labor populist - cautious, conservative and anxious to secure votes of the little people who comprise the bulk of the the electorate. (OC: The little people? These refer to those who didn't make it to Oxford to get punched around the ring) .
Burke told the Bulletin (OC: ie told Two-Faced Tony) that major issue of the campaign would be "economic and financial management" and that his term had been marked by a "return to... bubbling confidence and aggression in the minds of business people."
He also cheekily admits that his party has followed the Liberals to the right.
The West Australian Labor government has cut payroll tax, co-opted businessmen as economic advisers (OC: Mmmm, sounds like Tony A. loved the whole WA Inc. thing before it went out of style), moved to insert "sunset" clauses into much state regulation and defied the federal government over Aboriginal land rights.
As Burke puts it, his approach to land rights "is a fairly typical case of the position this government has occupied on lots of contentious issues - a very centrist attitude." While his land rights policy is "very conservative" compared , ironically with that of former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser, it is "not conservative" when compared with that of Queensland's Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen.
One of the first acts of the Burke government was a 10 percent cut in the salaries of senior politicians and public servants. Burke says that this was important in breaking the expectation which had developed during the Liberal years that governments would say one thing and do another.
This is a far cry from social engineering and anti-business posturing that many Labor personalities adopt. But the West Australian ALP is a long way from the heavily factionalised and strongly ideological branches in New South Wales and Victoria where even right-wingers often feel the need to pay homage to the left's sacred cows. The fact that a man so unashamedly pragmatic as Burke can be a member of all party factions testifies to the West's different political temper.
A Catholic with six children and a hefty mortgage, Burke shuns ideological and speaks in terms of a "sense of what is fair." He happily admits to pragmatism but has no time for those "pathetic" politicians who "make decisions that go solely to their own interests and not to what's right."
While supporting deregulation, Burke charges the Liberals with inconsistency, saying that the most strident advocates of deregulation often selectively suport government controls where it suits them. Labor governments, says Burke, should seek to make people more free.
Burke denounces those who hypocritically invoke "Christian values" (OC: Ahem, Tony A, you should have been paying attention here) yet are "the first to judge the unemployed as dole bludgers and to judge deserted wives as people who are not deserving of help."
Like his father - who was once expelled from the ALP on suspicion of involvement with the DLP, but who never joined the movement - Burke is intensly loyal to his party. He believes that the worst Labor government is better than the best Liberal government.
At the same time, he is fiercely critical of elements within the ALP which have attempted to divert the party from its concern with bread and buttter issues. While he regards environmental issues as "terribly important" they are not as important as the "standard of living of every Australian"
He says many in the party needed the Whitlam years to be convinced that the electorate "won't tolerate, don't like and aren't comfortable with extremism."
But this was something, says Burke that thoroughly grounded in the tradition of Curtin and Chifley had always known.
Faced with such a rival, the WA Liberals are floundering. In order to offer a clear alternative, they moved to the right, although there is no indication that they have successfully sold to the public the merits of privatisation and "dry" economic policies.
The Liberals seem dismayed that their opponents have cultivated an unprecedented level of business support including, it is said, a great deal of election funding.
If conservatism means wariness towards dramatic change and a basic contentment with the status quo, Burke's government is conservative. (OC: There's no higher praise that comes from Tony A's mouth)
There is little likelihood that the West Australian ALP will be radicalised while in office, at least while Burke remains leader. In addition, the state has been largely spared the economic uncertainty that has been engendered in the east by the crashing dollar and high interest rates. Investment associated with America's Cup defence has boosted the state's economy and confidence.
THE BULLETIN JANUARY 7, 1986 p.17
Monday, 5 March 2007
PHONEY TONY: What Tony Abbott Wrote About Brian Burke Before Politics Got In The Way
Friday, 16 February 2007
SAD: John Cain Still Catholic Bashing // Will Someone Please Buy Him a White Hood?
John Cain is up to his sectarian serpentry again. Can there be any doubt he is the most boring person alive?
Game on.
Thursday, 15 February 2007
CURLY: Paul Austin Praises Grouper // Investigation To Follow
Extreme leftist Age political editor Paul Austin, whose publication The Aged led a hysterical series of attacks on the DLP after their surprise election win last year, is now full of praise for their new MP Peter Kavanagh:
On the evidence of his historic inaugural speech, Kavanagh can be expected to provide such voters with a compelling voice.
Although not before self-referentially noting that Kavagh is:
The representative of the widely despised and often ridiculed DLP (OC: ie by The Age)
Game on.
Wednesday, 14 February 2007
PATRIOT: Peter Kavanagh's Australian Story // Rightly Slams Cain As Bigot
The Red Age reports:
A WHOLE new house it may be but the Victorian Parliament's upper house - politically renovated and reconstituted from the stumps up - can't shake its ghosts.
Indeed, some of parliamentary history's most divisive spectres were summoned into the chamber yesterday by a man whose party had itself done a Lazarus.
The medium was the still surprised-looking new member for Western Victoria, Peter Kavanagh, of the Democratic Labor Party, addressing the red chamber in his maiden speech.
First, for the benefit of Victorians born in the 50-odd years since a DLP member last stood in the Parliament, Mr Kavanagh took a romp through history - his family's and that of his party, the two being inextricably entwined.
Mr Kavanagh's grandfather, Bill Barry, was a prominent player in the 1955 ALP split that led to the creation of the anti-communist, Catholic-based DLP. "He devoted his life to improving the lives of working people," Mr Kavanagh said.
His grandmother, Mary, was also a political activist with the Labor Party from her teens, campaigning "against conscription and for Ireland's liberation", an emotional Mr Kavanagh recalled.
After the split, working with the DLP, "she succeeded in having women prisoners moved out of Pentridge. She fought with all she had for those condemned to execution."
Mr Kavanagh seemed at pains to address the tag of "right-wing nutter" given to him by his new parliamentary bench-mate, the Greens' Greg Barber.
