A legal stoush has erupted on Kew High Street just now after Boroondara Council enforced its directive: one sign per candidate on public land.

Everyone complied except the Liberals who are refusing and have called in lawyers, leaving their signs all over the public footpath.


Another council officer has arrived but the Liberals are digging in further.

I just saw someone try and cross the road and get stuck behind the signs while 4 lanes of peak hour traffic flies by.

The Liberals pork barrel, the media shrugs. Just another day in Australian politics.

Amelia Hamer promises $400k, media show up like they're the Liberal party's contracted PR firm, and ask nothing, and miss everything.

I have important receipts.

/1 Amelia isn't delivering for the community, only pretending she is.

And hey, who wouldn’t back a candidate dangling club goodies? Hype spreads - members, families, mates.

Suddenly, the pork’s reeling in votes.

It’s more than spin. It’s calculated deception. I'll explain.

/2

A tip off arrived a while ago. A BIG one.

"Amelia Hamer is a named beneficiary of a trust worth millions."

But is it true, and what does it add to the mounting deception from the self-styled millennial renter?

All is revealed in this thread.

/1 Ever tried tracking down a trust?

Trusts are deliberately designed as private, flexible legal structures that avoid the public transparency required of companies or property ownership.

It’s like chasing a shadow through a hall of mirrors.

/2

Here’s Kooyong Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer telling you she’s a 'renter'.

But Amelia isn’t being completely honest.

In fact, she's being outright deceptive, and the millennial renters in particular who Amelia has tried to deceive will feel angry.

Let me lay it out.

/1 Amelia is desperate for you to believe she's a renter, ambitious to get on the housing ladder like most millennials, and the reason she wants you to believe this is self-serving.

Amelia wants millennials and Gen Z voters to think she's is just like them.

She isn't.

/2

The UK, pioneer of the world’s first civil nuclear program with Calder Hall in 1956, runs 8 reactors across 5 sites.

Logic says this deep history would make the UK a nuclear expert.

Faster, cheaper and more capable than anything led by Peter Dutton and Ted O’Brien, right?

/1 And we know Dutton likes nuclear in the UK, because he even used this 3d render of a concept of a plan for a nuclear reactor on a seaside grassy knoll.

Although, at the time, Peter didn't tell us he'd simply lifted the image from a glossy Rolls Royce marketing brochure.

/2

John Pesutto recently settled a potential defamation case with Kellie-Jay Keen and Angela Jones, paying $50k in costs and issuing an apology

The amount is larger than many expected given John described it as a ‘small’ amount.

This is the first time this has been disclosed.

/1 That $50,000? It didn’t come directly from Pesutto. It was organised by his former staffer Xavier Boffa in three payments: $20k, $20k, and $10k.

/2

If the Liberals can subvert democracy in Council elections, should there be laws to stop it?

I don’t make this accusation lightly.

This thread is a dive into an egregious attempt to win an election through unbridled deception.

You'll be furious.

/1 Welcome to Studley Ward, part of Boroondara Council, in the Melbourne state seat of Kew, and the Federal seat of Kooyong.

4 candidates are contesting:

Liberal Incumbent Nick Stavrou
Independent Sophie Torney
Independent Kym Sullivan
Liberal Stooge Amanda Towe

/2

Why is Boroondarra Council covering up what has happened at Kew Pool?

Why have ratepayers been kept in the dark for 2 years, while the site languishes?

What's your theory?

Read on. The most damning bit is at the end.

/1 This situation cannot be explained by Council incompetence alone. I'll quickly cover the backstory.

Kew Rec consisted of a 25 metre indoor pool, with slides and a learn to swim pool.

My kids learnt to swim at Kew. I swam with a squad there in the 90s.

2/

Is this the greatest scandal in Victoria's electoral system?

Next election, run as an Independent, and the largest single donation you can receive is $4850.

The Liberal you run against can access $118M from the Lib's biggest donor: The Cormack Foundation.

Who is Cormack?..

/1 Some history.

Years ago, the Govt gave radio licenses to the major parties. The Liberal Party ended up with radio station 3XY, established in 1935.

3XY broadcast from the ballroom in the Princess Theatre.

/2

You probably know the start of this Olympic story, but do you know how it finished?

This photo is of Eric Moussambani, aka 'Eric the Eel' from Equatorial Guinea, competing in the 100m Freestyle event at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, alone.

Why?

/1 Eric's heat started with 2 other competitors; one from Niger and the other from Tajikistan. Eric's competitors however both broke, and were disqualified, leaving him to swim this event alone.

Eric hadn't completed a full length of a 50m pool before, but he dived in anyway.

/2

Today it was revealed that Victoria Liberal MP Richard Riordan's wife was instrumental in orchestrating the setup of fake patients at a Colac Health hospital for a Ministerial visit.

The scandal aside, this gets messier because...

