I have been following NSW politics from afar (if you call the ACT afar) and I can say that NSW has been going down the S Bend of authoritarian government for a while now. After I left the Coalition got in and they gave the police the power to reject the form 1 permit for processions on the basis of impact on traffic among other things.
The Keep Sydney Open movement had some big rallies to protest the lockout laws brought in by the Berejiklian government. One of their rallies that didn't happen was a march to Kings Cross where the crowd would have listened to so speeches and a couple of songs by a band. The Police Commissioner at the time was non- drinker and a zealous member of the Baptist church who had an open animosity to the Keep Sydney Open movement. He instructed his staff to impose conditions on the form 1 that the Keep Sydney Open people could not meet. The cops went to the Supreme Court and they had the march banned. As a result the Tyson Koh the guy who led the Keep Sydney Open movement had to appeal to the Keep Sydney Open supporters not to go to the Cross with their Keep Sydney Open gear on.
The Black Lives Matter movement were able to get their march approved but had to go to court to do so. For those who may not remember the police opposed the march and rally and when the movement went to the court of appeal the cops were waiting ready to rip into the protesters. They also used CS gas on protesters who were herded into a confined area in Central Station. The next rally that the Black Lives Matter movement tried to have was blocked by the courts and was broken up by the police in the Domain. One independent journalist covering that, filmed the rally being broken up and their walk through Martin Place where a pro-Hong Kong Democracy protest was in full swing .... and unmolested by the police.
The thing that got us into where we are now was the laws passed in the last year's of the coalition government in response to environmental protests that happened following the 2019/2020 bushfire season and the Lismore Floods.
These were pop up protests such as the Blockade Australia protests that targeted Port Botany when a German exchange student blocked the road to Port Botany in a tripod (he was not only fined and convicted but deported by Peter Do nothing who was Home Affairs minister at the time) and the pensioners who blocked coal trains going to Port Botany and later Newcastle and of course the blockage of the Spit Bridge and more famously the Sydney Harbour Bridge which resulted in a couple of members of Blockade Australia (one of which was Violet Coco) being imprisoned. We rarely saw peaceful protesters imprisoned in Australia or at least since the 1990s we started seeing it then (note the magistrate who sent Violet Coco to prison was Mark Latham's missus at the time).
The real bitter thing about these laws is that they were passed because the Coalition Roads Minister Natalie Ward was caught up in a protest on the Spit Bridge and late to what ever she was going to at the time. These laws still apply.
We now have the post-Bondi massacre laws that the government is under the illusion is calming the community down. They have set up the no protest zone and put in more protections for places of worship. As we have seen the other part of these laws is that they have given cops some impunity with limited options to get compensated for injuries and wrongful imprisonment. The major event declaration gave the cops the protection from legal action under the Major Events Act.
The issue is this might not protect the Country (effectively the rest of us) and the NSW taxpayer from being persued in the UN Human Rights Committee Horvath versus Australia was a case where someone who had been assaulted by Victoria Police took Australia to the Human Rights Committee and won. You can see the story in the link below and read the pusilanimous argument that the state party (Australia on behalf of us) put to the committee it is interesting. Mind you like all the other things that the UN does the state party can ignore it which we have with regards mandatory detention.
I’m frustrated and saddened by the ALP placing themselves to the right of the political centre. Yes, they do continue to sort of favour the working class but the rules in respect of strike action are extremely restrictive. The progressive wing of the ALP appears to have completely disappeared sadly really.
The copper who laid into White Shirt Bloke lost his shit completely. That wasn't neutralising a threat to public order, it was an angry bastard lashing out at anyone who wasn't a cop, seeking to cause maximum harm in as short a period of time as possible.
Honourable mention to Constable BMX Bandit, who thought it would be a good move to collar White Shirt Bloke while his bike occupied the space between them both, leading him to get tangled up in the frame and faceplant on the pavement.
Most of those cops looked eerily similar to the guys who attend white supremist, neo-nazi rallies. Pasty white faces, close cropped hair and little wiry mustaches. And lots of violent attitude. Does the NSW police use those rallies as recruitment events?
