Hmm...
"It has been dubbed Scott Morrison's secret $500,000 fundraising coup - and it happened at billionaire Anthony Pratt's mansion [Raheen in March]... Here's what we missed. [Liberal federal president Nick Greiner made sure to invite Charles Goode, he of the impressive Melbourne Rolodex and also the chair of the Cormack Foundation, the much debated $75 million Liberal-aligned donor. And Greiner - the clever man - made sure Goode was seated next to the Prime Minister. Scomo sure didn't waste the opportunity. We are informed by senior Liberal sources that before the Raheen dinner, the Cormack Foundation - whose board also includes former PM John Howard and fellow grandee Richard Alston - had agreed to donate $3m to the federal party's campaign fund. After Morrison's dinner chat with Goode that amount was increased by $500,000 to a record $3.5m..." (ScoMo's $500,000 booster, Margin Call, Will Glasgow & Christine Lacy, The Australian, 9/5/19)
Remember how, despite former PM Malcolm Turnbull's extensive services to Netanyahu, he had to pay $1.75m of his own money to pay for his 2016 election campaign? (If not, see my 6/3/18 post Poor Old Malcolm.)
Well, what to make of the above? Seems like Anthony Pratt's Raheen was no more than a venue for this fundraiser, and Howard and Alston, like Turnbull before them, are having to dip into their own pockets to fund Morrison's election campaign.
Which has me puzzled: if the Zionist money of yore is no longer forthcoming, then why are these Liberal Party clowns still bending over backwards, foreign policy-wise, for Israel?
Showing posts with label Dick Pratt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dick Pratt. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
What's Bill Doing?
Ah yes, Bill Shorten and the Pratts:
"Bill Shorten rebuffed an invitation to catch up with Rupert Murdoch in January and also passed on the opportunity to meet him this month after the media mogul flew into Sydney with son Lachlan. But the Opposition Leader has no such qualms about breaking bread with Anthony Pratt, Australia's richest man and generous political benefactor. On the second day of the federal election campaign... Shorten made a detour to Pratt's Sydney luxury apartment overlooking Circular Quay and Sydney Harbour. He was there for lunch with the cardboard box king who... has a net worth of $12.9 billion..." (No time for Murdochs as Shorten meets Pratt, Kylar Loussikian, Sydney Morning Herald, 13/4/19)
Loussikian goes on to review Shorten's relationship with the Pratt family, including the recent fundraiser at the Pratt mansion in Melbourne's Kew, on which I posted earlier this month.
However, the only clue we get to what this all means is the following: "And as one Labor staffer put it: 'Someone's got to pay for the fliers'."
Typical of the blinkered mainstream press, however, the question of what's in it for Pratt is never asked. How telling is that?
"Bill Shorten rebuffed an invitation to catch up with Rupert Murdoch in January and also passed on the opportunity to meet him this month after the media mogul flew into Sydney with son Lachlan. But the Opposition Leader has no such qualms about breaking bread with Anthony Pratt, Australia's richest man and generous political benefactor. On the second day of the federal election campaign... Shorten made a detour to Pratt's Sydney luxury apartment overlooking Circular Quay and Sydney Harbour. He was there for lunch with the cardboard box king who... has a net worth of $12.9 billion..." (No time for Murdochs as Shorten meets Pratt, Kylar Loussikian, Sydney Morning Herald, 13/4/19)
Loussikian goes on to review Shorten's relationship with the Pratt family, including the recent fundraiser at the Pratt mansion in Melbourne's Kew, on which I posted earlier this month.
However, the only clue we get to what this all means is the following: "And as one Labor staffer put it: 'Someone's got to pay for the fliers'."
Typical of the blinkered mainstream press, however, the question of what's in it for Pratt is never asked. How telling is that?
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Pre-Election Fundraising at the Pratt's 4
"The news [that Anthony Pratt is the richest man in the country] comes after a big week for the Visy executive chairman and Pratt Industries owner who, though he is a supporter of US President Donald Trump, hosted a $5,000-a-head fundraising function for Bill Shorten at his Raheen mansion in Melbourne mid-week. A Liberal Party fundraiser was held two weeks earlier at Raheen." (Pratt sails to top - and happiness, John Stensholt, The Australian, 30/3/19)
So Anthony Pratt supports Trump, Shorten and Morrison.
Dumb question: What could these three possibly have in common?
And far from Palestine:
"The pair [Pratt and Gina Rinehart, the second richest person in the country] reveal that Mr Pratt likes to sing the Beatles song Oh! Darling from the seminal Abbey Road album to Mrs Rinehart and flew to Cambodia to support her Cambodian Children's Fund earlier this year." (ibid)
Meanwhile, in Palestine:
"Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians, including two teenagers, and shot 46 others at gatherings on the Gaza frontier marking the anniversary of the demonstration movement, the territory's ministry of health said." (Israeli fire kills four Palestinians says Gaza health ministry, Oliver Holmes and Hazem Balousha, theguardian.com, 31/3/19)
So Anthony Pratt supports Trump, Shorten and Morrison.
Dumb question: What could these three possibly have in common?
And far from Palestine:
"The pair [Pratt and Gina Rinehart, the second richest person in the country] reveal that Mr Pratt likes to sing the Beatles song Oh! Darling from the seminal Abbey Road album to Mrs Rinehart and flew to Cambodia to support her Cambodian Children's Fund earlier this year." (ibid)
Meanwhile, in Palestine:
"Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians, including two teenagers, and shot 46 others at gatherings on the Gaza frontier marking the anniversary of the demonstration movement, the territory's ministry of health said." (Israeli fire kills four Palestinians says Gaza health ministry, Oliver Holmes and Hazem Balousha, theguardian.com, 31/3/19)
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Pre-Election Fundraising at the Pratt's 3
Sadly, some of us just don't get it:
"Bill Shorten and his colleagues constantly rail against 'the big end of town'. The billionaire, Anthony Pratt, was kind enough to throw a fundraiser for Labor. Probably the only thing that Malcolm Turnbull got right was Shorten's propensity for getting his knees under the dining tables at the top end of town." Letter of Annette James, Beauty Point, Tas, The Australian, 29/3/19)
Do you think, perhaps, our correspondent would get it if she read the following?
"In front of six billionaires and 450 of Australia's business and political elite, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday heralded a new era of closeness between Israel and Australia... Six billionaires - Gina Rinehart, Harry Triguboff, Solomon Lew, John Gandel, Jeanne Pratt and her daughter Fiona Geminder watched the leaders commit to closer relations between the two countries." (Colour me Aussie, leader tells the faithful, John Lyons, The Australian, 23/2/17) (See my 26/2/17 post 'A Sea of Billionaires & Millionaires'.)
Not, of course, that Murdoch's Australian has any interest in people 'getting it' - just the opposite - but is 'getting it' really that hard?
"Bill Shorten and his colleagues constantly rail against 'the big end of town'. The billionaire, Anthony Pratt, was kind enough to throw a fundraiser for Labor. Probably the only thing that Malcolm Turnbull got right was Shorten's propensity for getting his knees under the dining tables at the top end of town." Letter of Annette James, Beauty Point, Tas, The Australian, 29/3/19)
Do you think, perhaps, our correspondent would get it if she read the following?
"In front of six billionaires and 450 of Australia's business and political elite, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday heralded a new era of closeness between Israel and Australia... Six billionaires - Gina Rinehart, Harry Triguboff, Solomon Lew, John Gandel, Jeanne Pratt and her daughter Fiona Geminder watched the leaders commit to closer relations between the two countries." (Colour me Aussie, leader tells the faithful, John Lyons, The Australian, 23/2/17) (See my 26/2/17 post 'A Sea of Billionaires & Millionaires'.)
Not, of course, that Murdoch's Australian has any interest in people 'getting it' - just the opposite - but is 'getting it' really that hard?
Friday, March 29, 2019
Pre-Election Fundraising at the Pratt's 2
Sarah Ferguson: They're [the Israel lobby] still a very small group of people. How do you account for them wielding so much power?
Bob Carr: I think party donations and a program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel.
***
We covered Morrison's fundraiser at the Pratt's in my 15/3/19 post Pre-Election Fundraising at the Pratt's. The Australian's Business Review, you'll recall, concluded it's Margin Call entry on the subject thus: "Bet you the Visy billionaire [Anthony Pratt] is back in the manor when ascendant Labor leader Bill Shorten and his troops arrive for a reciprocal fundraising event in a couple of weeks."
As predicted, he was! Now here's Margin Call's account of Shorten and troops, cap-in-hand:
"He's on track to be our next prime minister, but Labor leader Bill Shorten is still shy about tucking his knees under the table of Australia's richest family. Just over six weeks from the federal election, Shorten last night entered the billionaire Pratt family's historic mansion Raheen via the secret stable doors, a laneway entrance normally reserved for deliveries. Maybe the leader of the worker's party thought it was the tradesman's entrance?
"For Shorten, it was a return to the Melbourne home of the billionaire family's matriarch Jeanne Pratt, her son Anthony Pratt and his wife Claudine, after a long absence. The politician was previously a frequent guest via his first marriage to Debbie Beale, a god-daughter to Jeanne and her late husband Richard Pratt. But last night Shorten was back in the Pratt fold, with the doors of their Kew home Raheen thrown open for a left-of-centre political fundraiser featuring a powerful clutch of Melbourne business types. Amazing how the sniff of victory can pull a crowd, even at $5000 a head.
"While their leader didn't want to be photographed, his deputy Tanya Plibersek arrived through Raheen's imposing main gates to be greeted by her packaging hosts at the arched front door. Very civilised. Almost Treasurer Chris Bowen, who has become quite chummy with Anthony Pratt of late, had slipped inside much earlier. Their Labor colleague Clare O'Neill had a bumpier entree. The shadow minister for financial services... and her VW family wagon were turned back at the Pratt's threshold and directed to a car park on the street. Retiring Member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby also drove himself in his Ford Territory.
"Rich-lister businessman Peter Scanlon was in for the night, as was former Tennis Australia chair Harold Mitchell and one-time Packer lieutenant and now Ellerston Capital chief Ashok Jacob. Former Telstra chair Bob Mansfield and leading Melbourne lawyer Mark Leibler, both at Prime Minister Scott Morrison's fundraiser at Raheen a fortnight ago, were back to play the other side, as was rich-lister and Jeanne's son-in-law Raphael Geminder. Former Victorian premier and industry super fund CBUS chair Steve Bracks came in a heavily tinted car with driver. Will Shorten soon make his New York dreams come true?
