Independent Australia

As a follow up, this is also interesting: http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-medi…

People reading this may not realize how pervasive gambling is in Australia thanks to poker machines ("pokies"). These are slot machines, basically. And they're everywhere with one exception: they're illegal outside of casinos in Western Australia. In every other state, you can walk into many pubs and RSLs ("Retired Servicemen's Leagues", veteran's clubs, basically) and sit there and lose your house. Pokies can be the only thing keeping many businesses in business. They licenses are so valuable that some businesses are bought simply so the licenses can be transferred. Some state governments realize this so reduce the number of licenses on transfer (eg you buy a business wih 20 pokies and you get to transfer 16 and lose 4). This had the predictable outcome of having pokie licenses skyrocket in value. AFAIK sportsbetting (eg DraftKings) is illegal in Australia because the government has realized how damaging it is yet pokies remain legal. Oh it's worth adding that Stake, which is headquartered in a shack in Curacao for legal reasons, was started and run by Australians who have absolutely raked in the cash to the point of now being billionaires. Another problematic part of all this is how gambling has been effectively used for money laundering. The casinos already got hit for allowing this to happen. Pokiies and smaller establishments remain a loophole. Consider the case of Troy Stolz [1], who leaked documents about ClubsNSW not complying with anti-money laundering and…

> I am sure it’s also super popular in rural Australia. It is indeed. https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/nbn-and-tel… It is also popular in urban areas. Starlink's availability map shows "sold out" in Brisbane (population 2.5 million) and Perth (2.1 million) because it's much faster than the mediocre VDSL2 services otherwise on offer to most of the population in those cities.

What you're talking about is a smear campaign from ABC: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/a-monumenta…

Homicide rate is 10x the rate of EU and over 30x the rate of Japan: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/a-decade-of… Rape rate is about 3x the rate of EU: https://www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/crime_stats_oecdjan2012.pdf People killed by police (population adjusted) is about 30x the rate of Germany: https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-… https://polizeischuesse.cilip.de/?p=1&year=2023

Why is it unthinkable? There are lots of examples of governments using false flag operations to begin wars. https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/america-the-false-f…

For details of widespread defects. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/14/more-than-a-qua… For specific instances of corruption relating to construction, this is detailed across a few FriendlyJordies videos but I'm strung for a link right now. Will comment if I find it later. Edit: there's also this https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/nsw-corrupt…

I recall that they announced this change. I think they had been getting too much flak for providing screen time and publicity for the loonier sides. Sucks if they have traded one journalistic failure for another. I can't find the announcement, but https://about.abc.net.au/2017/11/whats-wrong-with-being-fair-balanced/ is the ABCs take from 2017, and https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/lies-from-b… an example of criticism from 2019 that the ABC was still "both-siding".

I'd be cautious about taking Shellenberger's conclusions as fact. He's not a climate scientist. His writings will basically lead to denialism rather than action and moderation [0] For example he says to save the environment we should be producing more meat - this is in complete contrast to this 5 year Oxford University study [1]. This is a good summary (by a climate scientist) arguing against Shellenberger's claims. http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2020/07/shellenbergers-o… -- [0] https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/murdoch-pre… [1] https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-06-01-new-estimates-environmental-cost-…

"Evan Whitton wrote that Australia and other British colonies (India, Canada, NZ, US) inherited a legal system, not a justice system. It is an adversarial system constructed by casuist lawyers. Europe (and Japan) has an inquisitorial system which seeks the truth first." https://twitter.com/QuentinDempster/status/1247662251210760193 https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/americas-eng… https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/our-corrupt-legal-s…

"Here in Australia Labor’s plan was for a nationwide network with 93 per cent FTTP coverage. Under the Coalition’s model, only around 20 per cent of NBN Co customers will enjoy FTTP. Around a third of fixed-line premises will be lumbered with FTTN." https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/nbn-offerin…