He scrolled through a long list of socially progressive causes championed by him, his party and his ancestors: assistance for first-home buyers, child endowment, the eradication of capital punishment, equal pay, profit-sharing and public health. His grandparents "housed the homeless, fed the hungry, clothed the desperate … My grandparents are the people effectively referred to recently by John Cain junior as 'sectarian serpents'."
At which point Mr Kavanagh quoted historian Robert Murray, who wrote of the Labor split: "Bitterness against the Barry group flowed over, all too often even reinforced by deep-seated religious prejudices."
The members in the chamber absorbed all this with quiet attention. But there was the echo of impassioned hollering from the honourable members who once occupied the velvet benches.
"When I was a child I thought that the DLP founders were heroes who had sacrificed so much, including their livelihood, to oppose barbarism," Mr Kavanagh said. "I still think that."
The former teacher, lawyer and outspoken anti-abortionist pledged to be a voice for the unrepresented, including children at non-government schools and "the unborn who have no voice at all".
The DLP member shares a cross bench with the three Greens, the first to enter the house.
But proof that proximity and closeness are different concepts was acutely apparent, with the Greens huddled as far to one end of the bench as they could. It might be a long eight years. (OC: They have four year terms actually but we couldn't expect too much from The Age)
The only person looking less comfortable, hidden in a deep dark corner of the chamber, was the recently disgraced Richard Dalla-Riva, he of the ill-advised text message, his hands folded coyly and in full view on the bench in front.
All four new minor members are in the Legislative Council courtesy of the most radical overhaul of the chamber in 150 years, including the shift to a proportional representation voting system.
"I'd like to congratulate the Government on making this chamber a forum for a true multitude of councillors," Mr Kavanagh said, pledging to represent supporters of minor parties.
"(They) voted not to bring down the Government, but to counter it. They voted not for the carefully crafted image of a major party, but for their own firmly held beliefs. They voted not for power, but to be heard."
OC: We'll put up selected highlights of Mr Kavanagh's remarks shortly.
Game on.
SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS:
My grandparents are effectively the people referred to recently by John Cain, Jr, as 'sectarian serpents'. As to this, I would like draw the attention of the house to the observations of Robert Murray, the most authoritative and objective commentator on the split. In his book The Split - Australian Labor in the Fifties, referring to John Cain, Sr, he said:
This might be said even of Cain. Bitterness against the Barry group flowed over, all too often reinforced by deep-seated religious prejudices, which came to the surface under pressure.
TRUE LABOUR
The Australian labour movement of the 19th century was the true origin of the Democratic Labor Party. However, in the mid-1950s the extreme left attempted to take control of the ALP, especially to prevent the Labor Party continuing to counter communist attempts to control Australia's unions.
The extremists were aided by the mental state of the ALP's federal leader, who took their side and purported to have the legitimate Labor executive in Victoria sacked. The utterly bogus and unconstitutional nature of the persecution was confirmed by the ALP's own Jim McClelland and Clyde Cameron shortly before their deaths.
MAJORITY "EXPELLED" UNLAWFULLY
The eventual result was that a majority - 60 per cent - of Labor Party members in Victoria, and nearly 80 per cent of Labor Party branches, were expelled or left in sympathy to form what became the Democratic Labor Party. The DLP was clearly anything but a splinter group. Nor was the DLP the instigator of the split - DLP people were its victims.
VINDICATED BY HISTORY
Dozens of parliamentarians gave up careers. Their sacrifice was for a principle, a correct one, now vindicated by history. In my view this has given the DLP a legacy of courage and nobility. When I was a child I thought the DLP's founders were heroes who had sacrificed so much, including their livelihoods, to oppose barbarism. I still think so. DLP people were sometimes treated despicably, both during and after the split, by the more extreme of their opponents. To the greatly limited extent that it is my right to respond to this, I offer the observation that the prayer which begins the business of this house each sitting day makes it perfectly clear that we dare not even ask for forgiveness for ourselves without first forgiving others.
SAW COMMUNISM FOR WHAT IT WAS
Anti-communists are almost invariably portrayed in our media as misguided lunatics. Whatever the ridicule and derision, the DLP's assessment of the nature of communism was accurate. The DLP saw communism for what it was - economically primitive, inherently brutal and expansionist, and by its nature murderous on a mass scale. I have experienced it firsthand and even felt, painfully, some of the practical manifestations of communism in other parts of the world. It was partially in tribute to the DLP that I joyfully joined with thousands of others in physically knocking down the Berlin Wall 17 years ago.
LABOR MODERATES
The DLP has been correct not only in what it has opposed but also in what it has supported and what it has initiated. The DLP was the first party to recognise the importance of Asia to our future and the first parliamentary party to oppose the White Australia policy.
The Democratic Labor Party pioneered votes for 18-year-olds and equal pay for equal work; it supported unions which advanced the interests of its workers without destroying the businesses which employed them; whilst also recognising responsibilities to the broader Australian community.
The DLP initiated child endowment for large families and government assistance for families to buy a home. It also struggled for and achieved a measure of justice in education funding and pushed for genuine decentralisation and environmental protection. Little wonder then that even Sir Robert Menzies, the founder of the Liberal Party, voted DLP after his retirement. The DLP's initiatives of decades ago continue to benefit the lives of thousands of Australians, the majority of Australians, to this day. Why did almost 60 000 Victorians vote for the DLP at the last election after it had been ignored for so long? I think it was at least in part because the voters of the generation before me and before most members here, knew how much had been sacrificed by DLP people and knew how hard DLP people worked to implement new ideas for the benefit of their community and their country.
I summarise what the DLP stands for in this way: we are for life, for workers and battlers, for families and always for Australia.
A VOICE FOR ALL
I congratulate the government on making this chamber a forum for a true multitude of counsellors. I hope to be a counsellor on behalf of the unrepresented, including children in non-government schools and the unborn, who have no voice at all. I also hope to speak for those who did vote but are underrepresented, including the aged and the disabled and the supporters of minor parties. They voted - not to bring down a government, but to counsel it. They voted - not for the carefully crafted image of a major party, but for their own firmly held beliefs. They voted - not for power, but to be heard.