"Outgoing member for Lilley and Labor national president Wayne Swan, looking tanned and relaxed, was in bright and early, as was Member for Isaac Mark Dreyfus and Shorten's good friend and now senator for Victoria Kimberley Kitching, who Margin Call awarded best dressed on the night in a classic navy wrap dress." (Upmarket welcome for the workers' warriors, Will Glasgow & Christine Lacy, 28/3/19)
Bob Carr: I think party donations and a program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel.
***
We covered Morrison's fundraiser at the Pratt's in my 15/3/19 post Pre-Election Fundraising at the Pratt's. The Australian's Business Review, you'll recall, concluded it's Margin Call entry on the subject thus: "Bet you the Visy billionaire [Anthony Pratt] is back in the manor when ascendant Labor leader Bill Shorten and his troops arrive for a reciprocal fundraising event in a couple of weeks."
As predicted, he was! Now here's Margin Call's account of Shorten and troops, cap-in-hand:
"He's on track to be our next prime minister, but Labor leader Bill Shorten is still shy about tucking his knees under the table of Australia's richest family. Just over six weeks from the federal election, Shorten last night entered the billionaire Pratt family's historic mansion Raheen via the secret stable doors, a laneway entrance normally reserved for deliveries. Maybe the leader of the worker's party thought it was the tradesman's entrance?
"For Shorten, it was a return to the Melbourne home of the billionaire family's matriarch Jeanne Pratt, her son Anthony Pratt and his wife Claudine, after a long absence. The politician was previously a frequent guest via his first marriage to Debbie Beale, a god-daughter to Jeanne and her late husband Richard Pratt. But last night Shorten was back in the Pratt fold, with the doors of their Kew home Raheen thrown open for a left-of-centre political fundraiser featuring a powerful clutch of Melbourne business types. Amazing how the sniff of victory can pull a crowd, even at $5000 a head.
"While their leader didn't want to be photographed, his deputy Tanya Plibersek arrived through Raheen's imposing main gates to be greeted by her packaging hosts at the arched front door. Very civilised. Almost Treasurer Chris Bowen, who has become quite chummy with Anthony Pratt of late, had slipped inside much earlier. Their Labor colleague Clare O'Neill had a bumpier entree. The shadow minister for financial services... and her VW family wagon were turned back at the Pratt's threshold and directed to a car park on the street. Retiring Member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby also drove himself in his Ford Territory.
"Rich-lister businessman Peter Scanlon was in for the night, as was former Tennis Australia chair Harold Mitchell and one-time Packer lieutenant and now Ellerston Capital chief Ashok Jacob. Former Telstra chair Bob Mansfield and leading Melbourne lawyer Mark Leibler, both at Prime Minister Scott Morrison's fundraiser at Raheen a fortnight ago, were back to play the other side, as was rich-lister and Jeanne's son-in-law Raphael Geminder. Former Victorian premier and industry super fund CBUS chair Steve Bracks came in a heavily tinted car with driver. Will Shorten soon make his New York dreams come true?
"Outgoing member for Lilley and Labor national president Wayne Swan, looking tanned and relaxed, was in bright and early, as was Member for Isaac Mark Dreyfus and Shorten's good friend and now senator for Victoria Kimberley Kitching, who Margin Call awarded best dressed on the night in a classic navy wrap dress." (Upmarket welcome for the workers' warriors, Will Glasgow & Christine Lacy, 28/3/19)
Thursday, March 21, 2019
It's the Donations, Stupid
"Donations are a bigger influence on Australian politics than polls and the major parties have a history of ignoring mainstream voter opinion, social researcher Rebecca Huntley says. Australia Fair, Dr Huntley's forthcoming piece in Quarterly Essay, argues that polls are often used as a short-term weapon by political rivals but do not truly influence policy and politics. 'If only research was as influential as donations,' she told The Sun-Herald... 'The biggest change we need to crack in Australia is donation reform; we have to change the money that's involved in politics," she said. 'When you change the money, you change who the politicians listen to. Even though it seems like not as pressing an issue as as health or jobs, it's fundamental'." (Donations 'more influential' than polls, Caitlin Fitzsimmons, 17/3/19)
Huntley's research merely confirms what we already know, namely that Australia's bipartisan support for Israel is the result of significant Zionist money. To cite but one example: "No domestic house in Melbourne has had more influence on public... life than Raheen, the 1870s Italianate mansion owned for more than 35 years by the family of billionaire packaging king Richard Pratt... Raheen is used by the Pratts to court and entertain both sides of politics, to conduct fundraisers and to highlight the cause of Israel, into which the Pratt Foundation pours millions of dollars... " (More than just a home, Pratt mansion welcomes all parties, John Ferguson/Rebecca Urban, The Australian, 11/2/17)
But will this particular aspect of Australia's foreign policy find its way into Huntley's essay? After all, the Quarterly Essay, like The Saturday Paper, is owned by Zionist publisher Morrie Schwartz. Only one way to find out...
PS: I've just read Huntley's essay. Most interesting on the subject of Australian society and what the citizenry think about various domestic issues - Australian democracy, the environment, climate change, asylum seekers etc, but nothing on foreign policy issues as such.
Huntley's research merely confirms what we already know, namely that Australia's bipartisan support for Israel is the result of significant Zionist money. To cite but one example: "No domestic house in Melbourne has had more influence on public... life than Raheen, the 1870s Italianate mansion owned for more than 35 years by the family of billionaire packaging king Richard Pratt... Raheen is used by the Pratts to court and entertain both sides of politics, to conduct fundraisers and to highlight the cause of Israel, into which the Pratt Foundation pours millions of dollars... " (More than just a home, Pratt mansion welcomes all parties, John Ferguson/Rebecca Urban, The Australian, 11/2/17)
But will this particular aspect of Australia's foreign policy find its way into Huntley's essay? After all, the Quarterly Essay, like The Saturday Paper, is owned by Zionist publisher Morrie Schwartz. Only one way to find out...
PS: I've just read Huntley's essay. Most interesting on the subject of Australian society and what the citizenry think about various domestic issues - Australian democracy, the environment, climate change, asylum seekers etc, but nothing on foreign policy issues as such.
Friday, March 15, 2019
Pre-Election Fundraising at the Pratt's
Sarah Ferguson: They're [the Israel lobby] still a very small group of people. How do you account for them wielding so much power?
Bob Carr: I think party donations and a program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel. (7.30 Report, 9/4/14)
***
And the latest news on the political donations front is as follows:
"Treasurer Josh Frydenberg struggled to get past security when he drove himself to the billionaire Pratt family mansion Raheen for a fundraiser last night. Life's a bit like that for the Liberals right now... Last night's event was a Liberal Party pre-election fundraiser with Melbourne's money: a $12,000-a-head dinner hosted by the billionaire family matriarch Jeanne Pratt.
"Despite the salubrious setting, selling selling tickets wasn't as easy as for events at previous elections.* All up, we're told there were fewer than 100 people at the Kew mansion. That's including the Morrison ministry. 'The Libs aren't going to bloody win, are they?' one well-connected Melbourne businessperson told us, explaining the lack of paying guests.
"Not everyone kept away from an autumnal event that, some might observe, skewed towards the pale, male and stale. Those along were each gifted two federal ministers per table... In trundled the determinedly optimistic Foreign Minister Marise Payne, the endangered Attorney-General Christian Porter, the Xavier College-alumni turned Catholic-loving Education Minister Dan Tehan... and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and his fellow Turnbull-slayer Mitch Fifield...
"Presumably paying guests spotted by Margin Call included Myer boss Garry Hounsell... Vocus Bob Mansfield (Telstra's chair back in the Howard era), Arnold, Bloch Leibler senior partner Mark Leibler and Pratt family member Raphael 'Raffy' Geminder, the billionaire chair of packaging outfit Pact.
"While Jeanne was on hosting duties, we gather that her son and Raheen housemate Anthony Pratt (Australia's richest person) was last night away on business.
"Bet you the Visy billionaire is back in the manor when ascendant Labor leader Bill Shorten and his troops arrive for a reciprocal fundraising event in a couple of weeks. Some fundraising dinners are better than others - even when they're held at your place." (More ghosts than guests at Lib fundraiser, Margin Call, Will Glasgow & Christine Lacy, The Australian Business Review, 13/3/19)
Bob Carr: I think party donations and a program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel. (7.30 Report, 9/4/14)
***
And the latest news on the political donations front is as follows:
"Treasurer Josh Frydenberg struggled to get past security when he drove himself to the billionaire Pratt family mansion Raheen for a fundraiser last night. Life's a bit like that for the Liberals right now... Last night's event was a Liberal Party pre-election fundraiser with Melbourne's money: a $12,000-a-head dinner hosted by the billionaire family matriarch Jeanne Pratt.
"Despite the salubrious setting, selling selling tickets wasn't as easy as for events at previous elections.* All up, we're told there were fewer than 100 people at the Kew mansion. That's including the Morrison ministry. 'The Libs aren't going to bloody win, are they?' one well-connected Melbourne businessperson told us, explaining the lack of paying guests.
"Not everyone kept away from an autumnal event that, some might observe, skewed towards the pale, male and stale. Those along were each gifted two federal ministers per table... In trundled the determinedly optimistic Foreign Minister Marise Payne, the endangered Attorney-General Christian Porter, the Xavier College-alumni turned Catholic-loving Education Minister Dan Tehan... and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and his fellow Turnbull-slayer Mitch Fifield...
"Presumably paying guests spotted by Margin Call included Myer boss Garry Hounsell... Vocus Bob Mansfield (Telstra's chair back in the Howard era), Arnold, Bloch Leibler senior partner Mark Leibler and Pratt family member Raphael 'Raffy' Geminder, the billionaire chair of packaging outfit Pact.
"While Jeanne was on hosting duties, we gather that her son and Raheen housemate Anthony Pratt (Australia's richest person) was last night away on business.
