Pauline (Bjelkie, Donald, Nigel) Hanson

As has happened around the world, Australia is dangerously close to a swing to the extremist far right, with our political party One Nation. The party is led by Pauline Hanson who has been in and out of politics for decades, with little success. Her fame first rose in the 1990s and put fear into recent immigrants as she gave permission for racist views to be expressed.

One would think that with her long time political partner and sorter of everything, James Ashby, that she would be pro gay rights and gay marriage, but no. 

Her views are very Trump like, pretty well anti everything about progressive society, along with being anti renewable energy. 'Build more coal fired power stations', she cries. "Let's look at nuclear energy".

Her speech at the National Press Club was very revealing. Let's have a look at what Hanson's policies are and could be implemented if she was in a position of power if her extremist party should have enough members elected to influence government policy.

Our multicultural society must become a monocultural society. The ship has sailed on that one, honey.

As she stated in her speech, Australian must reduce immigration, and the party has now released a policy that would see more people leaving Australia than arriving to Australia. That's a decrease in our population. To those with simple thinking may think this is a good idea. Instead think, geez, there will be no one to wipe our arses in our old age care homes. 

Before any public event speech, there will be a welcome to country, often performed by an elder of our Aboriginals, but not always. Some can be too long in my opinion, but she will ban the Welcome to Country speeches. 

She will shut down our multicultural tv broadcaster SBS, and make our ABC national media broadcaster subscription only for metropolitan users, but still free for country consumers of  ABC. Ah, she does not know how pro our public media ABC supporters can come out in force when our treasured ABC is in danger. 

She stated only late term abortions were acceptable, if the mother's life was in danger. Back to the mid twentieth century with dangerous backyard abortions for the poor, and richer women having obliging and expensive doctors.

It seems she thinks Australian workers have too many rights, are lazy, don't come to work, spend too much time on their phones and don't deserve pay rises. Bosses can't sack workers (they can't unfairly sack workers. There is a process). She wants a complete overhaul of industrial relations, no doubt to the disadvantage of average workers. 

In there 1990s the fish and chip business owner's cry was, we are being swamped by Asians. She was then gaoled for electoral fraud and dishonestly obtaining electoral funding  Now her cry is we are being swamped by Muslims. My old school racist mother's favourite nurse was Muslim. 

Australia's richest woman, the execrable Gina Reinhart, bought Pauline a rather smart aeroplane, and the party headquarters will move into a building owed by Reinhart. Reinhart has also donated $$$ to the party. She made her money by building on her father's mining business, plus other ventures. Do you think Reinhart won't want payback should Hanson be in a position of power? Reinhart is revving up to mine more of the Amazon.   

Then her party brought in a former conservative politician, Barnaby Joyce. He was interviewed here a  couple of weeks by a respected ABC Melbourne radio broadcaster, and his incoherent blustering was unbelievable. He is an old bloke who not so long ago ended up falling down and staying down on the footpath when very drunk in Canberra, our national capital city. 

The finances of Pauline's party, One Nation, seem very obscure and I would not be surprised if it is later discovered that there has been some illegal funny business going on.

I conclude with is god help us if Hanson's One Nation party wins enough votes to be in any kind of position of influence in my state and in Australia.  

West Timor

I have my reasons for checking out West Timor as a friend is there doing good works, that is volunteering. 

In the 1980s I was an activist for independence for East Timor. I lobbied, I wrote letters and attended protest meetings. Members of the Indonesian Army who controlled the island killed five Australian journalists in cold blood, as they were reporting on the battle for an independent East Timor. The five journalists became known as the Balibo Five. The Indonesian army was ruthless and lawless.

I kind of of have a personal connection to Shirley, the widow of one of the murdered journalists Greg Shackleton, who was helped in her older years by Ray in his volunteer role. She was a great activist to bring the murdering members of the army to justice, and as a advocate for an independent East Timor. 

I don't know why the island was divided. Under Portuguese rule then later Dutch rule, the island was Catholic in East Timor and Protestant in the West Timor. Indonesian independence in 1949 saw the central Indonesian government take control of the whole island, but those in the east weren't having a bit of this and fought for its independence. Many died in the battle and at one point Australian troops and others were there as a peace keeping force.

