Image 01 Image 03

Australia Tag

Australia’s ruling conservative coalition has scored a stunning upset victory in the country’s general election, defying polls that were predicting an easy progressive win. The Labor Party was focused on climate change and raising taxes, and it appears there were a lot of "quiet Scott voters" who weren't interested in what they were selling.

George Pell, an Australian cardinal who was once the third-highest ranking Vatican official, was sentenced to six years in prison for molesting 2 choirboys in 1996.
The cardinal was convicted on five counts in December, making him the most senior Catholic official — and the first bishop — to be found guilty in a criminal court for sexually abusing minors, according to BishopAccountability.org, which tracks cases of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

This is how the terrorists win, and civilization dies. From Australia, Bondi synagogue ban over terrorism risk leaves Jewish community shocked and furious:
A LOCAL council has banned the construction of a synagogue in Bondi because it could be a terrorist target, in a shock move that religious leaders say has caved in to Islamic extremism and created a dangerous precedent.

The conservative Australian writer Andrew Bolt was in the news this week due to an incident which produced a viral video. In the footage, Bolt is attacked by two masked Antifa type thugs but hits them right back. News AU reported:
Protesters get more than they bargain for when Andrew Bolt bashes back CONTROVERSIAL columnist and TV personality Andrew Bolt has “clobbered” a group of masked protesters who set upon him in Melbourne yesterday. On his TV program last night, Bolt explained how he was about to launch a book on US President Donald Trump at a restaurant in Carlton, in the city’s inner north, when a woman asked to take a selfie with him. Before they could take the photo, two masked protesters set upon Bolt, spraying his face and suit with what he described as “sticky liquid with glitter and dye”.

Bassem Tamimi is a Palestinian activist  best known for using children, including his own, to confront Israeli soldiers in the hope of creating viral video and photo images. Tamimi has been quite successful at this, and many of the images resulting from these provocations have become international hits. This video of his daughter gained international fame, and a prize for her from the Islamist prime minister of Turkey:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was slated to begin her tour of Australia on Monday with an ABC Australia's "Q and A" issues discussion program. The show's tweet indicated that plans had changed abruptly, and it seems the reason is based on security concerns.
Hirsi Ali’s Hero of Heresy tour was due to begin in Brisbane on Thursday, before taking her to Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland.

Five individuals are in custody after Australian police thwarted an attempted Christmas Day bombing. According to the BBC:
Five men are in custody after early-morning raids on Friday, Victoria Police chief Graham Ashton said. Mr Ashton said the threat involved "use of explosives" and other weapons including "knives or a firearm".

The Brexit vote that resulted in David Cameron stepping down has also prompted a range of apocolyptic fear-mongering that British trade would collapse. In fact, numerous countries are beginning to explore free trade deals with Britain after its EU exit.  With the 2019 date for Britain's exit from the EU looming, the United States and Australia have emerged "at the front of queue" to line up trade deals.  Such deals with just these two countries "alone could be worth billions of pounds to the British economy." Australia, in particular, sees the opportunity to open up trading with Britain as a "matter of urgency." The Guardian reports:
Australia has called for a free-trade deal with Britain as soon as possible, in a boost for the newly appointed prime minister, Theresa May. In a phone call on Saturday, May spoke to her Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, who expressed his desire to open up trading between the two countries as a matter of urgency.
For her part, May states her belief that these talks are important in terms of showing that Brexit can work out well for Britons.

In the wake of the "there've been more mass shootings than days in the year" hysteria, Australia's former deputy prime minister, Tim Fischer, is pushing for "better travel warnings" for Australian travelers to the U. S. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
"Three hundred and fifty two mass shootings in the USA so far this year but about 80 a day you don't hear about," Mr Fischer told ABC News on Thursday. "All [are] unacceptable because the US is not stepping up on the public policy reform front. But have we not reached the stage where the Smart Traveller advice of [the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] needs to be muscled up?" Mr Fischer said a person is 15 times more likely to be shot dead in the US than in Australia and that travel advice should reflect this, as it does for Mexico.