"Bet you the Visy billionaire is back in the manor when ascendant Labor leader Bill Shorten and his troops arrive for a reciprocal fundraising event in a couple of weeks. Some fundraising dinners are better than others - even when they're held at your place." (More ghosts than guests at Lib fundraiser, Margin Call, Will Glasgow & Christine Lacy, The Australian Business Review, 13/3/19)
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Two (State) Cheers for the ALP
Wring what joy you will out of this resolution of the Australian Labor Party's 2018 national conference on Palestine:
1 Notes previous resolutions on Israel/Palestine carried at the 2015 ALP National Conference and the 2016 NSW Labor Annual conference,
2 Supports the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states with secure and recognised borders,
3 Calls on the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state, and
4 Expects that this issue will be an important priority for the next Labor Government.
But please remember that:
a) Israel is an apartheid state - from the River to the Sea - and, like apartheid South Africa before it, has no "right" to exist as such.
b) The two-state solution has long since passed its use-by date. (The ALP's resolution doesn't even refer to the 1967 borders.)
c) Israel is firmly in the grip of Greater Israel fanatics for whom a Palestinian state, however small and compromised, is simply anathema.
d) The recognition of even a hopelessly compromised, rump Palestine depends ultimately on Labor leader Bill Shorten, AIJAC's Rambam Fellow of 2005 and a protege of the late Zionist cardboard king, Dick Pratt (a convicted price-fixer and generous donor to LibLab and assorted Israeli 'charities'). Shorten has been aptly described by Bob Carr as "umbilically attached to the cause of Israel." I need only quote here the assessment of that other umbilically-attached-to-Israel gentleman, Greg Sheridan, writing in today's Australian: "On foreign policy, the genius of the federal ALP conference is that it has not transgressed the authority of a Shorten Labor government to function properly." (Conference sidestep leaves leaders free to govern, 20/12/18)
1 Notes previous resolutions on Israel/Palestine carried at the 2015 ALP National Conference and the 2016 NSW Labor Annual conference,
2 Supports the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states with secure and recognised borders,
3 Calls on the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state, and
4 Expects that this issue will be an important priority for the next Labor Government.
But please remember that:
a) Israel is an apartheid state - from the River to the Sea - and, like apartheid South Africa before it, has no "right" to exist as such.
b) The two-state solution has long since passed its use-by date. (The ALP's resolution doesn't even refer to the 1967 borders.)
c) Israel is firmly in the grip of Greater Israel fanatics for whom a Palestinian state, however small and compromised, is simply anathema.
d) The recognition of even a hopelessly compromised, rump Palestine depends ultimately on Labor leader Bill Shorten, AIJAC's Rambam Fellow of 2005 and a protege of the late Zionist cardboard king, Dick Pratt (a convicted price-fixer and generous donor to LibLab and assorted Israeli 'charities'). Shorten has been aptly described by Bob Carr as "umbilically attached to the cause of Israel." I need only quote here the assessment of that other umbilically-attached-to-Israel gentleman, Greg Sheridan, writing in today's Australian: "On foreign policy, the genius of the federal ALP conference is that it has not transgressed the authority of a Shorten Labor government to function properly." (Conference sidestep leaves leaders free to govern, 20/12/18)
Sunday, November 11, 2018
What My Mind Turns to on Armistice Day
In his peerless work on the perfidious Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the appalling consequences for Palestine and its people that flowed (and continue to flow) therefrom, Palestine: The Reality (1939), British historian J.M.N. Jeffries wrote these justifiably angry words:
"The underlying assumption of [a certain line of 'thought' peddled by the Anglo-Zionist establishment of 1920-23] is that the soldiers who fell in Palestine fell fighting to provide there that form of government which [wartime prime minister] Lloyd George installed. The 5th Norfolks, the 8th Hampshires bled so that the Sevres Treaty might not die: the men of the 53rd Division left six hundred casualties on the Samson Ridge so that the nine subterfuges of the Balfour Declaration might pass unchallenged: the Australian Light Horse charged crying, Advance the National Home! Was anything further from the truth? We know why our soldiers died - in loyalty to their country." (p 402)
My first inkling that this old Zionist myth, stripped of course of its British references, was being recycled here in Australia came when I read the following in 2008:
"The ties that bind Jerusalem and Canberra were further cemented with the commemoration last November of the 90th anniversary of the Charge of the Australian Light Horse brigade [31/10/07], when brave Aussie Diggers trounced the Turks at Be'er Sheva, paving the way for the capture of Jerusalem... And it is in Be'er Sheva that Richard Pratt is ploughing funds to build the Park of the Australian Soldier - a permanent memorial to those who died in battle for the Jewish state." (Editorial by Dan Goldberg, Rhapsody: Linking Culture between Israel & Australia, Jan-Mar 2008)
I had stumbled upon what might be termed a 'zombie myth' - long buried, effectively forgotten (but for Jeffries' mention), dug up decades later, dusted off, and re-purposed for another use, but retaining still the core propaganda trope of the original. After all these years, whether with or without external involvement, Pratt Foundation CEO Sam Lipski and his cardboard king (Visy Industries) boss and prominent Zionist donor to the Labor and Liberal parties, the late Dick Pratt, had come up with a neat way of "cementing" - mark that word! - alleged "binding ties" between Israel and Australia when Pratt funded the construction of the Park of the Australian Soldier in Be'er Sheva*. This has now become the point of dissemination of the zombie myth to thousands of clueless Australians, especially politicians, who flock to Be'er Sheva annually.
Never have Zionist PR merchants managed anything quite like this in any country, except perhaps in fostering the myth of 'lost Jewish tribes' in many of our South Pacific neighbours.
For my exploration of this phenomenon, just click on the AIF label below.
[*Of course 'Be'er Sheva' simply did not exist in 1917. Back then it was the Palestinian Arab town of Beersheba. Hopefully, one day, it will return to its old self.]
"The underlying assumption of [a certain line of 'thought' peddled by the Anglo-Zionist establishment of 1920-23] is that the soldiers who fell in Palestine fell fighting to provide there that form of government which [wartime prime minister] Lloyd George installed. The 5th Norfolks, the 8th Hampshires bled so that the Sevres Treaty might not die: the men of the 53rd Division left six hundred casualties on the Samson Ridge so that the nine subterfuges of the Balfour Declaration might pass unchallenged: the Australian Light Horse charged crying, Advance the National Home! Was anything further from the truth? We know why our soldiers died - in loyalty to their country." (p 402)
My first inkling that this old Zionist myth, stripped of course of its British references, was being recycled here in Australia came when I read the following in 2008:
"The ties that bind Jerusalem and Canberra were further cemented with the commemoration last November of the 90th anniversary of the Charge of the Australian Light Horse brigade [31/10/07], when brave Aussie Diggers trounced the Turks at Be'er Sheva, paving the way for the capture of Jerusalem... And it is in Be'er Sheva that Richard Pratt is ploughing funds to build the Park of the Australian Soldier - a permanent memorial to those who died in battle for the Jewish state." (Editorial by Dan Goldberg, Rhapsody: Linking Culture between Israel & Australia, Jan-Mar 2008)
I had stumbled upon what might be termed a 'zombie myth' - long buried, effectively forgotten (but for Jeffries' mention), dug up decades later, dusted off, and re-purposed for another use, but retaining still the core propaganda trope of the original. After all these years, whether with or without external involvement, Pratt Foundation CEO Sam Lipski and his cardboard king (Visy Industries) boss and prominent Zionist donor to the Labor and Liberal parties, the late Dick Pratt, had come up with a neat way of "cementing" - mark that word! - alleged "binding ties" between Israel and Australia when Pratt funded the construction of the Park of the Australian Soldier in Be'er Sheva*. This has now become the point of dissemination of the zombie myth to thousands of clueless Australians, especially politicians, who flock to Be'er Sheva annually.
Never have Zionist PR merchants managed anything quite like this in any country, except perhaps in fostering the myth of 'lost Jewish tribes' in many of our South Pacific neighbours.
For my exploration of this phenomenon, just click on the AIF label below.
[*Of course 'Be'er Sheva' simply did not exist in 1917. Back then it was the Palestinian Arab town of Beersheba. Hopefully, one day, it will return to its old self.]
Saturday, December 30, 2017
The Pratt-Trump Bromance
By the time you swear you're his,
Shivering & sighing.
And he vows his passion is,
Infinite, undying.
Lady make note of this...
One of you is lying.
(Dorothy Parker)
Anthony Pratt today:
"Australia's richest man, Pratt Industries executive chairman Anthony Pratt, is strengthening his ties with Donald Trump, with the pair enjoying an intimate meeting yesterday at at the US President's exclusive Florida club, Mar-a-Lago... After the meeting, Mr Pratt told The Australian he had praised the President for getting his tax cuts through and 'reported progress' on his promise... to invest US$2bn in the US over the next 10 years, creating more than 5000 manufacturing jobs." (Pratt gets presidential seal of approval, Glenda Korporaal, 29/12/17)
Anthony Pratt in 2013:
"Mr Pratt told [Monash University] graduates that he could see a future for manufacturing where a factory would employ only a few people. 'The factory of the future will not employ 150 people, but only 3 or 4. Furthermore, it will be completely dark, because robots don't need to see'." (US ambassador for Pratt advisory board, Damon Kitney, The Australian, 11/10/13) (See my 14/10/13 post Showbag Bill & Pratt the Younger.)
Shivering & sighing.
And he vows his passion is,
Infinite, undying.
Lady make note of this...
One of you is lying.
(Dorothy Parker)
Anthony Pratt today:
"Australia's richest man, Pratt Industries executive chairman Anthony Pratt, is strengthening his ties with Donald Trump, with the pair enjoying an intimate meeting yesterday at at the US President's exclusive Florida club, Mar-a-Lago... After the meeting, Mr Pratt told The Australian he had praised the President for getting his tax cuts through and 'reported progress' on his promise... to invest US$2bn in the US over the next 10 years, creating more than 5000 manufacturing jobs." (Pratt gets presidential seal of approval, Glenda Korporaal, 29/12/17)
Anthony Pratt in 2013:
"Mr Pratt told [Monash University] graduates that he could see a future for manufacturing where a factory would employ only a few people. 'The factory of the future will not employ 150 people, but only 3 or 4. Furthermore, it will be completely dark, because robots don't need to see'." (US ambassador for Pratt advisory board, Damon Kitney, The Australian, 11/10/13) (See my 14/10/13 post Showbag Bill & Pratt the Younger.)