In 1991 we were living in our house in Glen Iris and with Ray at the wheel after a night out clubbing with friends, we had nearly reached home and I turned on the car radio for perhaps the 1am news, and I learnt that Indonesian troops had massacred at least 250 mostly young people at the East Timor Santa Cruz cemetery.

The massacre was witnessed by two American journalists and filmed by another from Yorkshire, England. The film was cunningly smuggled out from Indonesia to Australia and free for the world to see, and it was shocking.

It took until 2002 for East Timor to become an independent county, and later claim a share of the oil revenue from the Timor Sea.

Shirley Shackleton, widow of Greg, died in 2023 at the age of 91, and with a tribute from the President of East Timor.

After news of death came at the weekend, Timor Leste's President Jose Ramos Horta posted: "God bye Shirley. Thank you forever. Forever we will remember you. Your soul rests with us in Mt Ramelau". If you are interested, you can read this newspaper OB. 

So now East Timor, Timor Leste is an independent country, and Shirley was awarded The Medal of the Order of Timor-Leste. While she has won plaudits for her writing etc in Australia, oddly she hasn't received a government honour, such as a Medal of the Order of Australia, OAM. The Australian government covered up details of the deaths of the Bilabo Five, and still does so.

Err, this was supposed to be about West Timor, but I became side tracked with memories.

West Timor is marked as Indonesia, which of course it is. There is an odd little bit of isolated East Timor displayed on the map, and I have no idea what that is so. I will investigate when I do write about West Timor. 

Here is the location in relation to northern Australia, quite close.

A few cents

There is something in life that really get on my goat up my nose, and that is bank card fees.

There is another, a public holiday surcharge at cafes and restaurants when you visit on a public holiday. Yes, staff are paid higher on public holidays, but it is a known amount and should be part of the business owner's budget forecast and overall general pricing to what is sold to include the extra public holiday costs.

But let me focus on the first, card surcharges. They really took off during the Covid years, when people stopped using cash. The surcharge was generally 1.2% to 1.5%. Translating to now, a $5.00 cup of coffee will cost $5.07. Some business really tried to rip off customers with excessively high fees.

I argued with staff in a cheap Asian bakery in Balaclava, where she wanted to charge me $1.25 for a 90 cent bread roll because I refused to pay, and nor did I have any cash. Five years later, I've never been back, although I have wanted to. 

Worse is when you are charged the fee when there isn't a way to avoid paying, like paying cash. You can choose a cafe that doesn't add the card fee, but when booking a concert ticket or a plane flight, you really don't have a choice. 

I hate this extra fee. I don't care if they want to charge me $5.10 for my coffee, that includes the fee, but I don't want to see it as a surcharge added after I pay by card. It needs to be the listed price.

I remember being in New York City in 2015, I think, and what the price label or on a menu was not the price you paid. I think two compulsory taxes were added to the bill and there was an opt out environmental tax. I won't even mention tips, necessary because businesses are allowed to not pay a living wage. Tipping is a insidious disease. 

Finally in what I expect will be very popular, the Federal government is banning the card fees, as of October.

For that loss of seven cents on my cup of coffee, usurious banks are increasing account keeping fees (I don't pay any), and reducing flyer points, etc etc. That's fine with me. 

The price I see on a menu or a booking, or a label, is the price I expect to pay. And only a tip for something out of the ordinary, like if I spill my drink on myself and staff help to clean up. I don't think that is unreasonable.  

Wednesday Extra

It has been an interesting week in the state of Victoria, Australia. 

Politics was at the fore as the ruling Labor Party dumped its leader Jacinta Allen for a respected bloke. 

After quite a number terms in office, the former premier saw the writing on the wall, and as happens, handed over the poisoned chalice to Ms Allen. This is what the Labor Party does when it sees the end of its rule on the horizon, handing over power to a woman. It has history.

Former Premier Allen received such undeserved vitriol. 

The numbers of women in politics in Australia is good, but they are just not well treated by apparatchiks, especially by the Murdoch media, and judged by the public much more harshly than men are judged.

Gracious in defeat, Ms Allen's resignation speech contained something for women to note.

She also urged women not to be discouraged from entering politics.