/1 A few months ago, when MP Richard Riordan was questioned about the fake patients, he defended the practice to ABC Richard Willingham, but curiously, doesn't appear to have disclosed his wife's involvement.

/2

https://x.com/rwillingham/status/1752931457717481646

A cautionary important thread on how the culture war mongers do their work.

The last week shows how Peter Dutton plans to win the next election, assisted by media who moonlight as the LNP PR machine, working in unison with a conservative lobby group funded by billionaires.

/1 If you want to see how these groups working together plan on manipulating your family and friends, this thread shows what they do, and importantly gives a taster of what is to come.

This is a look at the Woolworths 'story' this week, by zooming way out.

/2

Caroline Marcus at SkyNews is doubling down having been accused of not disclosing the backstory of the man she interviewed who said he felt intimidated by a Palestinian Flag pin worn by a Qantas flight attendant.

Here's 2 parts of Caroline doubling down. You be the judge....

/1 Part 1. In her latest, Caroline says, "he is not a branch president of the (Liberal) party as I have seen claimed online".

Why doesn't Caroline elaborate on "as I have seen claimed online"?

There's a good reason.

/2

I’m in the Lobby of the @apolloDimora Hotel in Calicut India.

I leave in 18 hrs. The Hotel says unless they receive hundreds of dollars more than the amount agreed and pre-paid, they will hold my possessions.

A story of failure by @qantas Hotels, @expedia and @ApolloDimora.

/1 How it started;

On 23 Sept, I booked for 12 Nights commencing 9 Nov at the @ApolloDimora Hotel via the @Qantas Hotels website.

This booking was paid in advance, in full, on a no-cancellation basis. I received a confirmation, a tax invoice and my credit card was charged.

/2

Bernie Finn has been accused of harassing a Liberal party member online. The article doesn't say who.

Can we work it out?

1/ I'm reminded of the time a recording was leaked of a Liberal Party room meeting where Bernie Finn calls Tim Smith a f**king ididot.

I'm not sure if that's harassment, or truth.

2/

Rachael is CEO of the innocuously named Catholic-linked think-tank 'Women's Forum Australia'.

Women's Forum Australia hold the position that teenagers should not have access to sex education, and oppose access to reproductive healthcare.

And they are connected. A thread....

/1

https://twitter.com/RachaelWongAus/status/1681183900423569408

When looking at 'think-tanks' it's interesting to look at who else is involved.

Stephanie Bastiaan is a 'Research Fellow' (whatever that is) at Women's Forum Australia.

Stephanie might be familiar to you.

2/

How’s the religious infiltration at the Vic Liberals progressing?

Scheduled for 2pm, a secret gathering is taking place in the Dandenongs.

An 'afternoon tea', hosted by Peter Killin, featuring newly minted MP, Renee Heath.

Familiar names?

Read on to remember why....

/1 Peter Killin was a Liberal candidate in the 2019 federal election.

But his homophobic views ended his candidacy.

They didn't end his Liberal Party membership though. And he'd soon find other ways to pursue his agenda.

2/

Brittany Higgins, a Liberal staffer accuses Bruce Lerhmann, also a Liberal staffer of sexual assault in Liberal Minister Linda Reynolds' office.

Without explanation, the sofa in Linda Reynolds' office undergoes cleaning the following day.

1/ In relation to this, an inquiry to establish who knew what in PM Morrison's office by Phil Gaetjens, Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is setup.

That report from Phil Gaetjens' inquiry still remains unreleased, which is a pattern for Gaetjens.

2/

The @australian just ran an article by @Chambersgc and @jessmalcolm1, I suspect following instructions from @SenatorHume.

It demonstrates a lack of ethics at The Australian and an absence of integrity by Jane Hume.

Read on and I'll explain why this is so egregiously bad.

/1 The article seeks to create outrage by suggesting Dr Ryan is failing Kooyong by not attending the chamber for 6 divisions on Thursday.

So, why did Geoff and Jess consider this news but not mention that Jane Hume attended just 5 of 28 votes last week?

/2

https://twitter.com/BrentHodgson/status/1635240647233007616?s=20

Greg Sheridan, as expected has written a glowing tribute to #Pell, in The Australian, of course.

It's an indulgent piece, afforded to Sheridan because he is Pell's friend and in a powerful position at The Australian. Let's drill down.

1/ Sheridan starts by regurgitating the idea that Pell is a victim of 'anti-Catholic Hysteria'.

Sheridan, like others never suggest why complainants, with zero to gain, would voluntarily subject themselves to examination by ruthless Barristers like Robert Richter.

2/

Man of God? The Pell I knew failed kids. Some are now dead, some irreparably damaged, some living a destroyed life of unfulfilled potential.

This remains true no matter how much those like Andrew Bolt defend him and want to re-write history.

A thread of #Pell defenders.

/1 Tony Abbot, of course.

/2

https://twitter.com/Aaronsmith333/status/1514905583375503365?s=20&t=wxELDqsnkORJDd4m-z3sNQ