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Turnbull & Pratt's Beersheba Duet
The Pratt Foundation-funded magazine, Beersheba: Legend of the Light Horse, that came with last Saturday's Weekend Australian, begins with two editorials, on facing pages, the first by PM Turnbull, the second by the Foundation's Anthony Pratt (son of the late Dick Pratt).
Predictably, Turnbull's is a transparently Zionist propaganda brew, which conflates, in complete defiance of the historical record, the charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba (31/10/17), the Balfour Declaration (2/11/17) and the creation of the state of Israel (14/5/48):
"The charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba has inspired Australians for generations The veterans of the charge re-enacted it in Charles Chauvel's 1940 movie Forty Thousand Horsemen - a confidence booster for a beleaguered nation at war. As a young boy at boarding school in the early '60s I watched it again and again - we all imagined ourselves spurring our horses through the Ottoman fire, leaping across the trenches and onward to victory... Just weeks later, the Australians marched with General Allenby into Jerusalem, while in London the Balfour Declaration was signed, paving the way for the creation of the modern state of Israel. A century on, the city of Be'er Sheva is an oasis of technology and great practical ideas - a shining example of the best attributes of Israel and the Israeli people - ingenuity, resilience, and hard work. Today, Australia and Israel share these values. We have an unbreakable bond that is only getting stronger. As we honour the memory and sacrifice of the Anzacs of 1917, and in the years to come. Lest we forget." (Our unbreakable bond)
Apart from Turnbull's chronological confusion (the BD came before the takeover of Jerusalem), what is significant here is that in addition to his blatant fabrication of Australian and Palestinian history, he also appears to be embroidering on his own, personal history:
As Paddy Manning's biography of Turnbull, Born to Rule (2015), reveals, young Malcolm was packed off to a boarding school in 1963 at the age of 8. Curiously, in his editorial, Turnbull recounts watching Chauvel's Forty Thousand Horsemen "at boarding school in the early '60s...again and again." Now I can understand one of his teachers screening the film once, but "again and again"? WTF is going on here?
Quite apart from what repeated showings might imply about the teacher in question (some kind of obsessive military fanatic?), surely the inevitable chorus of 'Aw, sir, not again!' would deter any but the most foolhardy teacher from this practice. And as for Malcolm and his classmates imagining themselves "spurring our horses through the Ottoman fire, leaping across the trenches and onward to victory," Turnbull once disclosed that "I would struggle to find one positive memory of my time at boarding school... really it was a bleak, bleak period for me." (Manning, p 21)
As for Pratt's contribution, it reads like an echo of Turnbull's. (Or should that be the other way around?):
"Next Tuesday, October 31, 2017, Australia will mark the 100th anniversary of the victorious charge by 800 Lighthorsemen against the Turkish defences at Beersheba. The 'shock and awe' victory changed the course of Middle East history, and paved the way for Israel's establishment some three decades later. It's entirely fitting, therefore, that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will lead the Australian delegation at the Centenary commemoration services in Be'er Sheva, the modern Israeli city that has arisen around the former battleground, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin will represent Israel. In honouring the historic moment for both nations, I'd like to note that the Light Horse Centenary also has a personal significance for the Pratt family. While the Centenary's opening ceremony... is to be in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Beersheva, the concluding ceremony will happen at the Park of the Australian Soldier, just a few kilometres away in the same city. The Park, a Pratt Foundation initiative to honour Australia's military involvement in the Middle East at critical times in Israel's history,* was opened in 2008... " (A proud legacy)
The fact is that the Pratt Foundation's 'Park of the Australian Soldier' is really all about Israel. The Park is an integral part of a Zionist propaganda initiative, whereby a moment of Australian and Turkish military history has been appropriated and misrepresented as somehow uniquely enabling (and legitimising) the much later installation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
It should be obvious to all that the capture of Ottoman Beersheba by Australian forces in 1917 is being manipulated to fit the false Zionist historical narrative, primarily with a view to ensuring ongoing Australian diplomatic support for a pariah apartheid Israel in UN fora.
Turnbull, who hosted Netanyahu in Sydney earlier this year, could now, arguably, be described as the most Zionist of all Australian prime ministers, and a sycophant of the worst kind. And the irony is that it only seems like yesterday that he was slamming opposition leader Bill Shorten (who, like Turnbull, is currently partying in Israel) in federal parliament as "the great sycophant of billionaires," and accusing him, specifically, of "sucking up to [the late] Dick Pratt." That was back in February this year.
Predictably, Turnbull's is a transparently Zionist propaganda brew, which conflates, in complete defiance of the historical record, the charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba (31/10/17), the Balfour Declaration (2/11/17) and the creation of the state of Israel (14/5/48):
"The charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba has inspired Australians for generations The veterans of the charge re-enacted it in Charles Chauvel's 1940 movie Forty Thousand Horsemen - a confidence booster for a beleaguered nation at war. As a young boy at boarding school in the early '60s I watched it again and again - we all imagined ourselves spurring our horses through the Ottoman fire, leaping across the trenches and onward to victory... Just weeks later, the Australians marched with General Allenby into Jerusalem, while in London the Balfour Declaration was signed, paving the way for the creation of the modern state of Israel. A century on, the city of Be'er Sheva is an oasis of technology and great practical ideas - a shining example of the best attributes of Israel and the Israeli people - ingenuity, resilience, and hard work. Today, Australia and Israel share these values. We have an unbreakable bond that is only getting stronger. As we honour the memory and sacrifice of the Anzacs of 1917, and in the years to come. Lest we forget." (Our unbreakable bond)
Apart from Turnbull's chronological confusion (the BD came before the takeover of Jerusalem), what is significant here is that in addition to his blatant fabrication of Australian and Palestinian history, he also appears to be embroidering on his own, personal history:
As Paddy Manning's biography of Turnbull, Born to Rule (2015), reveals, young Malcolm was packed off to a boarding school in 1963 at the age of 8. Curiously, in his editorial, Turnbull recounts watching Chauvel's Forty Thousand Horsemen "at boarding school in the early '60s...again and again." Now I can understand one of his teachers screening the film once, but "again and again"? WTF is going on here?
Quite apart from what repeated showings might imply about the teacher in question (some kind of obsessive military fanatic?), surely the inevitable chorus of 'Aw, sir, not again!' would deter any but the most foolhardy teacher from this practice. And as for Malcolm and his classmates imagining themselves "spurring our horses through the Ottoman fire, leaping across the trenches and onward to victory," Turnbull once disclosed that "I would struggle to find one positive memory of my time at boarding school... really it was a bleak, bleak period for me." (Manning, p 21)
As for Pratt's contribution, it reads like an echo of Turnbull's. (Or should that be the other way around?):
"Next Tuesday, October 31, 2017, Australia will mark the 100th anniversary of the victorious charge by 800 Lighthorsemen against the Turkish defences at Beersheba. The 'shock and awe' victory changed the course of Middle East history, and paved the way for Israel's establishment some three decades later. It's entirely fitting, therefore, that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will lead the Australian delegation at the Centenary commemoration services in Be'er Sheva, the modern Israeli city that has arisen around the former battleground, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin will represent Israel. In honouring the historic moment for both nations, I'd like to note that the Light Horse Centenary also has a personal significance for the Pratt family. While the Centenary's opening ceremony... is to be in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Beersheva, the concluding ceremony will happen at the Park of the Australian Soldier, just a few kilometres away in the same city. The Park, a Pratt Foundation initiative to honour Australia's military involvement in the Middle East at critical times in Israel's history,* was opened in 2008... " (A proud legacy)
The fact is that the Pratt Foundation's 'Park of the Australian Soldier' is really all about Israel. The Park is an integral part of a Zionist propaganda initiative, whereby a moment of Australian and Turkish military history has been appropriated and misrepresented as somehow uniquely enabling (and legitimising) the much later installation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
It should be obvious to all that the capture of Ottoman Beersheba by Australian forces in 1917 is being manipulated to fit the false Zionist historical narrative, primarily with a view to ensuring ongoing Australian diplomatic support for a pariah apartheid Israel in UN fora.
Turnbull, who hosted Netanyahu in Sydney earlier this year, could now, arguably, be described as the most Zionist of all Australian prime ministers, and a sycophant of the worst kind. And the irony is that it only seems like yesterday that he was slamming opposition leader Bill Shorten (who, like Turnbull, is currently partying in Israel) in federal parliament as "the great sycophant of billionaires," and accusing him, specifically, of "sucking up to [the late] Dick Pratt." That was back in February this year.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
The Indigenous Pilgrims' Progress
October 31, 2017, of course, is the centenary of the much hyped charge of the Australian Light Horse at Turkish trenches defending the Palestinian town of Beersheba. The hype is largely due to the event's appropriation by Australia's Israel lobby, part of its ongoing effort to manufacture alleged historical links between Australia and Israel as part of the fiction that a 'unique relationship' exists between the two countries.
Although but one part of an Anglo-Arab thrust aimed at dislodging the Turks from the Levant in World War I, the victory of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba has been opportunistically appropriated by our Israel lobbyists and hyped as an integral component of the Zionist project in Palestine, on a par, almost, with the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917.
Of course, no such explicit linkage was ever made by Zionist spokesmen in the immediate post war years. Burnishing Israel's image in contemporary Australian domestic politics is what this blatant propaganda exercise is all about.
Here, for example, are some of the latest Zionist iterations of the linkage:
"On 31 October 1917 two events happened which shaped future world history. The first was the capture of Beersheba by British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers... The second was the decision by the British war cabinet to endorse the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home - the legal foundation of the future state of Israel." (The History, beersheba2017.com)
"The date of the Beersheba charge generally coincided with the Declaration by the British Government that led to the establishment of the modern State of Israel." (Connections to Indigenous Diggers of World War I, jwire.com.au, 23/2/17)
If we look back at earlier Zionist statements, part of the hype surrounding the construction at Beersheba of a 'Park of the Australian Soldier' by the Pratt Foundation in 2008,* the linkage rhetoric was far more explicit: the park was described as "a memorial to those who died in battle for the Jewish state"; "the result of the victory was the emergence of a thriving democratic and vibrant nation"; "the Australian victory... set in train... the establishment of the state of Israel"; and "the gallant 800 changed Jewish history, and the history of the Middle East." (See my 1/5/08 post Zionist Myth In-Formation by clicking on the AIF label below.)