I think the Nazi moustache first appeared in the UK in the 1930s, with Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF), but I noticed it was worn by Thomas Sewell, leader of Australia's National Socialist Network, recently disbanded after some bad press. Google either name. :D
Why the fuck is Albo, while the Coalition are far too busy circle jerking and cosplaying mean girls, spending his wads of political capital turning to the right, when he should be doing the socialism thing?
Anything the ALP are doing or not doing at the moment given the political capital they hold is because that's what they really want to do or not do. Driven by the caucus and Albanese (the crap one, not the one with morals) who I read one journalist describe as 'a manager, not a leader'.
I think that it is pretty clear he has never been more than a vaguely nostalgic leftist.
Mum's Disability Pension and/or Supporting Mother's Benefit and social housing and his free degree - "That was Labor, did you know that?!" says Albo, as if we are halfwits, whilst festooning himself in laurels for things done when he was in primary school (probably not a state school). But he won't even begin to give those social equalisers to others now.
But, let's give a state funeral to Richo! A man no true leftist or ethical person could stomach.
I could go on. But right now I need to cred-ify the Joy Division t-shirt I just bought.
No need to apologise those thoughts seem pretty full-formed to me.
Down in Melbourne I was genuinely suprised we didn't experience something similar at our demos though NSW's premier is really in a league of his own, already seeing references to BjelkeMinns.
"It’s a different story for marginalised groups with long histories of state oppression, of course" reminds me of the definition in western literature that a dystopia is when whats been happening to marginalized groups start happening to white people.
If a cop throws a punch, there should be an investigation. Every single time.
There are zero, FUCKING ZERO reasons for a cop to throw a punch.
They're meant to restrain people without hurting them. They're meant to de-escalate. Throwing punches has never, ever, in the history of humanity, de-escalated a situation. Well, if they're knocked out, it's fucken de-escalated, right? No dickhead, now you've got hospital visits, possible brain damage, maybe even death.
If a cop punches someone, that cop should be immediately suspended and investigated. It's utterly inexcusable.
People can be difficult to restrain, sure, but punching them is never, ever a solution.
Anyway, good article. Great move, well done Angus.
I've been in the middle of a soccer riot outside White Hart Lane in North London, and that was scary enough. But a cop riot is much worse because they have training, equipment and the backing of the State.
What I don't understand is why Albo invited Herzog in the first place. It has to have been forced upon him by the Jewish Lobby, but how do they have so much power here? According to the last census only 0.5% of the population identify as Jewish so their electoral clout is basically nonexistent.
I understand the context of Bondi and the rise in anti-semitism, but why would Albo then decide to invite the PM from the genocidal Israeli state to fly to the other side of the world and give him platform? Ridiculous political miscalculation, or blackmail of some kind?
My understanding was that a Jewish group (not the Jewish Council of Australia, who vehemently opposes the genocide being committed by Israel and petitioned against the Herzog visit) asked Herzog to come, and I thought Albanese made it government-official as it would be undiplomatic to ignore a visiting head of state, while also providing more fodder to the Murdochracy which was already hammering him.
Okay, that makes some sense, thanks for the detail.
So our government got out-flanked by the Zionist Jewish lobby and made it official as a reaction. They'd have made a better point by ignoring him, but as you say that would have handed a victory to the Troll Armies of Murdor. No win situation.
So glad to see Sussan Ley pulling the pin and rolling a grenade into the Coalition party room.
Let's see Angus work for once - no honeymoon period for that slimy bastard. He'd better hit the ground running or Littleprick will try and grab the prize from the Libs.
Hey JB. Any idea which one is the “I really fucking love this” button? The folly of inviting this bloke under the ‘it will be uniting’ lede is either plainly dishonest or obviously stupid. Transactional politics at its worst.
Nicely encapsulated JB. I'd forgotten how on edge our Sydney cops must still be because of the Bondi massacre, and that helps it make more sense. I was expecting something similar in Melbourne which fortunately didn't eventuate. Still no excuse for their clear overreaction, and Minns really shit the bed on this one at every opportunity.
But really the search should be for Mossad - clearly - if you have read the books outlining the way they use so-called Anti-Semitic attacks to foment outrage - the engineers behind all those attacks in Sydney & Melbourne - and including Bondi Beach - forget about the front-men/women - it's who is orchestrating the false flags - Mossad! The Canberra Zionist embassy is full of them.