The government has a strong mandate, so I expect to vote with the government quite often. Wisely, however, Victorians also want their government to be accountable, so I will the vote for measures which the government may not like, to put it under scrutiny which is fair, reasonable and close. I may fail but will aspire to emulate the courage and dedication of the DLP's founders in working for the enduring ideals and values of the Democratic Labor Party - for Australia, for workers and battlers, for families, for life.
Wednesday, 17 January 2007
MOCKED: Let's Laugh At Lefties
Kevin Rudd has disavowed socialism, which is probably a bit like the OC or Margaret Thatcher disavowing it. It's kinda assumed.
Although he has said he is a Christian socialist, not unlike Anglican bishops who profess agnosticism. Basically it's an old geeky term for Christian lefties of the kind that the DLP were are.
But the Left seem keen to infuse the quietly conservative, family values pro American with qualities he probably doesn't have so they can whip themselves into being enthusiastic for his election. But he's no Mark Latham so they probably don't have much to be excited about.
Check out the above sign. What a thrilling night of summer fun entertainment it threatens to be.
Game on.
PS Thank you to the observant patriot behind enemy lines at Melbourne Uni for sending in the image. Please keep them coming so we can maintain our constant vigil of life behind the Latte Curtain.
Thursday, 21 December 2006
SURPRISE: DLP's Peter Kavanagh Sets New Direction For His Centrist Party
Centrist DLP MLC Peter Kavanagh has come out in favour of gay civil unions, confounding zealot critics at The Age and within the Greens party who had attempted to characterise them as a party of intolerance and ultra-conservatism.
Click here to see more on the centrist MP's views.
The wise Gerard Henderson wrote a column on this issue today in the Sydney Morning Herald:
The Age also weighed into the debate with an editorial on what it termed the "dead party walking". There were references to the "doleful tolling of the bell", "Marley's ghost", "Ebenezer Scrooge" and so on. Even the original DLP's platform of anti-communism was sneered at and reference was made to the party's "desultory primary vote that, in other democracies, would mean ignominious loss rather than an extraordinary win".
Well, it's true that Kavanagh won less than 3 per cent of the primary while Mulholland just missed out on more than 5 per cent. It's also true that Kerry Nettle won a Senate seat for the Greens in NSW in 2001 with less than 5 per cent of the primary vote. That's how proportional representation works.
The real objection to the DLP's most recent success in Victoria is similar to that which followed the election of the Hillsong-aligned Family First senator Steve Fielding in the 2004 Senate election. Namely, that individuals who advocate their positions on private morality have no proper role within a modern democracy.
The old sectarianism objected to Catholics involving themselves in politics because they were Catholics. The new sectarianism has no objection to Christians becoming active in politics provided they concern themselves with issues of public morality. For example, social justice, asylum seekers, global warming, reconciliation and so on. It is only when some Christians also get involved in advocating their position on matters of private morality that they ignite opposition.
Game on.
Friday, 15 December 2006
BAD BOY: JSear Hits New Low // Anonoleftist in the Gutter
The entity known as AnonymousLefty (an underworked and ethically compromised barrister Jeremy Sear apparently as fictionally pictured above) asserts that there is a causal connection between the election of three Greens extremists to the upper house and the emergence of rain in Melbourne last night.
The Greens supporter unwashed underemployed legal militant is probably in need of a good rinse after lathering himself into a frenzy of sectarian bigotry over the election of the DLP to the upper house. These small parties seem to hate each other much more than the Libs hate Labor or vice versa.
The very mature chap who takes himself gravely seriously was also particularly aroused about the name of a World Health Organisation official (Dr Kevin De Cock) who has been talking up male circumcision as a way of combating the spead of HIV.
Game on.
Thursday, 14 December 2006
STANDING UP: Centrist Peter Kavanagh Tells Greens To Step Off
The Hon Peter Kavanagh MLC, one of the most accomplished people to be elected to the Legislative Council in its long history, has opened the batting rather well on Day One. The centrist Democratic Labor Party MP is battling mad left sectarian hysteria about his election.
He's taking no backward steps against the Greens lefto-menace. Check out what he told the comrades at The Age online:
State Parliament's sole surviving Democratic Labor Party MP says he is prepared to back the Bracks Government in gratitude at a preferences deal and in response to "ignorant" Greens claims about his conservative policies.
The declaration by the DLP's Peter Kavanagh will come as welcome news for Premier Steve Bracks, who is two seats short of a majority in the Upper House after a third Green won a seat in today's surprise recount result.
Mr Kavanagh, who won less than 2.6 per cent of the primary vote in Western Victoria region but was carried over the line by ALP preferences, survived the recount to become the region's fifth elected member and the first DLP member to hold any parliamentary seat in Victoria in almost 50 years.
His DLP colleague, Northern Metropolitan region candidate John Mulholland's lost the recount to the ALP's Nazih Elasmar.
And today he told theage.com.au he was "appreciative" of Labor's preferences and would respect the Government's mandate when he considered legislation.
"In the end, they could have chosen the Greens before me (but) they chose the DLP before the Greens and that will be a factor in the way that I vote," Mr Kavanagh said.
"I am appreciative for the ALP decision to do that. Of course, it was in their interests to do so.
"There was a lot of talk in the newspapers from angry lefties (about Labor preferences) but it was in the interests of the ALP to preference to the DLP. That's why they did it, not to help the DLP but to help themselves.
"But in doing so they did help the DLP and I will take that into consideration."
Mr Kavanagh said the Greens were "extremely provocative" about his party (OC: that'd be you Greg Barber), but he would try to work with them.
"I will try to adopt a more grown up attitude than they have. I think some of their provocations are borne of ignorance," he said.
Game on.
OUCH: Patriot Ned Flanders Henry Barlow Loses To Militant Greenista in Western Metro
Members of the OC Investigations Unit report that one of the OC's favourite candidates Henry "Ned Flanders" Barlow, a Labor moderate patriot has very narrowly missed out (by 120 votes we hear) to the nasty Greens extreme left candidate Colleen Hartland for the fifth spot in the Western Metropolitan seat.