Need I remind the informed reader that Allenby's Anglo-Arab campaign against the Turks, let alone its Beersheba component, was a purely military affair related to the stalemate on the Western Front, and not in any way a paving of the way for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, and that the British war cabinet decision to issue a declaration of support for the Zionist movement was made on the same day as the charge at Beersheba which could not, therefore, have influenced the decision one way or the other. (British attempts to enter Palestine had actually been underway since February 1917.) The Balfour Declaration, that is Balfour's infamous letter to Lord Rothschild, which gave voice to the decision, not unnaturally emerged soon after - as it happens, on November 2.
IOW, the timing was pure coincidence. If we bear in mind the Anglo-Zionist machinations which led up to the Balfour Declaration, the British decision to support Zionist aims could have been made as early as July 1917, long before Allenby's campaign. And as for the Ottoman Empire as a whole, the British had had designs on that stretching back at least to the De Bunsen Committee Report of June 1915, which made no mention whatever of Zionist aims.
Having clarified that, I will now move on to the latest, grotesque stage in this cheap Zionist production, already hinted at in the title of the jwire report, the appropriation of descendants of a claimed 100 Aboriginal Lighthorse soldiers, not merely for use as props in the coming centenary celebration in Israel, but to underscore Israel's bogus claim to indigeneity in Arab Palestine.
This was featured recently in Murdoch's Australian, in a front-page article headed, Remembering Beersheba's heroes, the Aborigines willing to die for their country. The article was accompanied by a photograph of Indigenous Australians, Ray Minniecon and Elsie Amamoo, kitted out as Light Horse troopers. Here's the propagandist core of the piece:
"The pilgrimage to Israel [by the descendants of Aboriginal Lighthorse soldiers next week] has been organised by the Rona Tranby Trust, with the support of the Pratt Foundation. Thomas and Eva Rona were Holocaust survivors who found sanctuary in Australia, and their trust specifically supports and preserves indigenous oral history. 'There are so many parallels between the Jewish people and indigenous Australians,' [Trust administrator Jennifer] Symonds says. 'They both understand dispossession from their lands, and the importance of oral histories - This project [the Rona Tranby Australian Light Horse Project] will enable descendants to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors, and when they return, they will record the stories, so the experience of those soldiers is not forgotten'." (Caroline Overington, 7/10/17)
The cynicism of this "pilgrimage to Israel" emerges only if we bear in mind the wider historical context.
Ostensibly, 'The Rona Tranby Australian Light Horse Project' is merely 'enabling' these descendants of Aboriginal victims of British settler-colonialism in Australia to "walk in the footsteps of their ancestors." The reality, however, is that they are being involved in a propaganda exercise designed to cement White Australia's connection with another settler-colonial state, one, moreover, which eschews any genuine reconciliation with its indigenous Palestinian Arab victims, having deluded itself into believing that its European Jewish colons, not the native Palestinians, are in fact the indigenous population of the land they now occupy, their 2,000-year spell in Europe notwithstanding.
Those post pilgrimage stories should indeed make interesting reading. As should the product outlined in the notice appended to Overington's article: "The Weekend Australian will publish a special magazine on October 28 commemorating the centenary of Beersheba."
[*The late Dick Pratt, in addition to being a cardboard tycoon (Visy), was a generous donor to both Israeli 'charities' and Australian mainstream political parties, a convicted price-fixer, and a key supporter of Bill Shorten.]
Although but one part of an Anglo-Arab thrust aimed at dislodging the Turks from the Levant in World War I, the victory of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba has been opportunistically appropriated by our Israel lobbyists and hyped as an integral component of the Zionist project in Palestine, on a par, almost, with the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917.
Of course, no such explicit linkage was ever made by Zionist spokesmen in the immediate post war years. Burnishing Israel's image in contemporary Australian domestic politics is what this blatant propaganda exercise is all about.
Here, for example, are some of the latest Zionist iterations of the linkage:
"On 31 October 1917 two events happened which shaped future world history. The first was the capture of Beersheba by British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers... The second was the decision by the British war cabinet to endorse the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home - the legal foundation of the future state of Israel." (The History, beersheba2017.com)
"The date of the Beersheba charge generally coincided with the Declaration by the British Government that led to the establishment of the modern State of Israel." (Connections to Indigenous Diggers of World War I, jwire.com.au, 23/2/17)
If we look back at earlier Zionist statements, part of the hype surrounding the construction at Beersheba of a 'Park of the Australian Soldier' by the Pratt Foundation in 2008,* the linkage rhetoric was far more explicit: the park was described as "a memorial to those who died in battle for the Jewish state"; "the result of the victory was the emergence of a thriving democratic and vibrant nation"; "the Australian victory... set in train... the establishment of the state of Israel"; and "the gallant 800 changed Jewish history, and the history of the Middle East." (See my 1/5/08 post Zionist Myth In-Formation by clicking on the AIF label below.)
Need I remind the informed reader that Allenby's Anglo-Arab campaign against the Turks, let alone its Beersheba component, was a purely military affair related to the stalemate on the Western Front, and not in any way a paving of the way for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, and that the British war cabinet decision to issue a declaration of support for the Zionist movement was made on the same day as the charge at Beersheba which could not, therefore, have influenced the decision one way or the other. (British attempts to enter Palestine had actually been underway since February 1917.) The Balfour Declaration, that is Balfour's infamous letter to Lord Rothschild, which gave voice to the decision, not unnaturally emerged soon after - as it happens, on November 2.
IOW, the timing was pure coincidence. If we bear in mind the Anglo-Zionist machinations which led up to the Balfour Declaration, the British decision to support Zionist aims could have been made as early as July 1917, long before Allenby's campaign. And as for the Ottoman Empire as a whole, the British had had designs on that stretching back at least to the De Bunsen Committee Report of June 1915, which made no mention whatever of Zionist aims.
Having clarified that, I will now move on to the latest, grotesque stage in this cheap Zionist production, already hinted at in the title of the jwire report, the appropriation of descendants of a claimed 100 Aboriginal Lighthorse soldiers, not merely for use as props in the coming centenary celebration in Israel, but to underscore Israel's bogus claim to indigeneity in Arab Palestine.
This was featured recently in Murdoch's Australian, in a front-page article headed, Remembering Beersheba's heroes, the Aborigines willing to die for their country. The article was accompanied by a photograph of Indigenous Australians, Ray Minniecon and Elsie Amamoo, kitted out as Light Horse troopers. Here's the propagandist core of the piece:
"The pilgrimage to Israel [by the descendants of Aboriginal Lighthorse soldiers next week] has been organised by the Rona Tranby Trust, with the support of the Pratt Foundation. Thomas and Eva Rona were Holocaust survivors who found sanctuary in Australia, and their trust specifically supports and preserves indigenous oral history. 'There are so many parallels between the Jewish people and indigenous Australians,' [Trust administrator Jennifer] Symonds says. 'They both understand dispossession from their lands, and the importance of oral histories - This project [the Rona Tranby Australian Light Horse Project] will enable descendants to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors, and when they return, they will record the stories, so the experience of those soldiers is not forgotten'." (Caroline Overington, 7/10/17)
The cynicism of this "pilgrimage to Israel" emerges only if we bear in mind the wider historical context.
Ostensibly, 'The Rona Tranby Australian Light Horse Project' is merely 'enabling' these descendants of Aboriginal victims of British settler-colonialism in Australia to "walk in the footsteps of their ancestors." The reality, however, is that they are being involved in a propaganda exercise designed to cement White Australia's connection with another settler-colonial state, one, moreover, which eschews any genuine reconciliation with its indigenous Palestinian Arab victims, having deluded itself into believing that its European Jewish colons, not the native Palestinians, are in fact the indigenous population of the land they now occupy, their 2,000-year spell in Europe notwithstanding.
Those post pilgrimage stories should indeed make interesting reading. As should the product outlined in the notice appended to Overington's article: "The Weekend Australian will publish a special magazine on October 28 commemorating the centenary of Beersheba."
[*The late Dick Pratt, in addition to being a cardboard tycoon (Visy), was a generous donor to both Israeli 'charities' and Australian mainstream political parties, a convicted price-fixer, and a key supporter of Bill Shorten.]
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Understanding Australia's Bipartisan Support for Israel
Isn't it beyond amazing that, despite their political differences, there is only one nation (apart from the lucky ducky country, of course) that has the power to move both PM Trumble and Opposition leader Bill Short-on to near constant declarations of undying love and affection - namely, Israel.
This remarkable coincidence, of course, is no doubt due, in both cases, to years of research and rapt contemplation of respective moral compasses by both parties.
Or could there be an another explanation?
"Bill Shorten first became a household name in 2006, surfing a wave of favourable publicity when the news broke that two men had survived the dreadful Beaconsfield mine disaster. It was a brief burst of fame, still more than a year before Shorten resigned as head of the Australian Workers Union to enter parliament and have a shot at realising his dream of becoming prime minister one day...
"Dick Pratt, the super-wealthy cardboard industry king, was Shorten's enabler on that occasion. It was a Sunday night and all hope of finding survivors of the mine collapse was lost. Shorten was stranded at home in Melbourne when the stunning news came through - he'd just returned from the mine site and there were no domestic flights back to Tasmania until the next day. Shorten's first thought? Naturally, call Pratt and ask to borrow his private jet... In quick time, Shorten was back in Beaconsfield. With the mine's management falling silent, he happily filled the void for an information-starved national media... It was a mark of Shorten's closeness to one of Australia's richest men that just a phone call to Pratt could secure his private jet free of charge.
"But that was far from the first, or last, time that Shorten would fly Air Pratt. He and his then wife, Deborah Beale, flew to the US on board Pratt's jet for family holidays at the packaging magnate's New York apartment... Privately, Shorten has always been keen to say the Pratt connection was because of Beale... Those close to Shorten say he conveyed the impression, indeed encouraged the idea, that Pratt was Beale's godfather... The marriage to Beale, say Shorten insiders, offered much more to a man who relished mixing with the rich and powerful... Beale helped open doors... to the Melbourne establishment [and] assisted with introductions for Shorten to captain's of industry.
