Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Former Aussie Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has blamed “Climate Denier” Rupert Murdoch for the Rise of President Trump, the toppling of Aussie green conservative Malcolm Turnbull, Brexit and anything else he can think of.
Cancer eating the heart of Australian democracy
By Kevin Rudd
27 August 2018 — 12:15amBeneath the sound and light show that passed for Australian politics last week, there is a much deeper question of what underlying forces have been at work that have brought us this low. The uncomfortable truth is, since the coup of June 2010, Australian politics has become vicious, toxic and unstable. The core question is why?
There have been many factors at work. First, the histrionic politics of climate change dividing the nation for more than a decade – we have lacked the national political maturity to just get on with it, despite Australia being the driest continent on earth.
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But on top of all the above, while manipulating each of them, has been Rupert Murdoch – the greatest cancer on the Australian democracy.
Murdoch is not just a news organisation. Murdoch operates as a political party, acting in pursuit of clearly defined commercial interests, in addition to his far-right ideological world view.
In Britain, Murdoch made Brexit possible because of the position taken by his papers. In the United States, Murdoch’s Fox News is the political echo chamber of the far right, which enabled the Tea Party and then the Trump party to stage a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. In Australia, as in America, Murdoch has campaigned for decades in support of tax cuts for the wealthy, killing action on climate change and destroying anything approximating multiculturalism.
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So how did Malcolm Turnbull alienate Murdoch ? What we know is Murdoch visited Australia in the past few weeks. He called his editors in. And then each of the papers turned feral. Murdoch is a climate change denialist. Presumably Murdoch believed Howard and Abbott that Turnbull, on the legislative recognition of carbon reduction targets, was going too far. Murdoch wanted a Capital C Conservative. He may not have got Dutton. But Morrison is almost as good. Look at the Murdoch coverage of Morrison’s elevation the day after the ballot. Orgasm all round. Nothing on the orgy of political violence preceding it. Nothing to see here.
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I think Kevin Rudd is being a bit harsh in his criticism of Rupert Murdoch and climate skeptics. After all, WUWT wholeheartedly supported Kevin Rudd’s bid for the job of United Nations Secretary General.
Rudd would destroy the UN from within: Bernardi
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Former speaker Bronwyn Bishop told Sky there was only one reason to nominate him.
“If you have got a problem with the United Nations and you really want to see its powers lessened, send Kevin,” Mrs Bishop said.
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Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-28/kevin-rudd-cabinet-to-decide-on-un-top-job/7667250
While some of us were worried that Rudd might start WW3 if he tried his hand at international diplomacy, I think many of us were disappointed when Rudd failed to win the top job at the United Nations.
I think Australia is a leading contended for having a government run completely by AI. The humans are a mess.
That works until you consider the AI would probably be programmed by the University of Melbourne, or some other über progressive institution.
From the quoted piece above by Rudd: ” … there is a much deeper question of what underlying forces have been at work that have brought us this low.” How about these underlying forces? 1.) The atmosphere has not exhibited the assumed response to greenhouse gas emissions. 2.) People can see through the excuses to grasp that the computer models are useless to diagnose the extent of human influence on the climate. 3.) There are a lot of people with good sense who have been relatively quiet for years but who are now asserting themselves more openly against the AGW climate doctrine. The outcome of the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. is one of the results.
Good, old Kevin Rudd. Never the sharpest knife in the drawer…
He would be the type of person who reads a sign on a toaster that says “Do not use a knife to remove stuck bread items!” He would go to the cutlery drawer and get a fork then go back to the toaster!
you need to put up a warning before showing a picture of Chairman Krudd, I lurched back so hard I almost did myself an injury!
Ha 🙂
Fox (Murdoch) also owns 40% of Sky News — a very Left Leaning News Media Organization, and has launched a takeover attempt for the remaining shares of the company.
IIRC one of the Murdoch boy’s wives was behind the initial Sky investment
Trump made President by attacking the media, expounding policies that were code for Jobs, ie stop exporting jobs to China,paying too much for power so jobs go overseas,making sure ‘freetrade’ means that jobs don’t go overseas,getting the Europeans to pay for their defence so the money stays in the US so jobs stay in the US, stopping Mexicans and others walking over the border and taking jobs…
He used Twitter, not the NYT.
The fact that one Mogul gave him a break just means there was a non Democrat /Obama echochamber in play.
However it was the policies that won him the election, plus campaigning in the battleground states against a lacklustre opponent.
This is the Lib/Nats problem.
Malcolm was not prepared to campaign hard himself, it was like he was running a boardroom.
The media is all over global warming and catastrophe, ABC,SBS,Fairfax, Macquarie Radio news.
Malcolm just went along.
In the meanwhile, in the real world, people started paying too much for essential utilities.
They got told that plastic bags were destroying the environment, yet most reused them to line bins and pick up dog poo.
Rudd himself was a popular elected leader knifed by his own party, the ALP.
For Turnbull, the interloper who knifed Abbott, the popular elected leader, to be himself deposed, would appear to be summary but exact justice.
If in some fantasy Murdoch did this, Rudd should be on his side, cheering.