Greens insiders say that Comrade Colleen is far more feral than Greg Barber, who is the natural leader of the Greens although is considerably to the right of left-wing nutter Hartland.
This gives the extreme Greens three Members of the Legislative Council, leaves Labor with 19, the centrist DLP with 1, the Nats with 2 and Liberals with 15.
Game on.
4.53AM UPDATE OC investigators on the ground report that It transpires that the 6000 mystery votes were Greens votes which were incorrectly allocated to the Liberals. Some are saying this a bungle etc for the VEC, but what does it say about the diligence, eyesight and competence of Greens scrutineers. We know they eat hash cookies at home, but did they actually bring them in to Jeff's Shed to keep them going through the count as well? We should perhaps be more gracious at this point, like the gracious patriot Ned Flanders. Patriots still up at this hour should stand by for the Western Victoria result.
RISEN FROM THE DEAD: Nazih Elasmar Wins Northern Metro
Despite being written off by the Victorian Electoral Commission's count, Nazih Elasmar or El Asmar has finally been elected as a Member of the Legislative Council with the recount just about completed. The declaration of his election will occur soon, possibly as early as tomorrow.
Although it's not all good news for Labor with Henry Barlow in Western Metropolitan looking very shaky in his battle against a militant Greenist as the recount there continues. And Carbines appears to be likely to lose in Western Victoria, just falling behind the Greens which will help elect the highly accomplished DLP candidate Peter Kavanagh.
We'll continue to follow the news and update as events occur even though it is way, way past our bed-time.
Game on.
ABOUT TIME: Labor To Repudiate Socialism Rudd Says // Rudd's Socialist Left Supporters Left Right Out
Fat socialist Alex White, the corrupt secretary of the notoriously corrupt University of Melbourne Student Union must be blushing a bright shade of pinko this morning (OK, early afternoon, he's a late riser) as he opens The Aged to see this:
Rudd rejects socialism
NEW Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has decisively moved to modernise the Labor Party's view of itself, rejecting socialism as an "arcane, 19th-century" doctrine and defining Labor's values as equality, solidarity and sustainability.
"It's critical that when we say to the Australian people that we want to construct an alternative vision for Australia, that they know the values for which we stand. Socialism isn't one of them," Mr Rudd told The Age.
"Any political party has to be absolutely confident in the objectives for which they stand. I am not a socialist. I have never been a socialist and I never will be a socialist."
It's taken Labor only fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union to get with the programme on this but props to the Ruddster for finally committing to making it happen. The next ALP National Conference is coming up early next year and it will be a great opportunity to finally flush Labor's loo.
Perhaps not all those in the Socialist Left faction will agree. It's enough to have Senator Kim Il Carr popping the already straining buttons on one of his collection of North Korean issued waistcoats. Some seem just plain wrong-footed by the person they were supporting so enthusiastically just days ago. Comrade White wrote this in one his regular rants to Letters to the Editor of The Aged:
Breath of fresh air
I WELCOME Kevin Rudd's election as federal Labor leader, which will inspire a new generation of young people to become involved in politics. I believe that Rudd's youthfulness will reinvigorate public debate. After 10 years of John Howard's geriatric performance, this is a breath of fresh air. The University of Melbourne Student Union strongly supports Rudd's new style of leadership.
Alex White, secretary, University of Melbourne Student Union
We look forward to the pudger explaining himself to his occasional employer, Words of Hate MP racist socialist tax planning lawyer hairy bushpig Jenny Mikakos. As Effi might say "How Embarrassment!"
How delicious it is for the anti-socialist forces that in the same week as the DLP is restored to the Legislative Council in one seat, Labor's federal Leader does what Doc Evatt should have been sane enough to do in the 1950s, repudiating socialism in absolute terms. Of course the ALP has never really been a socialist party, despite the occasional aspirations of a lunatic few, but the rhetorical connection with it is not only dated and archaic it is an insult to the many refugees from socialism who live in Australia, many of the passionate supporters of the ALP.
Perhaps the symmetry would be perfectly complete if the Socialist Left were expelled for no good reason. Only kidding. (Or am I?)
Game on.
UGLY: Seething Sectarian Bigots Emerge From Labor's Left to Pour Hatred on DLP // Peter Kavanagh Emerges As Very Highly Credentialed MP
Disgraced former Victorian Premier John Cain, whose administration very nearly destroyed the Labor brand in Victoria as he nearly bankrupted the state, has been doing the rounds of their ABC and anyone else who'll listen. He reckons the DLP are a "sectarian snake":
JOSIE TAYLOR: John Cain was the Victorian Premier from 1982 to 1990. His father, John Cain Senior, lost his position as premier in 1955 as a direct result of the DLP.
John Cain Junior describes the DLP as right-wing and hysterical, but says while he's alarmed the party is making a comeback, he doubts it will have much impact.
JOHN CAIN JUNIOR: The Government will be able to get its legislation through, because it'll be supported by the other parties, I would think, most times.
It's the way the system has worked this time, and it's to be deplored.
JOSIE TAYLOR: If there's no real impact, though, as you say, is the surprise and the outrage of the DLP's entrance back into politics just a matter of bad blood?
JOHN CAIN JUNIOR: No, it's more than that. I lived through all that in my earlier days. And yes, there's memories along, but it isn't just that, it's more that, as I said right at the outset, the sectarian snake we thought had been tucked away for good, it's out again, and that's a bad thing for politics.
The only one raising the sectarian fist here is the former Premier. And it was sectarian bigots like his old man who substantially contributed to Labor's greatest crisis and most disgraceful episode.
The ABC prattles on with a total lie from some nutbag RMIT communist academic with an appropriate surname re-writing history:
BENNO ENGELS: Well, it's an incredible historical irony, because the DLP in the mid 1950s helped to destroy the Victorian Labor Party, and also helped do that federally for Labor, and the DLP helped to keep Labor out of power in Victoria for 27 years.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WITH THE DLP
Let's get it right.
The people who formed the DLP were the more than half of the members of the Victorian branch who were expelled from the ALP by a Leftist coalition led by Doc Evatt. In one despicable move two thirds of the branches in Victoria were expelled. It was Labor's Darkest Hour.