"[Shorten] also got to know retail giant Solomon Lew. The Lew relationship was based in large part on their shared pro-Israel stance. As leader of the right-wing AWU in Victoria, Shorten devoted much time to battling the Left over Israel. He mixed easily with Lew and other Australian Jewish businessmen. It was good politics, too, for Shorten, to win the support of Melbourne's Jewish business community." (High-flying fake or workers' champion? Brad Norington, The Australian, 11/2/17)
"No domestic house in Melbourne has had more influence on public and philanthropical life than Raheen, the 1870s Italianate mansion owned for more than 35 years by the family of billionaire packaging king Richard Pratt... Raheen is used by the Pratts to court and entertain both sides of politics, to conduct fundraisers and to highlight the cause of Israel, into which the Pratt Foundation pours millions of dollars... Last week Mr Turnbull and his wife Lucy were invited to a party at Richard Pratt's son Anthony's Fifth Avenue apartment above New York's Central Park... " (More than just a home, Pratt mansion welcomes all parties, John Ferguson/ Rebecca Urban, The Australian, 11/2/17)
This remarkable coincidence, of course, is no doubt due, in both cases, to years of research and rapt contemplation of respective moral compasses by both parties.
Or could there be an another explanation?
"Bill Shorten first became a household name in 2006, surfing a wave of favourable publicity when the news broke that two men had survived the dreadful Beaconsfield mine disaster. It was a brief burst of fame, still more than a year before Shorten resigned as head of the Australian Workers Union to enter parliament and have a shot at realising his dream of becoming prime minister one day...
"Dick Pratt, the super-wealthy cardboard industry king, was Shorten's enabler on that occasion. It was a Sunday night and all hope of finding survivors of the mine collapse was lost. Shorten was stranded at home in Melbourne when the stunning news came through - he'd just returned from the mine site and there were no domestic flights back to Tasmania until the next day. Shorten's first thought? Naturally, call Pratt and ask to borrow his private jet... In quick time, Shorten was back in Beaconsfield. With the mine's management falling silent, he happily filled the void for an information-starved national media... It was a mark of Shorten's closeness to one of Australia's richest men that just a phone call to Pratt could secure his private jet free of charge.
"But that was far from the first, or last, time that Shorten would fly Air Pratt. He and his then wife, Deborah Beale, flew to the US on board Pratt's jet for family holidays at the packaging magnate's New York apartment... Privately, Shorten has always been keen to say the Pratt connection was because of Beale... Those close to Shorten say he conveyed the impression, indeed encouraged the idea, that Pratt was Beale's godfather... The marriage to Beale, say Shorten insiders, offered much more to a man who relished mixing with the rich and powerful... Beale helped open doors... to the Melbourne establishment [and] assisted with introductions for Shorten to captain's of industry.
"[Shorten] also got to know retail giant Solomon Lew. The Lew relationship was based in large part on their shared pro-Israel stance. As leader of the right-wing AWU in Victoria, Shorten devoted much time to battling the Left over Israel. He mixed easily with Lew and other Australian Jewish businessmen. It was good politics, too, for Shorten, to win the support of Melbourne's Jewish business community." (High-flying fake or workers' champion? Brad Norington, The Australian, 11/2/17)
"No domestic house in Melbourne has had more influence on public and philanthropical life than Raheen, the 1870s Italianate mansion owned for more than 35 years by the family of billionaire packaging king Richard Pratt... Raheen is used by the Pratts to court and entertain both sides of politics, to conduct fundraisers and to highlight the cause of Israel, into which the Pratt Foundation pours millions of dollars... Last week Mr Turnbull and his wife Lucy were invited to a party at Richard Pratt's son Anthony's Fifth Avenue apartment above New York's Central Park... " (More than just a home, Pratt mansion welcomes all parties, John Ferguson/ Rebecca Urban, The Australian, 11/2/17)
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Waiting for Malcolm
"Australia's second-richest person, Anthony Pratt, was still waiting - in the early hours of Sunday morning - for the nation's 29th Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to arrive at what was supposed to be a Liberal victory party at Sydney's Sofitel Wentworth. As you may have heard, things had not exactly followed Turnbull's plan. So what did Pratt - the executive chairman of Visy Industries, a man with a fortune recently valued at $10.4 billion - make of what at that stage looked like the narrowest of victories for Turnbull? 'Well, it's better to almost die than almost survive,' Pratt told us." (Not quite the party the party was expecting, Will Glascow & Christine Lacy, The Australian Business Review, 4/7/16)
Concerning Anthony Pratt, the Financial Review noted pointedly that:
"For the amount of loot the Pratts have raised for the Liberal Party, [Anthony Pratt] probably could've stood on stage with the PM's family if he'd only thought to ask in advance. Remember, the billionaire family have been major sponsors of Shorten's early political career... when he was married to the late Dick Pratt's goddaughter Deborah Beale. Visy must really want that corporate tax cut." (No sign of Middle Australia at Malcolm Turnbull's election party, Joe Aston, 3/7/16)
Of course... and Malcolm's unswerving devotion to all things Israel.
Concerning Anthony Pratt, the Financial Review noted pointedly that:
"For the amount of loot the Pratts have raised for the Liberal Party, [Anthony Pratt] probably could've stood on stage with the PM's family if he'd only thought to ask in advance. Remember, the billionaire family have been major sponsors of Shorten's early political career... when he was married to the late Dick Pratt's goddaughter Deborah Beale. Visy must really want that corporate tax cut." (No sign of Middle Australia at Malcolm Turnbull's election party, Joe Aston, 3/7/16)
Of course... and Malcolm's unswerving devotion to all things Israel.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
The Unexamined Bill Shorten
Matters arising from David Marr's profile of Bill Shorten in this week's Good Weekend:
"To the commentators' surprise, Shorten won the set-piece debates [with Albanese] comfortably. His opponent had stinging one-liners, but Shorten found passion: 'If I was to be PM, I would like to be known as the PM for the powerless, for the disempowered, for people who don't have a voice in society'." (The man in the machine, 14/5/16)
So what is one to make of a man who sees himself as a PM for the wretched of the earth in Australia, but hearts the Lords of Creation who run roughshod over them in Palestine/Israel?
"Shorten engaged one of Australia's smartest layers, Leon Zwier of Arnold Bloch Leibler, who issued blunt denials in November 2013 after The Australian published the first, careful story about 'a senior Labor figure' accused of rape..."
Natch - Zwier was the late Dick Pratt's lawyer. Pratt, of course, owned cardboard giant Visy Industries, and was convicted and fined $36m for price-fixing in 2007. He was also a highly charitable man - particularly when it came to such worthy causes as Israel and LibLab. Shorten, as it happens, was a great friend of Pratt's, whom he extolled as a "Renaissance man" on the occasion of his death.
"[My mother] believed in merit... She taught me that merit is a legitimate human condition. That people should not be deified because of some ill-defined birth right or the wealth of an individual."
Why then does Shorten deify a mob of European colons who consider Palestine/Israel to be their exclusive birthright, or look up to wealthy individuals such as Dick Pratt?
"To the commentators' surprise, Shorten won the set-piece debates [with Albanese] comfortably. His opponent had stinging one-liners, but Shorten found passion: 'If I was to be PM, I would like to be known as the PM for the powerless, for the disempowered, for people who don't have a voice in society'." (The man in the machine, 14/5/16)
So what is one to make of a man who sees himself as a PM for the wretched of the earth in Australia, but hearts the Lords of Creation who run roughshod over them in Palestine/Israel?
"Shorten engaged one of Australia's smartest layers, Leon Zwier of Arnold Bloch Leibler, who issued blunt denials in November 2013 after The Australian published the first, careful story about 'a senior Labor figure' accused of rape..."
Natch - Zwier was the late Dick Pratt's lawyer. Pratt, of course, owned cardboard giant Visy Industries, and was convicted and fined $36m for price-fixing in 2007. He was also a highly charitable man - particularly when it came to such worthy causes as Israel and LibLab. Shorten, as it happens, was a great friend of Pratt's, whom he extolled as a "Renaissance man" on the occasion of his death.
"[My mother] believed in merit... She taught me that merit is a legitimate human condition. That people should not be deified because of some ill-defined birth right or the wealth of an individual."
Why then does Shorten deify a mob of European colons who consider Palestine/Israel to be their exclusive birthright, or look up to wealthy individuals such as Dick Pratt?
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Sweet Charity
"Heloise Waislitz was only 13 years old when her parents, Richard and Jeanne Pratt, took her to South Africa on a family holiday... I was completely traumatised... I thought 'How can you separate people by the colour of their skin?' And that's why I got into philanthropy,' she tells The Australian in the first wide-ranging interview." (The heiress who keeps on giving, Damon Kitney, The Australian, 8/6/15)
Yes, Heloise, it's dreadful what they got up to in apartheid South Africa back then. Of course, separating people by religion so that you and yours can go and live in Israel but Ahmed Bloggs in Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp just across the border in Lebanon can't, that's perfectly OK, right? But I digress:
"In 1995 Richard Pratt made Heloise... the chairman of the Pratt Foundation. He implored her to give and give, declaring he had never heard of an unworthy charity... Few know Waislitz as one of the nation's leading philanthropists, for which she is today [8/6] being awarded a Member of the Order of Australia. The Pratt Foundation... run by distinguished [Zionist] journalist Sam Lipski for the past 17 years... donates to causes in Australia, the US and Israel, giving away $15-$17 million a year."
Tax deductible of course.
The Pratt Foundation's best known project in Israel is probably Beersheva's Park of the Australian Soldier, where rambammed Australian politicians go to learn that Australian troops, by ejecting the Turks from the southern Palestinian town of Beersheba (as it was then known) in World War I, were not engaged in paving the way for the implementation of the proclaimed Allied war aim of a post-war settlement based on the principles of the 'right of self-determination' and the 'consent of the governed' for Palestine's then 90% Arab population, but rather paving the way for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
This deliberate linking of the military exploits of Australian troops in Palestine in World War I with the lobbying exploits of the Zionist movement in London at the same time has, as I have shown in previous posts on the subject, become a staple of Zionist propaganda directed at uninformed Australians.