Angus Fucking Taylor. How is he still in government, let alone leader of the opposition? My hopes for Labor were rock-bottom but, damn, they’ve broken out the jackhammers.
Excellent article, I tried to share it on Facebook, but I am restricted, as it seems I have upset some delicate Zionist trolls by challenging some of their hate filled comments about the protesters..... it appears the new hate speach laws only work one way.
Pentecultist prayer circle Taylor - who attacked Sydney's forever Lord Mayor Clover Moore in 2019 (the days of his best buddy Robodebt Morrison) with what were clearly lying figures and refused to back down- now leading the rump of the Libs. Holidaying it was said - abroad - when the numbers firmed in his favour. I can't believe that we elect MPs to have holidays. Surely they are on duty 24/7 till their term finishes or is finished for them. Then they can take their holiday - on their own time. If they keep standing and keep being returned - it's their own fault if they have no holiday - but I resent persons like AT taking vacations at the expense of the oft-referenced taxpayers. The treatment of film-maker James Ricketson (my exact age) was so blatantly an example of police brutality - that Minns' blustering about it should lead to his booting from the position of NSW Premier - let alone for his toadying to the Zionist Israeli war criminal president - Itzak Herzog. I attended a rally on Monday - in Newcastle. Gentle, calm - 4-500 in attendance under a spreading fig for shade - one police officer watching from the ramp-way approach to the Newcastle City Hall and later - as I was leaving to return to my car parked a km or so distant - two others joined him on the edge of the crowd as the event was on the verge of breaking up. We sang, speeches were made - we chanted "From the River to the Sea etc and "From the Sea to the River etc. No-one was jumped or attacked and beaten. Bonhomie reigned. We got to express our distaste at Herzog and Minns and Albanese - and then we went home. Thanks for your views - and best wishes with the new launch!
I read Pig City where Andrew Stafford refers to your reporting around the Queensland University campus. While I think it's easy to condemn police for being overly violent, I can imagine that they perceive their actions as simply following processes, rather than thinking for themselves and making decisions based on common sense. With processes, there is always a lot of space for interpretation. The angry officer laying into White Shirt Bloke might justify his actions by simply stating, 'I was just following orders."
If you could follow my reasoning up to hear, bare with me one more moment because here is a great example of mindlessly following processes:
About ten years ago, my wife and I were travelling home in our trusty little Toyota Corolla Levin. Shortly before home, there is a road lined with old gumtrees of all sorts. I didn't see it coming, looking at the road in front of me, but my wife yelled out "Stop! Stop! Stop!"
The next think I know, our Corolla is stuck in the middle of a tree-top lying across the road.
Long story short, fire trucks arrived to cut all the branches away and clear the road again and then also a police man and an apprentice-police woman arrived.
After inspecting the scene he asked her, "so, what is next, after you've seen his driver licence?"
And I jokingly answered for her, "breath test."
Which he responded to "CORRECT!"
So, while a tree fell into the road right in front of our car, turning it into a right-off, his concern was my alcohol level. As if that would have made any difference to the tree falling on our car.
To my car insurance's misfortune, I was a 'Zero', which meant they had to pay the few peanuts the car was still worth, no matter what.
Towards the end of last year I was happily going the speed limit on a country highway when I saw a car speeding in my rearview mirror. I was travelling at 100kph, and I reckon this vehicle must've been travelling at least 120, or maybe even 140kph. When it was behind me and flashed its lights, I thought it was the police on the way to an emergency. No - a random breath test ensued.
...When the (quota) system dominates good sense....
Joh era, the charge at Albert Park, a hefty copper slamming his baton into the head of a 15 yo girl. The *back* of her head obviously. Never, never trusted them since.
I have been following NSW politics from afar (if you call the ACT afar) and I can say that NSW has been going down the S Bend of authoritarian government for a while now. After I left the Coalition got in and they gave the police the power to reject the form 1 permit for processions on the basis of impact on traffic among other things.