"Please don't look at what I have experienced this week and think: 'stuff that, I don't want to be involved.' Look at the support I have experienced over my career and think: 'I can make a difference here too.'"  

Alert but not alarmed

We were all very alert, and very prepared to be alarmed as we had been warned that at 2pm our national emergency warning system would be tested, with a siren blaring or blasting or ear splitting (the media were full on with their use of a thesaurus), out from our phones for ten seconds, along with a message to ignore the alert.

I was in Bay Street, Port Melbourne at 2pm with Phyllis and Kosov after a driving lesson for Kosov and a need for bahn mi for both of them. Kosov has a dry cough so they went into the supermarket to buy chicken meat to make a restorative chicken soup. I was sitting in the pleasant little park just metres away from the main street. As 2pm approached, I moved closer to the street to see how people would react to the siren.

Remember Big Ears and Noddy of the children's book fame? Noddy drove a car which when he sounded its horn, made a parp parp sound. Does that sounded like a horn blasting a warning. Parp parp.

That is how I'd described the alert. No one in the street seemed to react. An older woman wearing huge earmuffs tried to engage with a couple of young girls walking past, who acknowledged her but kept walking. I was a stationary target. She had a heavy accent, I guess Italian, as she told me told me her granddaughter said to her 'Nonna, don't go out as you will be scared when the siren on your phone goes off'. Nonna insisted she was going out. 'Nonna, take my ear muff headphones then', and she did wear them, and heard nothing. Had I have had my phone in my pocket, I probably would not have heard the 'parp parp' either. 

Nonna liked to talk. Her husband died eight years ago, her daughter of cancer two years ago. Her granddaughter is too choosy about men.  Her grandson was engaged but broke it off. 'He is so handsome, always looks neat and wears nice clothes, and is so funny. He is very kind to me, he works at a prison and has his own house, but he lives in another house with his friend.' Hmmm.

Where on earth are Phyllis and Kosov to save me.

The bastards eventually arrived and walked past me to stand about five metres away. I must have a word with them about what to do in such situations, where the default is to save me. I gave her a couple of pats on her puffer jacket enclosed upper arm and left her midstream talking.

Then they told me they has already engaged with her, as she complained about the toilets in the supermarket walkway being closed for two weeks. 

Did your phones sound an alert, I asked them? No Onnndrew. Mine is on silent, but I saw the message. (the alert comes through regardless of whether your phone is on silent). No Annndrew, I didn't hear anything. I think it probably did work for them but they didn't hear the parp parp.

It seems the alert worked for 94% of the population the phone towers and for those who it did not work for, perhaps a very old phone or a local tower was closed for maintenance.

ABC Radio uses an excellent alert sound when there is a fire or flood threat warning.

It was an alert, but hardly a sound to make you alarmed or even alert. Perhaps they should look at the sounds of older technology. 

                                                                                                             

Exit the Famous Bearded Media Person

That is how I used to refer to fellow resident Derryn Hinch if I mentioned him.

He lived in our building for around as long as I have, some 24 years. He was always friendly and chatty when we engaged in lift conversations, and expressed his condolences when he knew Ray died. 

His publicly aired opinions were strong and often controversial, and I did not always agree with them. Nevertheless, he was a neighbour doing his job as a media person, just as I did my job. I didn't question him about his and he didn't question me about mine. I thought of him as an essentially a decent person. 

He served gaol time, for contempt of court, and one of home detention (he was allowed to leave his apartment to use our pool and gym), perhaps for the same reason, after naming yet to be convicted paedophiles as a warning to the community. 

He travelled the world in his media role, was a radio broadcaster, tv presenter, charity donor of time and money, made fortunes, lost fortunes, owned a winery and was married five times.

As was said at his funeral, he loved media, women and alcohol. He was a huge drinker of wine, I heard a figure of six bottles a day as a minimum, and this caused problems. Here on his balcony late at night he would burn papers in....... I can't remember the name. It was Japanese outdoor thing you could burn stuffs in? Hibachi? The smoke used to annoy his next door neighbour who liked to have her windows open. The then the body corporate became involved in the neighbour dispute and he was warned more than once.

His drinking also led to liver failure and he received a liver transplant about the same time as our late friend's brother in the Austin Hospital, so they got to know each other. The brother of our friend, a non drinker, is still going and I exchange occasional messages with him. His lovely wife now sadly has dementia.