For those who need some history.
A calculated decision to ground Kevin747
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-08/woodroofe-the-end-of-kevin747/4872612
…and the difference between Mr Murdoch and Maurice Strong is?
And the Easter Bunny leads the Antifa, while Santa is the face of HRC and quid pro quo State Dept.
Give him some hot milk and maybe he’ll sleep some more.
Suffice to say I always refer th Kevin Rudd as Evan KRudd or just KRudd such was the disatser of his term in office. He was dragged down by his own party in their first term in government.
He is still bitter and twisted over his fustercluck in Copenhagen, where he was going to award himself imperial honours or at least a Nobble Prize for sorting out “the greatest moral challenge of our time” (his words) only to be “ratf%$ked by the Chinese” (also his words).
The other side of his whinging is that to News Corp papers in Oz, he was the gift that just kept on giving. He still is. Such is life.
“If you have got a problem with the United Nations and you really want to see its powers lessened, send Kevin”
LOL you’re correct there.
Rudd did his best to destroy the Australian economy by starting schemes like the National Disability Insurance Scheme and National Broadband Network. both wasteful, politician wanks.
and then there was “Pink Batts”……
You could write a musical comedy about KRudd’s time in office and not have to sex up the script at all it was all so melodramatic and absurd.
The only current leader that comes close to him for narcissistic absurdity is the boy toy in Canada, Trudeau Jr.
Kevin Kevin Kevin,
Get with the programme. It was the RUSSIANS who got Trump elected.
Also Tony Abbott, but mostly the Russians.
Craif from Oz
Missing a /sarcasm there, aren’t we?
Yes, all 17 of them.
Rudd presumes that he couldn’t possibly be wrong. He also presumes that voters are stupidly ignorant and incapable of nutting things out for themselves.
Rudd is a high-functioning sociopath (HFS).
No commercially sane organisations will employ him.
That’s why he’s president of the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI).
His primary roll is lobbying US government and business to take ‘action’ on climate change.
He lives in New York.
How’s this for a left-wing ego . . .
http://kevinrudd.com/projects-partnerships/
A lifetime spending other-people’s-money to satisfy his HFS cravings.
He is already immortalised for being a prat we don’t need him in any movies. We here in Australia already know he speaks “Chewbacca” anyway.
Rudd is a narcacistic self grandouising political failure that was removed from power by his own party. He was opportunistic from the get-go and never really did anything for Australia except introduce ill thought policies and waste taxpayer money ..
May I point out that Merkel and the EU made exit not just possible but a near certainty. Some years ago we had a referendum on remaining in the European economic community and voted to remain in by a significant margin. Even allowing for usable land area the UK has one tenth the space per person compared to Australia but the EU has demanded that on top of the Four people they send here from the EU to every one we send there we allow in the million Syrian economic migrants invited in unilaterally by Merkel.
We the British people did not join the EU we joined an economic community which Merkel now considers and has openly stated is cherry picking to expect the agreement to be honoured.
In Australia Democracy means DO WHAT I SAY , NO IF’s OR BUTS, Just do it . No freedom except to vote in the best liar. Australia has no constitutional bill of rights . If the people start to get to organised they create a new policy to stop people from gathering together to protest.
“Australia is the only liberal democracy that does not have a Bill of Rights or a Federal Act protecting our human rights. Instead our rights are protected through a combination of the Constitution, common law and legislation. … While a Bill of Rights was defeated in the 1988 referendum, it’s worth having another go”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc1sJWPNjIk
Big business run’s Australia and were governed from the top down by the rich and greedy.
“The majority of federal politicians who have announced their retirement this year will be paid annual pensions of at least $118,000 – and in some cases much more – adding more than $2 million to the annual bill.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/retiring-federal-politicians-will-get-sixfigure-pensions-for-life-20160304-gna6c1.html.
He is known as Krudd around our house! He conveniently forgets that the Murdoch papers in fact encouraged Australians to vote for him when he was first elected as PM. It was only after he proved he was a lying, bullying, incompetent fool that thought he was the smartest man in the room that Murdoch papers began top question his credentials. Our most recent ex-Prime Minister, Turncoat (sorry Turnbull) suffered from the same shortcomings. Unfortunately as a voter, I do not see any promise in any of the Parliamentarians in our country. I would hope however that some of them remember that they are elected to provide the government in our interests and keeping the campaign promises they are elected on.
Australia is lucky in the sense that we change our leaders and our governments without guns. But we are still benighted by incompetent fools.
Ignore Kevin Rudd’s comments on climate. He has the scientific comprehension of a virus. He is profoundly ignorant in these matters and, as it generally is with the left, he is willfully ignorant choosing to believe the alarmism because it suits his pre-existing worldview…. and this is not happenstance or luck, it is choice, because this kind of person, being devoid of a strong moral foundation, is prone to believe in anything as long as it agrees with his pre-existing gnomes, leprechauns and fairies “Gaia”-centric worldview… pretty much like Al Gore. He was hoping to cash in on carbon trading, like the Goron, but missed out and he is angry about that.