Those of an older generation in the ALP might forget this and focus on the carnage that followed where clearly both sides committed atrocities on the other. But that is the simple truth.
They were expelled. Quite improperly. Totally insanely. Their crime? Getting organised to combat and defeat a rising tide of communism within trade unions at the time. And in so going offending the ego of Federal Leader Nutcase Doc Evatt
They should have been awarded ALP medals for that valuable service not treated like outcasts.
But they were expelled in the ugliest and dodgiest of circumstances. So dodgy were the expulsions in terms of due process that the Supreme Court held that the DLP was actually legally the correct ALP. They got to keep the minutes and the assets and all.
And they continued basically as the DLP as a payback and a protest about the extreme left domination of the ALP.
It wasn't that long after the Split that they contemplated a merger with the ALP. But it never quite happened.
LABOR'S DARKEST DAYS OF THE SPLIT: WHAT WOULD IT MEAN NOW?
That's what caused the weakening of the VIctorian branch, it's the equivalent of the expulsion of everyone in Labor Unity from the ALP today. Can you imagine that the Victorian branch would expel Alex Hicks, Steve Bracks, Rob Hulls, John Brumby, John Lenders, and Theo Theophanous? Then they'd move on to purge power-player supremoLizzie Blandthorn, Steve Conroy, Bill Shorten, Jeff Jackson, Michael Danby, Nicola Roxon (hey that's an idea), Kelvin Thomson, Steve Newnham, Anthony Byrne, Fiona Richardson, David Feeney, Richard Marles and Michael Donovan. That's essentially what happened in 1955. It is mind-boggling stuff.
Historians now say Doc Evatt who made this happen was clinically insane. Not even our favourite Socialist villain Senator Kim Il Carr, friend of fascist regimes, approaches his perfidy.
One NSW union secretary at the time wrote [PDF]
When Evatt started the sectarian attack in November 1954 there was no one who did not think then that Evatt was insane - there is no one around today that does not think so as well.
What happened back then was terrible. And what followed was terrible conduct from both sides. But we will not allow the left to continue to blame the victim of Doc Evatt's excesses for the whole debacle. Their fight against communism in trade unions was very important - much more so than we can probably realise now.
FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT
Listen to Jim Macken's description of the brutal struggle:
When the Split came I was working on the waterfront as a union secretary and whatever you might like to think of unions in this day and age, the waterfront in the middle 1950's was no kindergarten. The fight to maintain the relevance of Catholic social teachings against a tide of communism backed with intimidation and violence was difficult if you will pardon an understatement. It was a ferocious engagement against a well organised enemy in his heartland.
I have seen grown men cry at the thought of their having to go before another stop-work meeting of wharfies and other unions and carry what was then an ALP banner. There were no Bishops and no priests to help us then and, as it was a lay milieu, we did not seek from them anything but their prayers. For that fight to succeed we knew we had to maintain a national organisation as the ballots and the struggle was a national struggle.
The struggle continues to this day. Marxist academics can spin events all they like. They have no more monopoly on writing history. The winners get to write it after all. The "Groupers" position on Communism was vindicated. Their position on the ALP needing to be moderate was vindicated.
THE AGE IS FULL OF LIARS AND FOOLS RUNNING SOCIALIST LEFT ERRANDS
The Aged in its puffed up pretension is seeking to denounce the ALP for a preference deal with the DLP. They even get rent a quote John "Sectarian Snake" Cain, Moaning Joan Kirner and others in on the act. Small problem. DLP preferences helped get the ALP elected in two seats, in south eastern metropolitan and in western metropolitan. The battle in Western Victoria is between Labor's Elaine Carbines and the DLP's Peter Kavanagh, so ALP preferences there are a non-issue.
So The Age's advertorial writer Farrah Tomazin is trying to blame the Labor Right for the DLP. It's so pathetically, obviously wrong that you'd think even they would avoid such a flagrantly flawed analysis. Mind you, she might be trying to catch up in the Dufus Stakes with her boss Paul Austin who predicted huge gains for the Liberals, a wiped out National Party and stated emphatically before election day that Ted Baillieu had "won the election campaign" and colleague Michael Bachelard who predicted his mate Stephen Mayne's party would win two seats in the upper house. They got 1% of the vote.
It looks like DLP candidate Peter Kavanagh will get elected by a narrow margin. And while leftist buffoons seek to denigrate him, check out his credentials, he is probably one of the most accomplished people to have ever been elected to the Legislative Council.
A teacher, lawyer, he speaks three Asian languages, has more degrees and diplomas than I've had hot dinners and is steeped in politics.
If he gets elected, Victoria should consider itself lucky to have Peter Kavanagh as one of its elected representatives. He will serve with distinction.
So John Cain, the bitter son of the pipe smoking sectarian Premier John Cain Sr., can stick that in his pipe and smoke it.
Game on.
Wednesday, 13 December 2006
NUGGETS: Interesting Snippets of News, Views and Abuse
■ The Iranian regime has found common cause with the Ku Klux Klan.
■ Islamofascist terrorists are on the verge of destroying Somalia. The Left can be proud that there is very little support for any intervention to protect the people of that troubled country due to isolationist fervour the Left have generated. How can they profess compassion in theory but when in practice leave people to die at the hands of a fascist militia?
■ Calling all members of the OC Investigations Unit. We believe that Julia Dehm's photograph is present on one of these images. The first person to definitively identify her will receive our standard $20 KFC Gift Voucher of Freedom AND any one item (worth up to $70) from the OC collection of T-shirts and memorabilia.
■ A compelling argument for privatisation is being made very effectively by employees of RailCorp, one of whom moonlighted as a pimp (no kidding, and not like Ken Parish the pimp legal eagle former Member of the Beer Swilling NT Parlyament, I mean a real pimp) and used the NSW bureaucratic agency's fax machine to place ads and such.
■ ALP strategists are growing in confidence that Labor moderate patriot Nazih Elasmar will be over the line in Northern Metro at the expense of the DLP patriot John Mulholland although it appears that the recount will not be finished tonight after all despite counting at 6.30pm.