Pratt Foundation CEO Sam Lipski, for example, put it this way in a recent issue of the Spectator magazine:
"On the same afternoon that the 4th and 12th Light Horse regiments... raced towards Beersheba... Lloyd George's war cabinet met in London. It agreed to support 'the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people...' A few days later, on 2 November, Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote to lord Rothschild advising him of the British government's decision... More than any other political event... the [Balfour] Declaration... greatly invigorated the Zionist movement [and] paved the way for Israel's emergence 31 years later... If the Turks had held the line at Beersheba... and if the first world war had ended with the decaying Ottoman empire still ruling Palestine, then the Balfour Declaration would have been meaningless. The Light horse victory ensured that didn't happen." (Beersheba Diary, 31/5/15)
What Lipski doesn't tell us, of course, is that, instead of making illegitimate promises to the Zionists in London in 1917, the British had a clear moral and legal obligation to honour their earlier 1915 pledge to the Arabs, given by the British High Commissioner in Cairo to the Arab nationalist Sharif of Mecca, to support Arab independence in the Middle East, including in Palestine, if the Arab forces agreed to join with the British in driving the Turks out of the Middle East.
That Anglo-Arab pact of 1915 was scrupulously observed by the Arab forces who fought and died (alongside the British and the Australians) all the way from Mecca to Damascus for an independent and unified Arab state in the region. Unfortunately, the Arabs were betrayed by Anglo-Zionist collusion and deal-making far from the scene of battle.
The sad truth is that if the Australian troops who'd captured Beersheba had had any inkling of what was afoot in the smoke-filled backrooms of Whitehall, they may well have had second thoughts about the entire Palestine campaign, let alone Beersheba.
Lipski concluded his piece thus:
"Legendary the Beersheba victory may be for many. But for most Australians it's not as legendary as the Gallipoli defeat. For most Israelis, and many Australian Jews, the Light Horse's contribution to Israel's eventual establishment is virtually unknown."
Not if Lipski or the mayor of Beersheva have anything to do with it, however:
"Come the centenary in 2017, Mayor Ruvik... wants thousands of Australians and Israelis to come to Be'er-Sheva, not just to mark the the 100th anniversary, but to honour and celebrate his city's permanent Anzac legacy. I am booking early."
So too, I imagine, will Heloise Waislitz.
Yes, Heloise, it's dreadful what they got up to in apartheid South Africa back then. Of course, separating people by religion so that you and yours can go and live in Israel but Ahmed Bloggs in Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp just across the border in Lebanon can't, that's perfectly OK, right? But I digress:
"In 1995 Richard Pratt made Heloise... the chairman of the Pratt Foundation. He implored her to give and give, declaring he had never heard of an unworthy charity... Few know Waislitz as one of the nation's leading philanthropists, for which she is today [8/6] being awarded a Member of the Order of Australia. The Pratt Foundation... run by distinguished [Zionist] journalist Sam Lipski for the past 17 years... donates to causes in Australia, the US and Israel, giving away $15-$17 million a year."
Tax deductible of course.
The Pratt Foundation's best known project in Israel is probably Beersheva's Park of the Australian Soldier, where rambammed Australian politicians go to learn that Australian troops, by ejecting the Turks from the southern Palestinian town of Beersheba (as it was then known) in World War I, were not engaged in paving the way for the implementation of the proclaimed Allied war aim of a post-war settlement based on the principles of the 'right of self-determination' and the 'consent of the governed' for Palestine's then 90% Arab population, but rather paving the way for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
This deliberate linking of the military exploits of Australian troops in Palestine in World War I with the lobbying exploits of the Zionist movement in London at the same time has, as I have shown in previous posts on the subject, become a staple of Zionist propaganda directed at uninformed Australians.
Pratt Foundation CEO Sam Lipski, for example, put it this way in a recent issue of the Spectator magazine:
"On the same afternoon that the 4th and 12th Light Horse regiments... raced towards Beersheba... Lloyd George's war cabinet met in London. It agreed to support 'the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people...' A few days later, on 2 November, Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote to lord Rothschild advising him of the British government's decision... More than any other political event... the [Balfour] Declaration... greatly invigorated the Zionist movement [and] paved the way for Israel's emergence 31 years later... If the Turks had held the line at Beersheba... and if the first world war had ended with the decaying Ottoman empire still ruling Palestine, then the Balfour Declaration would have been meaningless. The Light horse victory ensured that didn't happen." (Beersheba Diary, 31/5/15)
What Lipski doesn't tell us, of course, is that, instead of making illegitimate promises to the Zionists in London in 1917, the British had a clear moral and legal obligation to honour their earlier 1915 pledge to the Arabs, given by the British High Commissioner in Cairo to the Arab nationalist Sharif of Mecca, to support Arab independence in the Middle East, including in Palestine, if the Arab forces agreed to join with the British in driving the Turks out of the Middle East.
That Anglo-Arab pact of 1915 was scrupulously observed by the Arab forces who fought and died (alongside the British and the Australians) all the way from Mecca to Damascus for an independent and unified Arab state in the region. Unfortunately, the Arabs were betrayed by Anglo-Zionist collusion and deal-making far from the scene of battle.
The sad truth is that if the Australian troops who'd captured Beersheba had had any inkling of what was afoot in the smoke-filled backrooms of Whitehall, they may well have had second thoughts about the entire Palestine campaign, let alone Beersheba.
Lipski concluded his piece thus:
"Legendary the Beersheba victory may be for many. But for most Australians it's not as legendary as the Gallipoli defeat. For most Israelis, and many Australian Jews, the Light Horse's contribution to Israel's eventual establishment is virtually unknown."
Not if Lipski or the mayor of Beersheva have anything to do with it, however:
"Come the centenary in 2017, Mayor Ruvik... wants thousands of Australians and Israelis to come to Be'er-Sheva, not just to mark the the 100th anniversary, but to honour and celebrate his city's permanent Anzac legacy. I am booking early."
So too, I imagine, will Heloise Waislitz.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
The Unasked Question
Donating money to political parties is a highly mysterious business. While our news media are happy to list say the top ten single donations to major parties, I've never known an Australian journalist to follow up by contacting the respective donors with a simple one-word question: why?
Until now, that is:
"A Chinese-based property company that hired former NSW treasurer Eric Roozendaal as its vice-chairman after he quit politics was among the largest donors to the NSW Labor and Liberal parties last financial year. According to election funding returns published by the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday, YuHu Group (Australia) donated $200,000 to the NSW branch of the ALP during 2012-13, including $100,000 in June last year. It also donated $100,000 to the NSW Liberals during the period... [T]he general manager Holly Huang, said the donations were unrelated to the [company's] planned [$200m Eastwood Shopping Centre] development as approval had been given prior to the company's purchase of the shopping centre. Ms Huang said after the company entered Australia in May 2013 'a lot of people approached us. A lot of Chinese community friends introduced us to the parties to understand how the system runs in Australia,' she said. Ms Huang said she could not comment on Mr Huang's personal donations as she only spoke for the company. YuHu's website features pictures of Mr Huang and politicians including former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and former treasurer Chris Bowen." (Ex-treasurer working for Chinese company that was major donor, Sean Nicholls, Sydney Morning Herald, 4/2/14)
Hardly a satisfactory answer I know, but at least Nicholls, for one, asked the bloody question.
I'm still waiting for a ms journalist to ask the following Israel-doting donors in particular why they lavished the following sums on the Labor and Liberal parties in the 2012-13 financial year:
Westfield Limited (Frank Lowy) $150,000 > Labor
Ubertas Group (Albert Dadon) $7,500 > Labor
Visy (Anthony Pratt) $1,500 > Labor
Pratt Holdings P/L (Anthony Pratt) $250,000 > Liberal
Westfield Limited (Frank Lowy) $150,000 > Liberal
Needless to say, I won't be holding my breath.
Until now, that is:
"A Chinese-based property company that hired former NSW treasurer Eric Roozendaal as its vice-chairman after he quit politics was among the largest donors to the NSW Labor and Liberal parties last financial year. According to election funding returns published by the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday, YuHu Group (Australia) donated $200,000 to the NSW branch of the ALP during 2012-13, including $100,000 in June last year. It also donated $100,000 to the NSW Liberals during the period... [T]he general manager Holly Huang, said the donations were unrelated to the [company's] planned [$200m Eastwood Shopping Centre] development as approval had been given prior to the company's purchase of the shopping centre. Ms Huang said after the company entered Australia in May 2013 'a lot of people approached us. A lot of Chinese community friends introduced us to the parties to understand how the system runs in Australia,' she said. Ms Huang said she could not comment on Mr Huang's personal donations as she only spoke for the company. YuHu's website features pictures of Mr Huang and politicians including former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and former treasurer Chris Bowen." (Ex-treasurer working for Chinese company that was major donor, Sean Nicholls, Sydney Morning Herald, 4/2/14)
Hardly a satisfactory answer I know, but at least Nicholls, for one, asked the bloody question.
I'm still waiting for a ms journalist to ask the following Israel-doting donors in particular why they lavished the following sums on the Labor and Liberal parties in the 2012-13 financial year:
Westfield Limited (Frank Lowy) $150,000 > Labor
Ubertas Group (Albert Dadon) $7,500 > Labor
Visy (Anthony Pratt) $1,500 > Labor
Pratt Holdings P/L (Anthony Pratt) $250,000 > Liberal
Westfield Limited (Frank Lowy) $150,000 > Liberal
Needless to say, I won't be holding my breath.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Showbag Bill & Pratt the Younger
"Bill Shorten's enemies - and he made a few on his journey through the union movement... used to call him 'Showbag Bill'... Plenty of style on the outside, not much substance within." (Labor's Shorten experiment: the tale of 'Showbag Bill', Tony Wright, The Age, 14/10/13)
Two cheers for the new Labor leader, Showbag Bill. For a Labor man, Showbag's got some very interesting connections:
"Shorten might have earned his political stripes in the union movement but he is far from the stereotypical old-style Labor union man. Well educated and articulate, he has long moved in the sorts of business and social circles that raise suspicion among more ideologically driven colleagues. He was best man, for instance, to John Roskam, of the extremely conservative Institute of Public Affairs... Shorten's first wife, Debbie Beale, is the daughter of multimillionaire businessman and former Liberal MP Julian Beale. His current wife, Chloe, is the daughter of the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce. In 2006 he famously borrowed, with a single phone call, the private jet of the late billionaire Dick Pratt to fly to the Tasmanian mining town of Beaconsfield..." (Labor's Shorten experiment)
Ah yes, the very Israel-friendly Pratt connection. (Simply click on the 'Dick Pratt' label below and refresh your memory.)