The Keep Sydney Open movement had some big rallies to protest the lockout laws brought in by the Berejiklian government. One of their rallies that didn't happen was a march to Kings Cross where the crowd would have listened to so speeches and a couple of songs by a band. The Police Commissioner at the time was non- drinker and a zealous member of the Baptist church who had an open animosity to the Keep Sydney Open movement. He instructed his staff to impose conditions on the form 1 that the Keep Sydney Open people could not meet. The cops went to the Supreme Court and they had the march banned. As a result the Tyson Koh the guy who led the Keep Sydney Open movement had to appeal to the Keep Sydney Open supporters not to go to the Cross with their Keep Sydney Open gear on.
The Black Lives Matter movement were able to get their march approved but had to go to court to do so. For those who may not remember the police opposed the march and rally and when the movement went to the court of appeal the cops were waiting ready to rip into the protesters. They also used CS gas on protesters who were herded into a confined area in Central Station. The next rally that the Black Lives Matter movement tried to have was blocked by the courts and was broken up by the police in the Domain. One independent journalist covering that, filmed the rally being broken up and their walk through Martin Place where a pro-Hong Kong Democracy protest was in full swing .... and unmolested by the police.
The thing that got us into where we are now was the laws passed in the last year's of the coalition government in response to environmental protests that happened following the 2019/2020 bushfire season and the Lismore Floods.
These were pop up protests such as the Blockade Australia protests that targeted Port Botany when a German exchange student blocked the road to Port Botany in a tripod (he was not only fined and convicted but deported by Peter Do nothing who was Home Affairs minister at the time) and the pensioners who blocked coal trains going to Port Botany and later Newcastle and of course the blockage of the Spit Bridge and more famously the Sydney Harbour Bridge which resulted in a couple of members of Blockade Australia (one of which was Violet Coco) being imprisoned. We rarely saw peaceful protesters imprisoned in Australia or at least since the 1990s we started seeing it then (note the magistrate who sent Violet Coco to prison was Mark Latham's missus at the time).
The real bitter thing about these laws is that they were passed because the Coalition Roads Minister Natalie Ward was caught up in a protest on the Spit Bridge and late to what ever she was going to at the time. These laws still apply.
We now have the post-Bondi massacre laws that the government is under the illusion is calming the community down. They have set up the no protest zone and put in more protections for places of worship. As we have seen the other part of these laws is that they have given cops some impunity with limited options to get compensated for injuries and wrongful imprisonment. The major event declaration gave the cops the protection from legal action under the Major Events Act.
The issue is this might not protect the Country (effectively the rest of us) and the NSW taxpayer from being persued in the UN Human Rights Committee Horvath versus Australia was a case where someone who had been assaulted by Victoria Police took Australia to the Human Rights Committee and won. You can see the story in the link below and read the pusilanimous argument that the state party (Australia on behalf of us) put to the committee it is interesting. Mind you like all the other things that the UN does the state party can ignore it which we have with regards mandatory detention.
https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protections/publications/horvath-v-australia-18852009-views-27-march-2014
I’m frustrated and saddened by the ALP placing themselves to the right of the political centre. Yes, they do continue to sort of favour the working class but the rules in respect of strike action are extremely restrictive. The progressive wing of the ALP appears to have completely disappeared sadly really.
The copper who laid into White Shirt Bloke lost his shit completely. That wasn't neutralising a threat to public order, it was an angry bastard lashing out at anyone who wasn't a cop, seeking to cause maximum harm in as short a period of time as possible.
Honourable mention to Constable BMX Bandit, who thought it would be a good move to collar White Shirt Bloke while his bike occupied the space between them both, leading him to get tangled up in the frame and faceplant on the pavement.
Most of those cops looked eerily similar to the guys who attend white supremist, neo-nazi rallies. Pasty white faces, close cropped hair and little wiry mustaches. And lots of violent attitude. Does the NSW police use those rallies as recruitment events?
Saw that too. Thomas Sewell clones in a row, all with angry, "give me an excuse" faces.
I noticed that too!
Yes, I wondered about all the 1940s-style moustaches too. What’s up with them?
I think the Nazi moustache first appeared in the UK in the 1930s, with Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF), but I noticed it was worn by Thomas Sewell, leader of Australia's National Socialist Network, recently disbanded after some bad press. Google either name. :D
I think you’re right.
So it wasn't just me that noticed that!