It is against OC policy to make predictions, but many others are quite confident of Nazih winning. Fingers crossed for him, he's worked a very long time for his community and really did deserve better than such a cruel last minute loss. Meanwhile, in Western Elaine Carbines' deficit is shrinking but is still at least 30-40 votes behind, in Western Metropolitan Henry "Ned Flanders MLC" Barlow is now relatively comfortably in front in the recount although we're talking about very small numbers of votes and it looks like Liberal attempts to get a recount in Southern Metro are unlikely to succeed.
■ In surprise news, Farrah Tomazin is now writing paid advertorial for Evan Thornley in The Age. He pays ten grand an article apparently. Mikey Bachelard is STEAMED that Farrah is cutting his lunch.
TWO TOSSERS: Charles Richardson and Steve Mayne Circle Jerk For Ego
Nameless has excelled itself with two of its jerks getting it together to bignote themselves and denigrate the DLP in today's putrid edition
Let's give them the kicking they deserve:
11. People Power’s role in deciding the Victorian Upper House
By Stephen Mayne, failed People Power candidate in the Victorian election (OC: Suffering from both a head-cold and Relevance Deprivation Syndrome)
At 5pm last night, various political and media types gathered at Jeff’s Shed, the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, to watch the Victorian Electoral Commission run a computer program and reveal the final composition of the new upper house.
The big shock was the claim that the DLP has secured two seats, thereby denying Labor control of the Legislative Council. Labor immediately claimed a computer malfunction and demanded a recount in Northern Metropolitan, where the DLP’s John Mulholland was declared the winner of the fifth spot despite being 5,000 votes behind Labor on the VEC’s own figures earlier in the day. (OC: Which very much seems at doubt in this point, we'll know soon.
The VEC has removed all the detailed figures from their website and merely published the final margins between the successful fifth candidate and unsuccessful sixth candidate in the eight regions. (OC: Itself a curious thing to do, reminiscent of the on again off again People Power website during their comic election campaign)
Looksmart founder Evan Thornley has clearly got up on People Power preferences in Southern Metropolitan. His final vote was 59,905 versus 58,369 for the third Liberal, David Southwick -- a margin of 1536. Thornley collected about 3000 above the line preferences from me. (OC: One millionaire looks after another how nice, but in truth wasn't Mayne trying to avoid electing a Labor majority in the upper house)
People Power preferences appear to have helped determine the outcome in three other seats. Labor won four of the five quotas in Western Metro but the Greens would have picked up the fourth if they’d received our 5,000 preferences. (OC: Yes but this is true of every other minor party, especially those ones that did better than People Power, which is practically all of them.)
Similarly, the two DLP wins over Labor would not have happened without our preferences, something that has delighted our outgoing President Vern Hughes, who has this morning emailed all People Power candidates revealing he has been "asked to consider a staffer position with the DLP". (OC: And it does rather seem that Vern would be a valuable addition to their team. How bitter and twisted, jealous and spiteful is Stevie that he begrudges a bright policy wonk from practising his wonkish craft? Hughes would do an excellent job for them.)
Vern and I did all the preference negotiations and he was very strong on giving a high preference to the DLP. (OC: Implication here that Hughes was corrupt in some way. Honestly, if it was legal to do so, how many people volunteer to raise the baseball bat of freedom against Comrade Mayne and strike him down into the nearest gutter from whence he came)
Despite clearly assisting the DLP and Labor, People Power actually gave a high preference flow to the Greens, but none of these ever reached their target where it mattered. (OC: Despite being Labor's preference biatch and helping the funksters at the DLP get up, Mayne would like everyone to know his latte left credentials are unimpeached. The Greens hate you too Stevie, no need to keep sucking up to them, bruvva)
The Greens won a quota in their own right in Northern Metro but had Democrats preferences as a back-up and it was the Democrats who got them over the line in Southern Metro. (OC: Apropros of nothing)
Apart from that, they were friendless as it was the ALP that got the DLP up in Western Victoria, prompting Greens MP Greg Barber to claim the bruvvas have put another "right wing nutter" into a Parliament, following on from the Steve Fielding debacle of 2004. (OC: And in diagnosing nutters, the relatively sane MBA man Greg Barber should surely be giving ground to an expert Stephen Mayne. Liar. Loser. Lunatic.)
12. Bob Santamaria's remarkable legacy
Charles Richardson writes:
The Democratic Labor Party (DLP), pronounced dead by most observers 30 years ago, has stirred from the grave this week and on provisional results has won two seats in the Victorian Legislative Council. (There will be recounts, and there are some apparent anomalies; for a full discussion see the comments at the Poll Bludger site.) (OC: Watch out comrade, that might lead you to link to the OC, where we break all election news true and blue)
Strictly speaking, this is not the old DLP that split from Labor in the 1950s under the influence of Bob Santamaria's Movement (later the National Civic Council). That party was wound up in 1978, but a group of Victorian dissidents led by John Mulholland carried on under the old name. (OC: True enough)
The old DLP was conservative and rigidly anti-communist, but it was still within the political mainstream. It held seats in the Senate until 1974, and in its heartland of Victoria its vote peaked in 1961 at just under 17% (with which it won no seats).
In the 1970s and 80s, after Santamaria pulled the plug on the DLP, NCC members (often called "Groupers", after the ALP Industrial Groups) with any taste for mainstream politics moved into other parties. The NCC-controlled unions were readmitted to the ALP in the mid-80s, and their leaders have gone on to play a major role in cementing right-wing control of the Victorian ALP. (OC: Amen to that)
They are also found in the Liberal and National parties: two of the new Liberal upper house members are commonly identified as Groupers. (OC: Surely the wooden stake must be raised against them. Charles' CofE bigotry really is quite odious)
But the Groupers had a third string to their bow; in addition to influencing the major parties, they were able to funnel their preferences to the surviving DLP, which under Mulholland had become an ever-narrower anti-gay and anti-choice brigade. (OC: Narrow enough to get 5% of the vote)
It was the best of all possible worlds, combining the advantages of mainstream politics and single issue pressure group.