31 May (2019) Much more recent would be: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/council-of-… and https://www.dw.com/en/un-rapporteur-on-torture-warns-of-manipulation-i…

The media blackout on Julian Assange's imprisonment https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/the-media-b…

See also https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/queensland-polices-… https://mobile.twitter.com/1EarthMedia/status/963656364387168263

This source [1] is not tabloid and has conducted thorough investigations of other stories [2][3] that MSM ignores. [1] https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/queensland-polices-… [2] https://independentaustralia.net/jacksonville [3] https://independentaustralia.net/ashbygate

Wow that's a scary argument from authority, but you are right, only dubious blogs currently write about it. The mainstream media are highly aware of the case, they are all legally blocked from mentioning it until the trial is finished. A good article on the fixated persons unit by a QLD lawyer: https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/queensland-polices-…

You can get started here: https://independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/australia…

> https://www.techdirt.com/2013/07/31/us-military-admits-no-on... No deaths were proven, that does not mean nothing sensitive or harmful was in the data. The argument failed in the sense that the court found that the leaked info was sensitive and harmful at the time of release: https://archive.org/details/usa-v-manning-third-party-transcripts/Mann… page 7 > You dont remotely appear to be familiar with the facts OR are intentionally ignoring recent history. > https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cia-discussed-kidnapping-... > https://news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-london... > https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/t... > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunstler_v._Central_Intelligen... The US has plans to nuke Russia and China too, doesn't mean they are going to follow through on them. Even in the absolutely unhinged Trump administration, there were enough checks to stop the wilder plans from getting anywhere close to happening, and now the most objectionable thing the CIA ended up doing was getting the contents of some phones from UC Global, for which they are being sued.

The UK normally has one, maybe two gambling machines stuck in a corner of a pub. Australian pubs, restaurants, hotels have “vip” rooms. Rooms filled with gambling machines. They can’t advertise “pokie machines”, the Australian term for gambling machines so instead they renamed them to “vip rooms”, advertising under another name instead. Walking down a street you see pubs with separate entrances with big bold signs “vip room”. I’d guess “vip” rooms are the main income for Australian pubs as they’re such a prominent feature. Gambling is a massive industry in Australia. Australia gambles more than anywhere else. With so much money involved it seems it’s bit of a dark murky industry. A YouTuber journalist/comedian got firebombed just the other week after a series of investigative videos on New South Wales gambling corruption https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/friendlyjordies-dan… The same journalist has had his house raided by terrorist police on direct command from politicians for getting on the wrong side of them with corruption videos.

Channel 7 regularly act as the platform for Pauline Hanson to spit her dross. That ain't left leaning by a long shot. Also, despite your perception, the ABC have to undertake annual audits for political bias. This is part of being a state funded broadcaster. I suggest that you read those reports. EDIT: Channel 9 is chaired by Peter Costello. Channel 7 is chaired by Kerry Stokes. The ABC is chaired by Ita Buttrose. All three of these people have much closer ties to the political right than the political left. A pretty good summary of the current state of affairs can be seen at https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/the-effect-… EDIT 2: More links: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parl… https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/abc-news-australia/

Except that Taiwan's ADIZ is not its sovereign airspace, but a unilaterally decided zone that covers large parts of mainland China. https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/lack-of-per… Except that the border dispute with India was caused by the British, who randomly drew some borders somewhere that parties then later disagree with. India also has border disputes with non-China neighbors. China already tried to solve this diplomatically, for example by trading areas that India claims but are defacto China-controlled and vice versa, but India refused all deals so far because they want to claim in all. Do note that China (PRC) has already given up land in the past as part of diplomatic deals. Check Vladivostok. Check the whole of Mongolia. Western coverage of China’s border conflicts are extremely distorted. In the ASEAN summit, southeast asian nations are upgrading strategic ties with China. https://www.france24.com/en/video/20211028-asean-summit-southeast-asia… Many countries are worried about AUKUS. Malaysia planed China consultations as anxiety simmers over defence pact. https://amp.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3149713/malaysia-plan…