Derryn owned a ground floor apartment but lived in a rented apartment on an upper level. His PA, and general everything who sorted out his life lived in the apartment he owned, and he eventually bought the apartment where he lived.

He was married five times, twice to the same woman, the famous actor Jackie Weaver. His animal activist girlfriend, Lynda Stoner, from the eighties became his last partner. While he lived here  he met and married Chanel. I knew her rather better than I wanted to, as I, she and the building's cleaner were stuck in a lift for an hour or more in 2009 when a bushfire burnt through a major electrical cable in the north of the state and most of Melbourne lost power. She was pleasant, very glam and to use an old fashioned phrase, of a nervous disposition. She recognised a couple of old queens, Ray and myself, as cool guys, and while aloof with most people, she was over the top friendly with us. She owned a private detective agency. 

They did not live together though. She lived in another apartment, and her parents moved into yet another apartment. Although Derryn once drove around in a Rolls Royce, while he lived here he owned a huge converted to right hand drive black American Cadillac. The carpark in a large building behind the Highrise used to have a car wash facility and Derryn used to have the staff there come and collect his car, clean it thoroughly, and return his car. One staff smashed up his car, and it was off the road for months as parts were hard to obtain. He stopped driving many years ago.

His physical deterioration was quite rapid, and rather sad to see. There was nothing wrong with his mind and he continued to write up until the day before he died in his sleep.

Up until about three years ago, he used the Italian restaurant opposite as his office in the afternoon. With his laptop, he would dine, work, socialise and drink moderately for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The restaurant closed, and so he would be seen less often going out.

After numerous falls and leg infections, he died in his sleep. 

Yesterday he was honoured with a State Funeral, and it was broadcast around the nation by commercial television. At two hours, it was a long watch and I skipped through the music as I watched in a little delay. I seldom praise commercial media, but Channel 9 made it a terrific coverage, without ads. 

My eyes wetted up when Jackie Weaver spoke via video, and his very emotional PA spoke, who obviously I know from lift encounters. Also mentioned and was a pall bearer who was the local resident who organised my repainting and recarpeting two years ago. In the last year or so he put in a huge effort to look after Derryn and his PA.

Oh, I haven't mentioned that he formed his own political party and became a politician in Victoria's upper house, as a member of the the Legislative Council.

Nor did I mention he published 14 books.

Nor that in the early noughties when he was reported in the media, he was described as living in an exclusive St Kilda Road apartment building, which quite amused us and fellow residents who live in the cheap seats of St Kilda Road, but it wasn't always.    

Eras end, and so has another. Vale the Human Headline, the Mouth from the South and Beast from the East, Derryn.

Shiny things

I wrote a medium length personal post, but I am not happy with it, so I am holding it over.

I don't know about sport, but what a disgraceful shame it is when for a football (soccer) player receives a red card, must leave the field for the rest of the game and cannot play in the next game. Well that's a bugger for the US soccer team for it's next match. He is an important and skilled player.

It does however seem that FIFA boss Infantino is in an incestuous relationship with #47. The Orange McNugget gave Infantile a call and asked him to fix it, a lo and behold, it was fixed. Team USA will have its important player restored for the next US match.

What an absolute disgrace. Many have called FIFA a very corrupt institution and over the years, a lot of evidence has been gathered and presented, but has much exceeded this blatancy? Every competing team should be outraged by this, and I think diplomatic representations should be made. 

If any country wants to host the World Cup in the future, be careful what you citizens wish for.

Later edit: Well, Belgium certainly sorted the FIFA corruption out well and truly, with a score of 4 goals, 3 more than the US. I don't blame the US; it is FIFA that's the issue here. This book written by an Australia woman about FIFA corruption sounds interesting if football is your thing; Whatever It Takes - the inside story of the FIFA way.

To cheer up this glum post, look at this lovely car, I guess to be used by a wedding party, parked almost across the road at the Royce Hotel. Google says it is a 1949 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith. They don't make 'em like that anymore. 

