Category: Australia
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The Weekly Notebook returns
Scomo takes Australia to war Pastor Scott Morrison has committed Australia to war in the Middle East. He has sent Australian warships, aircraft and special forces half way round the world to the Straits of Hormuz to “protect international trade” and the “freedom of shipping”. Morrison has joined the US war party against Iran. Ignoring…
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Untold story of Canberra’s first coup: the political assassination of Prime Minister John Gorton – Part 15
Political dirty tricks at Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and Sydney 2000 SYDNEY Sun-Herald, 1986-2007 Searching through personal papers I came across volumes of material I had collected over the years on the Olympic Games and the Swiss-based International Olympic Committee (IOC), the disgraced agency that runs the worldwide sports extravaganza every four years. Buried in the…
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The Weekly Notebook
Whistleblowers jailed as US and UK attack press freedom Julian Assange is in jail in London and Ms Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, is in jail in Alexandria, Virginia. Assange is an Australian-born journalist and founder of Wikileaks while Private first class Manning is a transgender American soldier, turned whistleblower. Together they blew the lid…
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Untold story of Canberra’s first coup: the political assassination of Prime Minister John Gorton – Part 14
John Gorton’s road to Canberra and the “Taiwan lobby” CANBERRA, 22 February 1950 to 10 January 1968 Arriving at the Canberra Press Gallery in 1963 I quickly realised that the venerable institution of Federal Parliament was under intense transition. The Old Guard of MPs in parliament and the trenchant Old Retainers in the Press Gallery…
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Untold story of Canberra’s first coup: The political assassination of Prime Minister John Gorton – Part 13
John Gorton makes a “Labor” speech then joins the ultra-conservatives MYSTIC PARK, near Kerang, Victoria, Wednesday, 3 April 1946 John Gorton was 35, a war hero, farmer and silvertail from Sydney’s Shore School, Geelong Grammar and Oxford University when he made his first political speech. Local people called the community together for a “welcome home”…
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Untold story of Canberra’s first coup: The political assassination of Prime Minister John Gorton – Part 12
John Gorton goes to Oxford OXFORD, England, February 1932 Brasenose College at Oxford University is famous for educating an elite to be the future prime ministers, judges, governors and Whitehall mandarins of Great Britain. For 500 years, the sons of the aristocracy (women were admitted for the first time only in 1974) were sent to…
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Untold story of Canberra’s first coup: The political assassination of Prime Minister John Gorton – Part 11
A “real” bastard in The Lodge John Gorton was a bastard. He was born a bastard because he was conceived out of wedlock. His father was in a de facto relationship with a woman other than his lawful wife when he was born. While many of his predecessors at The Lodge – as well as…
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Untold story of Canberra’s first coup: The political assassination of Prime Minister John Gorton – Part 10
The Prime Minister and I both become ASIO targets MURWILLUMBAH, 4 December 2007 Postal workers in the Tweed Valley, a sugar cane and banana-growing shire just south of the Queensland border, deliver mail to outlying rural properties on a motorbike. The intrepid couriers are mainly retirees earning a few extra bob on contracts with Australia…
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The Weekly Notebook – Labor’s Vatican faction
Why exodus of Labor senator doesn’t make the news A ridiculous amount of media space is being given to the spate of Liberal Party resignations, both male and female, on the eve of forthcoming Federal Election. An eve-of-poll exodus by Federal MPs is not new. It has been going on for decades and it is a…
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Untold story of Canberra’s first coup: The political assassination of PM John Gorton – Part 9
John Gorton’s Road to Bali SAIGON, Sunday 9 June 1968 When John Gorton became Prime Minister in January 1968 the major item on his domestic and foreign policy agenda was the Vietnam war. Against the strenuous advice of his own military, political and intelligence advisers, Gorton decided to visit Australian troops in Vietnam at the…