Why the fuck is Albo, while the Coalition are far too busy circle jerking and cosplaying mean girls, spending his wads of political capital turning to the right, when he should be doing the socialism thing?
Because modern Labor is more closely aligned with the Liberal governments of Fraser and Howard, than they are with anything Whitlam achieved.
Anything the ALP are doing or not doing at the moment given the political capital they hold is because that's what they really want to do or not do. Driven by the caucus and Albanese (the crap one, not the one with morals) who I read one journalist describe as 'a manager, not a leader'.
I think that it is pretty clear he has never been more than a vaguely nostalgic leftist.
Mum's Disability Pension and/or Supporting Mother's Benefit and social housing and his free degree - "That was Labor, did you know that?!" says Albo, as if we are halfwits, whilst festooning himself in laurels for things done when he was in primary school (probably not a state school). But he won't even begin to give those social equalisers to others now.
But, let's give a state funeral to Richo! A man no true leftist or ethical person could stomach.
I could go on. But right now I need to cred-ify the Joy Division t-shirt I just bought.
No need to apologise those thoughts seem pretty full-formed to me.
Down in Melbourne I was genuinely suprised we didn't experience something similar at our demos though NSW's premier is really in a league of his own, already seeing references to BjelkeMinns.
"It’s a different story for marginalised groups with long histories of state oppression, of course" reminds me of the definition in western literature that a dystopia is when whats been happening to marginalized groups start happening to white people.
How quickly they forget Askin, Sydney's home-grown corrupt thug.
If a cop throws a punch, there should be an investigation. Every single time.
There are zero, FUCKING ZERO reasons for a cop to throw a punch.
They're meant to restrain people without hurting them. They're meant to de-escalate. Throwing punches has never, ever, in the history of humanity, de-escalated a situation. Well, if they're knocked out, it's fucken de-escalated, right? No dickhead, now you've got hospital visits, possible brain damage, maybe even death.
If a cop punches someone, that cop should be immediately suspended and investigated. It's utterly inexcusable.
People can be difficult to restrain, sure, but punching them is never, ever a solution.
Anyway, good article. Great move, well done Angus.
I've been in the middle of a soccer riot outside White Hart Lane in North London, and that was scary enough. But a cop riot is much worse because they have training, equipment and the backing of the State.
What I don't understand is why Albo invited Herzog in the first place. It has to have been forced upon him by the Jewish Lobby, but how do they have so much power here? According to the last census only 0.5% of the population identify as Jewish so their electoral clout is basically nonexistent.
I understand the context of Bondi and the rise in anti-semitism, but why would Albo then decide to invite the PM from the genocidal Israeli state to fly to the other side of the world and give him platform? Ridiculous political miscalculation, or blackmail of some kind?
My understanding was that a Jewish group (not the Jewish Council of Australia, who vehemently opposes the genocide being committed by Israel and petitioned against the Herzog visit) asked Herzog to come, and I thought Albanese made it government-official as it would be undiplomatic to ignore a visiting head of state, while also providing more fodder to the Murdochracy which was already hammering him.
Okay, that makes some sense, thanks for the detail.
So our government got out-flanked by the Zionist Jewish lobby and made it official as a reaction. They'd have made a better point by ignoring him, but as you say that would have handed a victory to the Troll Armies of Murdor. No win situation.
So glad to see Sussan Ley pulling the pin and rolling a grenade into the Coalition party room.
Let's see Angus work for once - no honeymoon period for that slimy bastard. He'd better hit the ground running or Littleprick will try and grab the prize from the Libs.
No hiding behind fake email meta data, the wifes skirt tails or the shadow of the shearing sheds $80 mil water tank.
Hey JB. Any idea which one is the “I really fucking love this” button? The folly of inviting this bloke under the ‘it will be uniting’ lede is either plainly dishonest or obviously stupid. Transactional politics at its worst.
Nicely encapsulated JB. I'd forgotten how on edge our Sydney cops must still be because of the Bondi massacre, and that helps it make more sense. I was expecting something similar in Melbourne which fortunately didn't eventuate. Still no excuse for their clear overreaction, and Minns really shit the bed on this one at every opportunity.