Now they seem to have hit the jackpot: Labor preferences give the DLP a seat in Western Victoria ahead of the Greens, and Liberal preferences elect Mulholland in Northern Metropolitan ahead of the ALP's Nazih El Asmar. (OC: He speaks to soon about this of course, that's what happens when you rely on the Aged and their ABC for news)
In one sense, democracy is well served by denying the government control of the upper house. But the way in which it occurs threatens to make Victorian politics hostage to the extreme right. (OC: Extreme right my hat. They are no more extreme right than Kim Beazley)
The Greens' Greg Barber is not an unbiased source, but he hit the nail on the head this morning:
I think Labor has again, like with Family First, elected a right-wing nutter to the Parliament. If I was a Labor voter living in Geelong or Ballarat or Portland, I'd be absolutely furious because their vote was taken off them and sent off to a place where they never imagined it was going.
(OC: The bigotry of this rant and Barber's own bleating is quite odious. The DLP are a quirky, small group, I'll admit that. But they are infinitely more representative of middle Australia than Greg Barber with his MBA and radical Greens policies, Stephen Mayne millionaire with his own elitist leftist pontifications and Charles Richardson who is so far to the left within the Liberal Party that his head seems to have - using the magic of left-wing wet Liberal yogic meditation - to have been able to bend, twist and insert itself up his own bottom. No wonder he's so in the dark.)
Game on.
RECOUNT: Northern Metro Still In Play // Nazih Elasmar Fights Back From VEC DLP Shock
Check out this extraordinary memo from the VEC sent to candidates which confirms the suspicions of ALP strategists that something has gone wrong with the count in the Northern Metro seat.
Nazih Elasmar - a great patriot and now decidedly nervous candidate - has had a terrible night and we can only hope it works out for him. A great civic leader, former Mayor of Darebin whose good works saw him given the Order of Australia award had been considered all but over the line in the election so the announcement that he had lost yesterday came as a dreadful shock to him and his many Labor moderate supporters.
So highly regarded is Elasmar that it was believed that in the event of a loss that he would be likely fast-tracked into the Parliament at the earliest opportunity to fill any vacancies that might occur. Although in light of the below memo it seems quite likely that Nazih is back in town.
Northern Metropolitan Region
Following a thorough check of the count sheet for Northern Metropolitan Region, I am sufficiently concerned about the underlying integrity of the Liberal vote in that region to require a recount of all ballot papers.
It is my preliminary view that the Liberal Party vote is overstated by about 6,000 votes and that such an overstatement could have a profound effect on the result.
In order to give parties and candidates time to arrange scrutineers, this recount will commence at 6:00 pm at MECC and will probably conclude around 3 am. The result following the recount will be recalculated.
This recount is in addition to the recounts where arrangements are already in place for Western Victoria and Western Metropolitan Regions.
I have scrutinised the count sheets and ballot paper reconciliations for the other 5 Regions and consider that there are no issues to consider. These will proceed with the current declaration arrangements.
Further, it remains the intention that the recounts will be conducted in time so as not to delay the previously arranged declarations.
Steve Tully
Electoral Commissioner
THEY'RE BAAACK: Democratic Labor Party Triumph Stuns Greens // Nasty Doc Evatt Steamed (While Burning in Hell)
New Greens MLC Greg Barber is beside himself over the election of DLP candidates to the state's upper house.
So furious is the fiery red-head firebrand that he has condemned the Democratic Labor Party for being - wait for it - "socially radical." Yesterday he was slagging them as "right wing nutters".
To use the Yiddish, this is a "chutzpah" coming from the radical Greenist Comrade Barber's policies of social engineering and weirdness that we have written about extensively.
The DLP will be as radical as fondly remembered federal Senator Brian Harradine. Not radical at all.
And yes they are conservative on some social issues, like many Australians they oppose abortion. The legal situation in Victoria is that the statute books don't allow abortion, but the courts have basically held that it is permissible in most circumstances.
Whatever the rights or wrongs of it, the government clearly wasn't intending to make a change to the law one way or the other. And the election of DLP candidates reduces the pressure that socially radical Greens could bring to bear on the Government to do so.
The bottom line is that Greg Barber is just bitter and twisted that he doesn't solely possess the balance of power. There is a smorgasbord of choices for LegCo feasters John Lenders, Theo Theophanous and Gavin Jennings to get their legislation through:
■ Two Nationals, increasingly unhappy with the Liberals
■ Two Democratic Labor Party, a Labor leaning party with emphasis on moral and social issues
■ Two Greenists, a socially radical leftist party cloaked under its environmental propaganda.
So is anyone in the Government greatly disturbed about the DLP? Other than a few nasty Socialist Leftists? Of course not. Some ALP old-timers from Left and Right will be freaked out about it but the truth is that a new generation of Labor moderates has reached the conclusion
There is grave concern about Nazih ElAsmar who really deserved his spot in the upper house. A great man who has received the Order of Australia for his community work, his defeat is a very big shock and disappointment, no doubt contributed to by the presence of race-baiting Socialist Left MP Jenny Mikakos on the ticket. We will be investigating the Mikakos Factor in some detail in the weeks ahead.
Game on.
Tuesday, 12 December 2006
DODGY: Northern Metro Count Still In Doubt
ALP strategists are convinced now that the VEC has made a serious error in the northern metropolitan count. It appears that there might be an issue with the calculation of Democrats preferences.
UPDATE:
VEC sources tell the OC they have hired hundreds of people for re-counting tomorrow although we understand that they propose to direct these to the close contests in Western region and western metropolitan.
Interestingly also there appears to be a strange situation in the northern metropolitan seat where there are 10000 more votes for the Liberals in the upper house than in the lower house seats. If confirmed this is a very strange phenomenon or may reinforce Labor's argument that there has been some procedural defect in the count in the seat.
The Liberals are pushing for a recount in Southern Metropolitan although have conceded defeat so it promises to continue to be very tense at the VEC while they attempt to explain some very strange phenomena.