The cult of celebrity

As I observe from afar:

It is funny that all I can remember about former PM John Major is that he tucked his shirt tails into his underwear. Former English PM Boris Johnston had lots of charisma, until he became too absurd and too broken. He had taken over from the rather dull May, solid and dependable but hardly exciting. Former PM Cameron dressed smartly and had something about him, rather like former PM Blair.  Nowt to say about the Truss disaster. The exotic Sunak was not a rich old white bloke but a younger rich brown bloke. I struggle to remember anything he did.

Then came Sir Keef Stammer, with a landslide victory, which was not won but by a decisive rejection of the governing Tory party. Sir Keir was not inspirational, and while not Scottish, he came across as a dour leader, without any charisma whatsoever, perhaps like Gordon Brown. He speaks with a posh accent, and I don't really know how this goes down with those who don't speak thus, but it must be a disconnect. But I can't remember leading political figure in the UK with a regional accent.

I really don't think anyone would be electable in Australia now if they spoke was such an accent. It is too loaded with wealth and privilege. 

Sir Keir, I'm sure a decent and honourable person, who did get some some good legislation through to improve the lives of the English citizens. But no one could say he was inspirational. If only he attacked the rich...practically and verbally, which is what a Labour leader should do. 

Which brings us to his replacement, Andy Burnham who does seem to be inspirational, with good political credentials. I've yet to hear him speak, so that will be something interesting. Burnham picks up the huge majority of parliamentary seats from Starmer's Labour Party, and he really must take advantage of this to improve the lives of the average English citizen in an obviously public manner. A bleeding heart about immigrants will not cut to the chase. The loud citizens of England have made this clear, and I think it goes deeper.

This is rather like Australia. Most people know we need immigration to sustain our country, but it needs to be very controlled. The perfect example was immediately post Covid when there weren't enough workers in the country to staff businesses, and then there was a flood of migrants. In my opinion, too many refugees from one country doesn't work. Take in refugees from all over the world but not huge numbers from one country. Apparently assimilate is a bad word, so I suggest less numbers from one part of the world with a careful monitoring of numbers, will mean better integration into Australia. 

The Aussie Pension

There is some detail I will leave out to keep this simple. The Australian old age pension is for eligible Australians who are permanent residents or citizens who have lived in Australia for a certain period, are retired and are 67 years old or more. There isn't a retirement age in Australia but 67 is thought of as a de facto age. 

The pension is paid by the government from its general revenue, taxes if you like. Generally, wages and pensions are paid every two weeks. 

The maximum pension is about $600 a week. The pension comes with other benefits, such as cheaper electricity, gas and water, along with local government rates and medications, the latter mostly costing no more than $7.50 per prescription.

The pension is asset and income tested, but with your owned home and personal effects such as furniture, jewellery....and perhaps expensive art work hanging on your walls, are all exempt. Your motor car is not exempt, so if you take money from your bank account to pay for a new car, just because you have a lower bank balance, that means nothing. But your car is an asset that can be devalued, quite a lot as soon as you drive out of the car showroom. My new car was immediately devalued by $9,000. So at each pension review, your car's value will be part of the consideration as to what you are paid. When my next pension review happens, that will be taken into account.

I think the old age pension cuts out when you have around $720,000 in savings or in private superannuation, the figure including the value of your car. 

Superannuation, that is a scheme to provide you with money for your old age is a contribution from you and your employers to a private profit making organisation or a workplace/union based not for profit. The latter generally perform much better. Your employer may pay around 10% of your wage into super, with you paying perhaps 5% or more. You can also put in extra money, say a lump sum from your savings or whatever.

So, say you have $500,000 in superannuation, from which you draw an income of $1,000 each week, you will still receive the government old age pension, of about $115 each week.

If you have minimal money, you will receive the full pension amount of  $600 per week, plus if you rent in the private market, an extra amount.

If the dollar figures seem high to people overseas, remember Australia is an expensive country to live, and the wages quite high, with the minimum wage now being about $1,000 a week for a full time 38 hour working week. 

AU$1000 = US$700 = GB£530 = €610.   

Relief and rant

Ray's relatives left yesterday morning. As lovely as the couple are, it is a bit of a relief, but also very sad as it is unlikely I will ever see them again. I had three dinners out with them and took them out on two long day trips, and they were very appreciative, and I heard about all the people I know in Ray's northern English city. They have flown to Bali, and four days later supposed to fly via Bahrain to England. Their flight has been cancelled, and alternative arrangements will be made.

