‘When I raised this with a former UN negotiator, generally full of praise for Australians, they laughed uncomfortably and admitted that often, when dealing with the Australian government, “it’s not until it’s too late that you realise they’ve totally fucked you over”.’ 🔥 ‘In this context, a vague announcement a few months before COP28 seems little more than a cynical exercise designed to distract the international community from the fact that, behind the smiles and charm, Australia is, and always has been, a petrostate and a bad-faith actor.’

‘In an act of breathtaking stupidity, cowardice or heroism, depending on your POV, Albanese stood up on election night and propped up the Voice and Indigenous Australians, telling Australia it was his absolute number one issue. And then he disappeared.’ theshot.net.au/general-news/v… ‘If Labor as a whole had no clear, tactical, cohesive, well researched plan to get totally and fully behind the campaign from Day 1, throw absolutely everything they had at it, then they should never have thrown it out there in the first place.’

‘The ALP was less keen to talk about the next relevant part. Quietly, at around 4.30pm on a Friday, in depressingly Morrisonian fashion, Plibersek’s office approved 116 new fossil fuel projects in QLD, many of them fracking wells with lifespans until 2070’ theshot.net.au/general-news/h… ‘These gas wells will provide Santos with immense profits, they will power various things that could be otherwise powered via less destructive means, & they will contribute significant amounts of carbon to our atmosphere. That is never the story presented to Australians, though.’

‘To those claiming to make the “case for diplomacy,” in alleged opposition to the “case for war,” please detail how you would persuade or compel Putin to stop the conflict. Real diplomacy takes two to tango.’ washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/… ‘Recommendations for peace that instruct only Zelensky to capitulate are not only repulsive, but also highly unrealistic.’

Imagine being so prepared for inevitable tragedy that you have had a process in place for decades. Policy, procedure, content, communication. The expense!

Now do climate change. And poverty.

TIL Alan Ruck is actually a boomer. And there is only 10 years separating him and Brian Cox. The Gen X movie era lied to us.

‘The GG was ultimately in the position of signing into law two legislative amendments passed specifically for the benefit of the AFLF. One, to enable the payment of $18 million (with a guarantee of more) and the other was for the much coveted Deductible Gift Recipient tax status’

https://twitter.com/crikey_news/status/1567705534232395777

‘These conflicts are separate from the perceived conflict of Scott Morrison, the prime minister of the day, overseeing the funding of a charity promoted by the governor-general.’