But really the search should be for Mossad - clearly - if you have read the books outlining the way they use so-called Anti-Semitic attacks to foment outrage - the engineers behind all those attacks in Sydney & Melbourne - and including Bondi Beach - forget about the front-men/women - it's who is orchestrating the false flags - Mossad! The Canberra Zionist embassy is full of them.
Angus Fucking Taylor. How is he still in government, let alone leader of the opposition? My hopes for Labor were rock-bottom but, damn, they’ve broken out the jackhammers.
Excellent article, I tried to share it on Facebook, but I am restricted, as it seems I have upset some delicate Zionist trolls by challenging some of their hate filled comments about the protesters..... it appears the new hate speach laws only work one way.
That same FB blocking mechanism must be what I am finding, too - so now I send most things on to Penny Wong...
I regard being restricted or blocked by Facebook as a badge of honour, it shows I am doing the right thing. :D
touché - likewise.
Pentecultist prayer circle Taylor - who attacked Sydney's forever Lord Mayor Clover Moore in 2019 (the days of his best buddy Robodebt Morrison) with what were clearly lying figures and refused to back down- now leading the rump of the Libs. Holidaying it was said - abroad - when the numbers firmed in his favour. I can't believe that we elect MPs to have holidays. Surely they are on duty 24/7 till their term finishes or is finished for them. Then they can take their holiday - on their own time. If they keep standing and keep being returned - it's their own fault if they have no holiday - but I resent persons like AT taking vacations at the expense of the oft-referenced taxpayers. The treatment of film-maker James Ricketson (my exact age) was so blatantly an example of police brutality - that Minns' blustering about it should lead to his booting from the position of NSW Premier - let alone for his toadying to the Zionist Israeli war criminal president - Itzak Herzog. I attended a rally on Monday - in Newcastle. Gentle, calm - 4-500 in attendance under a spreading fig for shade - one police officer watching from the ramp-way approach to the Newcastle City Hall and later - as I was leaving to return to my car parked a km or so distant - two others joined him on the edge of the crowd as the event was on the verge of breaking up. We sang, speeches were made - we chanted "From the River to the Sea etc and "From the Sea to the River etc. No-one was jumped or attacked and beaten. Bonhomie reigned. We got to express our distaste at Herzog and Minns and Albanese - and then we went home. Thanks for your views - and best wishes with the new launch!
I read Pig City where Andrew Stafford refers to your reporting around the Queensland University campus. While I think it's easy to condemn police for being overly violent, I can imagine that they perceive their actions as simply following processes, rather than thinking for themselves and making decisions based on common sense. With processes, there is always a lot of space for interpretation. The angry officer laying into White Shirt Bloke might justify his actions by simply stating, 'I was just following orders."
If you could follow my reasoning up to hear, bare with me one more moment because here is a great example of mindlessly following processes:
About ten years ago, my wife and I were travelling home in our trusty little Toyota Corolla Levin. Shortly before home, there is a road lined with old gumtrees of all sorts. I didn't see it coming, looking at the road in front of me, but my wife yelled out "Stop! Stop! Stop!"
The next think I know, our Corolla is stuck in the middle of a tree-top lying across the road.
Long story short, fire trucks arrived to cut all the branches away and clear the road again and then also a police man and an apprentice-police woman arrived.
After inspecting the scene he asked her, "so, what is next, after you've seen his driver licence?"
And I jokingly answered for her, "breath test."
Which he responded to "CORRECT!"
So, while a tree fell into the road right in front of our car, turning it into a right-off, his concern was my alcohol level. As if that would have made any difference to the tree falling on our car.
To my car insurance's misfortune, I was a 'Zero', which meant they had to pay the few peanuts the car was still worth, no matter what.
Towards the end of last year I was happily going the speed limit on a country highway when I saw a car speeding in my rearview mirror. I was travelling at 100kph, and I reckon this vehicle must've been travelling at least 120, or maybe even 140kph. When it was behind me and flashed its lights, I thought it was the police on the way to an emergency. No - a random breath test ensued.
...When the (quota) system dominates good sense....
Hitler's goons, too - "Just following orders!"
Agree 100% - good luck with the new book ! Oh & bahahahahahaha Angus!
Joh era, the charge at Albert Park, a hefty copper slamming his baton into the head of a 15 yo girl. The *back* of her head obviously. Never, never trusted them since.