A huge security guard company recently collapsed and the owner has fled overseas. We are told they underpaid security immigrant and student workers, insisting the students work more hours than they are allowed. There were many who were not paid. Superannuation was not paid, the responsibility of our tax department, and a huge amount was owed in unpaid taxes. There was sexual harassment of staff and eyes turned blind by the companies that used the security company. 

"Has collapsed owing tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands/millions in tax payments to the government", is a phrase we almost hear daily, well maybe weekly. This is an absolute disgrace. It is money lost that will have to made up by all taxpayers. There is really something seriously wrong in our tax department when it lets go unpaid tax and unpaid workers' superannuation for long periods. Never mind that the owner of the company should have had his passport blocked. He won't return to face the music.

I will shop on Thursday before a dental appointment in the afternoon. Otherwise, nothing more this week until Sunday when it will be a great niece's 12th birthday celebration. Ray's and Mother's used to be celebrated at the same time. 

A friend is just about to clear from a Covid infection. It is ages since I've heard of anyone having Covid, but the beast is still with us. She was well vaccinated and so her symptoms were mild.

Why does one Yarra Trams tram driver ring the gong seven different times when passing by (to warn flying bats I guess) and the next driver does not ring the gong at all? Yarra Trams provided an excellent service for attendees at the Grand Prix, but bugger the locals. It was awful to try to get anywhere by tram. Thank goodness for the new Metro tunnel train. 

The Chinese cult 'religion' Falun Gong has a performance called Shen Yun happening around Australia, in Melbourne at a place I didn't know, but what we call Jeff's Shed. I am bombarded by advertising for the show on YouTube. But let me tell you the organisers, if you want to advertise in Australia, at the very least use Australian voices to promote the show, and not American. I can wear American car advertisements with the steering wheel on the wrong side as the cars travel along beautiful coastal roads, because there is an Australian voice over, and I know the the ads cost a lot to make.  It may be an urban myth, but I remember a remark from Germany. 'If you want to buy something from us, we speak perfect English. If you want to sell us something, sorry, we don't understand English'. Not using an Australian voice over for Shen Yun really pisses me off.                                                                               

Hopefully something less whiny tomorrow.

Sunday Extra

It pleased me to see today that Jacinta Allan, the Premier of the State of Victoria, today participated, along with a couple of her ministers, in the gay Pride March. There is what appears genuine joie de vivre in the photo and I'm reminded of wonderful photos of former Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau marching in a gay pride march. Premier Allan is in pink. The words weren't spoken but uploaded to her socials. Photo from Star Observer.

Pride is about being able to live your life openly. Loving who you love. Being who you are - without fear or apology. It began because too many Victorians were denied that freedom. Because dignity had to be fought for. Today, we march with pride - and with purpose. And if hatred is finding a new voice elsewhere, it will never find a home here.  

To anyone who has been made to feel different just because of who you are: you will always belong in our Victoria. 

Ain't nothing like a dame

Sir and dame titles were removed from our honours in 1986, however they were briefly restored in 2014. 

Superior titled people is an anathema to most Australians. Nevertheless from my unextensive research, we still have 25 sirs in Australia, and 7 dames.

Dame Marie Bashir, once a Governor of the State of New South Wales and Dame Quentin Bryce, once Governor General of Australia, were given their honours in 2014.  

But just because Australia no longer has the processes of making sirs and dames, that does not mean we don't still award them, and do so at the request of what I assume are limited to Commonwealth countries. Of the remaining women for example, three were on the recommendation of the UK government, one on the recommendation of the Papua New Guinea and one on the recommendation of New Zealand.

It is similar for males, a couple in the 2014 period by Australia, but mostly requests by the UK government, one by the Queen (Sir William Hesseltine, for my UK readers), a couple by Papua New Guinea and a couple by Solomon Islands. 

Perhaps this is not of great interest to many of you, and it has shattered my hopes of outliving all sirs and dames in Australia. The last was appointed in 2022, and the youngest born is 65.

Dame Quentin Bryce being invested in 2014, after her term as Governor General 2008 - 2014.

 Me? I don't bend me knee to no one, comrade.