Now wasn't it only recently that the Pratt family - minus Dick of course - popped up in the news?
"Former US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich is joining the Pratt family's high-powered advisory board for its $5 billion global paper, packaging and recycling empire... 'Jeff will be a great resource as we develop our tripartite strategy linking our business interests in Australia, the US and, increasingly, in Asia,' Visy Group executive chairman Anthony Pratt said." (US ambassador for Pratt advisory board, Damon Kitney, The Australian, 11/10/13)
Yes, yes, yes... but what was it that young Anthony had said to an audience of graduating students at Monash University last Thursday whilst there to receive an honorary doctorate?
Ah yes:
"Mr Pratt told graduates that he could see a future for manufacturing where a factory would employ only a few people. 'The factory of the future will not employ 150 people, but only 3 or 4. Furthermore, it will be completely dark, because robots don't need to see'." (ibid)
How that must have cheered and comforted those about to enter a tough labour market.
Hm... maybe Showbag Bill and Pratt the Younger need to sit down together (maybe at the nearest Max Brenner outlet) and sort this jobs business out, because only a matter of days before Anthony was inspiring his student audience Bill was all fired-up with the following bright idea:
"I believe a national rehabilitation strategy must be explored to ensure that... those on the disability support pension benefit from the dignity and satisfaction of work." (From welfare to work: Bill Shorten's disability plan, Troy Bramston, The Australian, 7/10/13)
There are 824,082 disability support pensioners out there.
Two cheers for the new Labor leader, Showbag Bill. For a Labor man, Showbag's got some very interesting connections:
"Shorten might have earned his political stripes in the union movement but he is far from the stereotypical old-style Labor union man. Well educated and articulate, he has long moved in the sorts of business and social circles that raise suspicion among more ideologically driven colleagues. He was best man, for instance, to John Roskam, of the extremely conservative Institute of Public Affairs... Shorten's first wife, Debbie Beale, is the daughter of multimillionaire businessman and former Liberal MP Julian Beale. His current wife, Chloe, is the daughter of the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce. In 2006 he famously borrowed, with a single phone call, the private jet of the late billionaire Dick Pratt to fly to the Tasmanian mining town of Beaconsfield..." (Labor's Shorten experiment)
Ah yes, the very Israel-friendly Pratt connection. (Simply click on the 'Dick Pratt' label below and refresh your memory.)
Now wasn't it only recently that the Pratt family - minus Dick of course - popped up in the news?
"Former US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich is joining the Pratt family's high-powered advisory board for its $5 billion global paper, packaging and recycling empire... 'Jeff will be a great resource as we develop our tripartite strategy linking our business interests in Australia, the US and, increasingly, in Asia,' Visy Group executive chairman Anthony Pratt said." (US ambassador for Pratt advisory board, Damon Kitney, The Australian, 11/10/13)
Yes, yes, yes... but what was it that young Anthony had said to an audience of graduating students at Monash University last Thursday whilst there to receive an honorary doctorate?
Ah yes:
"Mr Pratt told graduates that he could see a future for manufacturing where a factory would employ only a few people. 'The factory of the future will not employ 150 people, but only 3 or 4. Furthermore, it will be completely dark, because robots don't need to see'." (ibid)
How that must have cheered and comforted those about to enter a tough labour market.
Hm... maybe Showbag Bill and Pratt the Younger need to sit down together (maybe at the nearest Max Brenner outlet) and sort this jobs business out, because only a matter of days before Anthony was inspiring his student audience Bill was all fired-up with the following bright idea:
"I believe a national rehabilitation strategy must be explored to ensure that... those on the disability support pension benefit from the dignity and satisfaction of work." (From welfare to work: Bill Shorten's disability plan, Troy Bramston, The Australian, 7/10/13)
There are 824,082 disability support pensioners out there.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Australia Post Issues Israeli Propaganda Stamps
Just the other day I needed a postage stamp. I duly handed over my 60 cents at an Australia Post outlet and received far more than I bargained for - nothing less, would you believe, than a dollop of Israeli propaganda.
There on the stamp was the sepia-toned image of a statue of an Australian Light Horseman leaping the Turkish trenches ringing the town of Beersheba in southern Palestine in 1917. In the bottom left hand corner were the words 'Beersheba/ AUSTRALIA/ Joint Issue with Israel/ Australian Light Horse'. In the bottom right corner, in blue, were the same words in Hebrew.
For $3.60 you can buy a laminated, folded card bearing the same image beneath a scroll containing the words 'JOINT ISSUE WITH ISRAEL/ THE BATTLE OF BEERSHEBA'. Below the scroll, the same words appear in Hebrew.
Inside, the scroll reappears with the same words superimposed on an antique map of Beersheba and its environs. Again, the same Hebrew words figure prominently. Two stamps - the second, a $2.60 international issue with a different design - are enclosed in a protective plastic sheath.
On the back the following text appears. (The highlightings are mine):
"The Battle of Beersheba, which took place on 31 October 1917, was part of a wider British offensive known as the third Battle of Gaza during World War I. The final phase of this day-long battle was the famous mounted charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade, widely considered to be the last great mounted charge in military history. Although heavily outnumbered, the 4th Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force seized the strategic town of Beersheba from the Turks. 31 Australian light horsemen were killed in the charge and 36 were wounded, while the Turkish defenders suffered many casualties and between 700 and 1,000 troops were captured. The capture of Beersheba allowed British Empire forces to break the Ottoman line near Gaza and then advance into Palestine, a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
"The 60c stamp features a statue of an Australian Light Horseman in the Park of the Australian Soldier at Beersheba (Be'er Sheva), Israel. The statue is the work of Australian sculptor Peter Corlett and was erected with the support of the Pratt Foundation in 2008. The park features a landscaped recreation park with an innovative playground catering for the needs of children with disabilities."
I've covered the story of the shameless Zionist appropriation of this particular slice of Palestinian/Australian history - where the AIF are falsely portrayed as actors in the grand Zionist narrative of the Jewish 'return' to Eretz Israel - in several posts. For the details, simply click on the AIF label below, scroll down to Anzac Day Special: The Diggers Who Died for Israel (25/4/08), and read the lot in chronological order.
Perhaps the next time you buy stamps from Istralia Post, you could decline these two.
There on the stamp was the sepia-toned image of a statue of an Australian Light Horseman leaping the Turkish trenches ringing the town of Beersheba in southern Palestine in 1917. In the bottom left hand corner were the words 'Beersheba/ AUSTRALIA/ Joint Issue with Israel/ Australian Light Horse'. In the bottom right corner, in blue, were the same words in Hebrew.
For $3.60 you can buy a laminated, folded card bearing the same image beneath a scroll containing the words 'JOINT ISSUE WITH ISRAEL/ THE BATTLE OF BEERSHEBA'. Below the scroll, the same words appear in Hebrew.
Inside, the scroll reappears with the same words superimposed on an antique map of Beersheba and its environs. Again, the same Hebrew words figure prominently. Two stamps - the second, a $2.60 international issue with a different design - are enclosed in a protective plastic sheath.
On the back the following text appears. (The highlightings are mine):
"The Battle of Beersheba, which took place on 31 October 1917, was part of a wider British offensive known as the third Battle of Gaza during World War I. The final phase of this day-long battle was the famous mounted charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade, widely considered to be the last great mounted charge in military history. Although heavily outnumbered, the 4th Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force seized the strategic town of Beersheba from the Turks. 31 Australian light horsemen were killed in the charge and 36 were wounded, while the Turkish defenders suffered many casualties and between 700 and 1,000 troops were captured. The capture of Beersheba allowed British Empire forces to break the Ottoman line near Gaza and then advance into Palestine, a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
"The 60c stamp features a statue of an Australian Light Horseman in the Park of the Australian Soldier at Beersheba (Be'er Sheva), Israel. The statue is the work of Australian sculptor Peter Corlett and was erected with the support of the Pratt Foundation in 2008. The park features a landscaped recreation park with an innovative playground catering for the needs of children with disabilities."
I've covered the story of the shameless Zionist appropriation of this particular slice of Palestinian/Australian history - where the AIF are falsely portrayed as actors in the grand Zionist narrative of the Jewish 'return' to Eretz Israel - in several posts. For the details, simply click on the AIF label below, scroll down to Anzac Day Special: The Diggers Who Died for Israel (25/4/08), and read the lot in chronological order.
Perhaps the next time you buy stamps from Istralia Post, you could decline these two.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Hearts of Gold
"Between them, two large Jewish donors gave close to half-a-million dollars to the major political parties during 2010. Party donations from last year were released earlier this month by the Australian Electoral Commission. Among the most generous contributors were Westfield - established and still headed by Jewish businessman Frank Lowy. The shopping centre conglomerate donated more than $350,000, which was evenly split between the two parties. Westfield gave $182,670 to the Australian Labor Party, which went on to win Government, and $173,180 to the Liberal Party. Pratt Holdings, established by the late Richard Pratt and now run by his son Anthony, donated $125,000. The company showed its true colours, gifting $75,000 to the Liberal Party, but only $50,000 to the ALP." (Generous donors, The Australian Jewish News, 18/2/11)
Of course, such largesse stems solely from hearts of gold. Any suggestion that it translates into bipartisan support for Israel is strenuously rejected.
FYI, according to crikey.com.au, the ALP received $7.8 million in political donations for 09/10, while the Liberal Party received $6.3 million (Political donations give & take, Bernard Keane, 1/2/11).
Of course, such largesse stems solely from hearts of gold. Any suggestion that it translates into bipartisan support for Israel is strenuously rejected.
FYI, according to crikey.com.au, the ALP received $7.8 million in political donations for 09/10, while the Liberal Party received $6.3 million (Political donations give & take, Bernard Keane, 1/2/11).
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