Fairfax is definitely not left leaning anymore, they're owned by Nine Entertainment which was strong ties to the Liberal government. "AUSTRALIA’S MEDIA is more concentrated than in some countries that are under dictatorships, such as Turkey and Russia. The ownership and management of practically all of Australia’s print and television media, with exception to Network 10, have links to the Liberal Party. News Corp, chaired by Rupert Murdoch and majority-owned by the Murdoch family, owns around two-thirds of the print media and is a majority stakeholder in Foxtel and Sky News. Nine Entertainment, which was established by the Liberal-linked Packer family and is chaired by former Liberal member Peter Costello, owns the Nine Network, about a third of Australia’s newspaper publications and subscription television service Stan. Seven West Media, which is majority-owned and chaired by Kerry Stokes, another Liberal supporter, owns Channel 7 and any major newspaper publications that are not owned by News Corp or the Nine Entertainment. Ita Buttrose, another person with links to the Liberal Party, is chairperson of the ABC. Although most of Australia’s media is owned and run by Liberal supporters, there have been times when Australia’s media wasn't biased." https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/the-effect-…

The worst thing about this is the timing. There is a political storm in Australia over what is being seen to be done to save the reef. In a nutshell the Prime Minister just gave away 444 million dollars of taxpayer money to an organisation of 6 people without any due diligence. Turns out they are all ex bankers and oil company people. The organisation didn’t even apply for the grant. Sadly this has become a highly political thing and because of the current state of politics in Australia where your team must do the opposite of the other team (little bipartisan action in the last 10 years with fallout being carbon taxes, welfare, NBN) nothing is likely to be done until the current government is voted out. Even then with another change its likely to start all over again. It’s a horrible state of affairs and sadly while a lot of Australian’s are outraged our politicians are beholden to other interests so nothing will be done. If you want more background reading I’d suggest a quick look through the Australia subreddit, keeping in mind that the majority on there are very left leaning. Some links of interest http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-09/barrier-reef-foundation-grant-sh… https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/turnbull-re… https://www.2gb.com/ben-fordham-takes-environment-minister-to-task-ove…

That ~30% of GDP number is government debt. I am not talking about government debt. I am talking about private debt. Australia has a much much worse private debt problem than a government debt problem: total private debt ~150% GDP; mortgage debt ~80% GDP; gross foreign private debt ~85% GDP; gross federal public debt ~20% GDP [1]. The reason you take on debt matters. Almost all of that debt went towards unproductive bidding up of real estate. Much of the "growth" experienced in the last 20 years was just making the economy larger by importing more money via debt from overseas. I challenge anyone to argue that was a prudent course of action, unless you were a political party that wanted to get re-elected by making people feel richer. Why intrinsic advantage? Australian wages/salaries are high, in part, because the average Australian has to pay so much to service their mortgage debt. Because service economies are human resourced, any where with humans can do those jobs. If Australia is inherently more expensive due to the overhead of high house prices, what services can we offer for which others are willing to pay a premium? Also, we must have a service economy bringing money in from overseas, rather than just supplying services internally, because we still have all that interest to pay on our debt. The future for Australia might be bright in as much as it is slightly less dark than some other countries. [1]…

Maybe one day you will see the bigger picture. >> Manning’s lawyer even argued that the leaked info didn’t contain anything that was still sensitive or would harm ongoing missions. >And that argument failed. https://www.techdirt.com/2013/07/31/us-military-admits-no-one-died-bec… > The idea that Assange is going to be extrajudicially murdered as soon as he steps foot in the US is projection Projection of what exactly? That doesnt even make sense. You dont remotely appear to be familiar with the facts OR are intentionally ignoring recent history. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cia-discussed-kidnapping-or-assassi… https://news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-london-shoot-out… https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-murdero… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunstler_v._Central_Intelligence_Agency