What a mess!
The Age is predictably hacking into the DLP, although no less so than Greens MBA militant Greg Barber who has described them as "right-wing nutters". Barber is clearly more from the Joe Stalin school of coalition building which posits that Brutality Breeds Respect. I'm not sure the two DLP Legislative Councillors will respond well to Barber's insults.
Barber of course comes from a party that:
■ Threatened to ban companion animals for people who weren't registered breeders;
■ Wants the state to provide free heroin to addicts in spite of inconclusive medical evidence about the efficacy of doing that;
■ Seeks to ban the construction of new dams;
■ Believes nature should take its course with bushfires in National Parks;
■ Wants to give the vote to sixteen year old mallrats;
■ Wants to close Hazelwood power station;
■ Aims to spread their own four day working week for the same pay; and
■ Would stop the construction of new roads regardless of need.
The good folk at the DLP have set the record straight telling a sceptical and hateful Age newspaper that they are basically a moderate Labor party that is avowedly pro-life and anti-drugs. Just like a very big number of Labor supporters. If there are two elected, they will no doubt do a good job, and are certainly much less extreme than the Greens whose policies listed above represent dangerous experiments with weirdness.
Game on.
RESULTS: Upper House Surprises // Two DLP Candidates Win? // OC's Prayers Answered with Thornley's Win
Nothing official but word buzzing around has it that two DLP candidates have emerged successful from the count in Western Region and Northern Metropolitan, with Thornley sneaking over the line in Southern Metropolitan. Yes, we can confirm that Evil Thornley has been elected to the Red Morgue, the Legislative Council where he will no doubt be as inspiring as the last multi-millionaire in that chamber Lidia Argondizzo.
THE DLP ARE GOOD PEOPLE
The re-emergence of the DLP is a big story with their policies and people to face considerable attention in coming days. Contrary to the propaganda in The Age, the Democratic Labor Party is to the left of the Labor Party on many issues. For those seeking to understand where they'll go on the issues, they'll be more like Family First and Brian Harradine, socially conservative in the same way perhaps as the Prime Minister but basically measured and balanced on many other issues.
The assumption that The Age and other socialists will make is that it is an ultra conservative group because their members generally oppose abortion, that isn't the case. They will be certainly less inclined to extremism and loopiness than the Greens and not be inclined to oppose for opposition's sake either so they really could emerge as playing an extremely useful role in the upper house and a vitally useful foil to the Greens.
HOW DID THE DLP DO SO WELL?
That said clearly there is a mistaken identity issue here. There appears to have been a pattern where the DLP polled strongly in the upper house poll when it appeared to the left of the ALP on the ballot paper, suggesting that many DLP voters thought they were voting Labor.
And as disgraceful as the circumstances were that led the ALP to expel a majority of its own members in Victoria and two thirds of its branches in 1955, it is a bit of stretch probably to allow a continuation of the use of the Labor brand some fifty years on. But as one wise ALP member pointed out to the OC, there was much litigation on this point decades ago and it is unlikely to be revisited now. Indeed, the Supreme Court back then held that the DLP was actually the legally valid ALP and as such retained the assets, minute books and so on. The legacy of Doc Evatt, Labor's most destructive federal leader ever, continues to cost it dearly. His lunacy cost the ALP tremendously and cost the nation a viable alternative government for many years.
WORDS OF HATE MP MIKAKOS ALSO COST LABOR DEAR
The ALP is certainly also paying a price for running the Words of Hate MP Jenny Mikakos in Northern Metro, where some 15000 voters of Turkish heritage reside. As the OC reported during the state election, many leaders in the Turkish community were aghast at having to support someone who is clearly racially hostile to them. This makes the apparent loss of Nazih Elasmar all the more tragic as he has paid the price for the race-hate and bigotry of someone he doesn't think very highly of at all. The dumping of Mikakos needs to be high on the agenda for the ALP going forward, and needs to be a cross-factionally agreed position.
As things stand now, there is concern though that the northern metropolitan count may be flawed in some respect and the OC can confirm that a recount has been requested from the ALP although no-one is even particularly sure how that would occur.
Developing.
Game on.
Tuesday, 5 December 2006
UPPER HOUSE: Down To Wire Count Drives Candidates Crazy // ABC Making Dodgy Calls?
According to a member of the OC Investigations Unit, ABC Radio is calling that Labor's Elaine Carbines will lose out to the DLP and Labor's Evan Thornley will narrowly win the last position in Southern Metro.
This seems a very strange thing for them to do as no one really can be sure of anything with the VEC not releasing crucial stats. The VEC itself has written to the parties telling them that it's very early days:
CIRCULAR No. 24/2006 5 DECEMBER 2006
Upper House Count
The plan for completing the Upper House Count remains on track with the proposed provisional result to be calculated on Tuesday, 12 December at 5.00 p.m. If a recount is necessary for any Region there will be enough time to conduct one (or more) before the return of the Writ.
Proportional Representation Counts are time consuming and the result cannot be calculated until all formal ballot papers are entered into the computer program. It is therefore essential that the formality of ballot papers is correctly determined.
This election has produced 10 close Lower House seats requiring attention. Regional ballot papers for these districts and some others are still being checked and processed along with unenrolled votes and returns from overseas and interstate.
It is anticipated that by Friday, 8 December, all formal above the line votes received by Election Managers would have been checked and that all below the line votes and informal votes will be at the Count Centre, Southbank. Indeed there is a planned schedule of below the line data entry for each district today.
Monday and Tuesday morning next week will be dedicated to reconciliation of ballot papers in the count.
Results on the Commission's web site will fluctuate as rechecks occur and as declaration votes are added but the final data for below the line papers will not show until the button is pressed. For tight contests it is these papers that could determine the result.
Proportional Representation Counts can test our patience but cannot be rushed and by any standard Victoria's count is progressing efficiently. I ask for understanding and acceptance that we will all have to wait until 5.00 p.m. next Tuesday 12 December.
A control schedule is being maintained at the Count Centre.
Steve Tully
Electoral Commissi