Category: Media
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Murdoch’s shadow looms over Turnbull
Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Australia hesitated after the successful party room coup against Liberal Party prime minister Tony Abbott on September 24. The lumpen columnists who had barracked incessantly for “The Mad Monk” resented the arrival of Malcolm Turnbull and, quite frankly, they were disoriented. Which way should they jump now? Once the message…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Oz cremates Abbottry; Canada ends Harperism
Stephen Harper, the insufferably arrogant conservative Canadian politician, has been chucked out of office by the neophyte Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau. Trudeau has scored a treble victory: as the son of the late Pierre Trudeau, he has restored the family name to a place of honour in Canada’s political history; he has ended the…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Turnbull and Baird cremate Magna Carta
Only a few months ago, federal Attorney-General “Gorgeous” George Brandis, NSW Attorney General Gabrielle Upton, plus a swirl of judges, lawyers and academics, were celebrating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. This month the same bristling crew are extending detention without charge to 28 days for “terrorism” suspects as young as 14. The proposed measure…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Turnbull’s mission to woo wets, dries and Murdoch
It is not unusual for political leaders to mould their parties in their own image. In the Australian context we need only mention Robert Menzies, Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke and John Howard. These politicians moulded the course of their respective parties, redirecting policies and priorities. As a result they changed the way Australians thought and…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Oz drawn deeper into Middle East graveyard
Twelve months ago the Tweeters and Facebookers were in full cry demanding the bombing of Damascus and the public execution of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. They were also howling for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges following the downing of Malayasia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine. At the same time,…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Some final words on the Tony Abbott nightmare
Abbott’s sour farewell speech in Canberra confirmed his inappropriateness to be prime minister. Can anyone remotely imagine Bob Menzies, Malcolm Fraser or John Howard telling the nation “We are not the Labor Party” when leaving the prime ministership? But Abbott was still boxing shadows and the anti-Labor fantasies he acquired in his adolescence when he…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – It’s bombs away for Abbott’s by-election
Bolshevik leader V I Lenin once said that during political discussions and world diplomacy “there is a time for the brush and a time for the razor”. Prime Minister Tony Abbott, aka “The Mad Monk”, has decided to use both the brush and the razor simultaneously. His token humanity – offering residence to 12,000 Syrian…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Abbott’s plunge into the Syrian cauldron
To save his own political skin and to win next month’s khaki by-election in Canning, WA, Prime Minister Tony Abbott is on the brink of ordering the RAAF to bomb Syria. Any bombing raids would be illegal and they are not sanctioned by a UN resolution. The rationale will be that it is a humanitarian…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Lycra-clad Abbott has run out of time and puff
The disintegration of the Abbott government is now being serialised on the nightly news. Every day brings a new instalment of Cabinet disunity, policy stuff-ups, backstabbing and hilarious attempts by Cabinet ministers to talk about how well they’re doing. Question time has stripped Abbott of his braggadocio and any pretence that he is a national…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Why the Mad Monk is building a climate of fear
According to the Mad Monk, aka Prime Minister Tony Abbott, every single Australian is now a potential target of the “death cult”, i.e. ISIS, ISIL, IS or Daesh. There could be a bomb attack on any crowded venue in our capital cities at any time, he says. Australians should place themselves on a war footing…