Opinion AUSTRALIAN Politics: Adelaide Board Discussion Part 5

[kirky]

Let's face it the Albanese/Chalmers ALP Government has been a very ordinary Government whether you like it or not.

Costello is light years ahead of grim Jim Chalmers and you know it!!

Ordinary it may be but it is far better than Dutton/Taylor alternative.

And Keating was better than Costello.

 

[Mutineer]

Ordinary it may be but it is far better than Dutton/Taylor alternative.

And Keating was better than Costello.

We might be about to find out if Each way Albo and grim Jim Chalmers don't lift their game exponentially

LOL, the recession we had to have Keating...

 

[MrKK]

And the same thing happened before Covid-19, we were also in a per capita recession under the Coalition.

Next.

And? You'd agree it's a bad thing, no?

And you're wrong anyway.

Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, March 2020

Quarterly estimates of key economic flows in Australia, including gross domestic product (GDP), consumption, investment, income and saving

www.abs.gov.au

 

[Mutineer]

Welcome to a 3rd world ambulance Service in the ALP's Viktoriastan...

MSN

Man found dead after four-hour wait for ambulance​

A man was found dead early on Sunday morning as stretched paramedics arrived four hours after a neighbour first heard him calling for help and phoned triple zero.

The Victorian Ambulance Union said 50 ambulance crews were “dropped” overnight because of high levels of sick leave. That meant only 90 ambulances were operating, instead of the 120 usually working night shifts, causing a shortfall across Victoria, the union said.
“It has been years since we’ve seen this sheer volume of crews dropped in one night,” Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said.

“The members rarely get breaks, almost never finish on time, and they are exhausted and burnt out. So, this is the reality we are facing.”


Hill said a 69-year-old man was found dead in Surrey Hills, in Melbourne’s east, on Sunday morning after an ambulance arrived about 6am – about four hours after an initial call.

Based on the limited information he had received, Hill said a neighbour who couldn’t access the property themselves had heard the man call out for up to two hours after the initial call to emergency services about 2am.

 

[Slippery Pete]

This proposed legislation is totally out of control.

 

[Eagleboy2011]

This proposed legislation is totally out of control.

This should apply to all politicians. All they do is spread misinformation.

 

[MrKK]

This proposed legislation is totally out of control.

I'm sure there will be some academics it will be applied to. We saw that during Covid.

 

[Eagleboy2011]

Cartoonists strike again.

 

[Eagleboy2011]

Time to cancel these games. Has Australia that much money they can prop up another country where its own government doesn't want to help.

Glasgow set to host 2026 Commonwealth Games

The Scottish government is on the verge of agreeing a deal to host the Commonwealth Games in 2026.

www.bbc.com

Why Australia is set to pay $5million to NOT host Commonwealth Games

Australia is set to fork out millions of dollars for Scotland to host the Commonwealth Games that Victoria rejected

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Coopers]

Absolutely spot on..

View attachment 2110826

I love this.

"The greens are getting too many votes!"

Why not try to like... win those votes instead?

 

[Coopers]

This proposed legislation is totally out of control.

How are they intending to police this?

I'm all for ****ing with twitter, cos it's funny, but there's no reasonable way to control this other than someone being affected by it and then suing... which already happens.

 

[Coopers]

Time to cancel these games. Has Australia that much money they can prop up another country where its own government doesn't want to help.

Glasgow set to host 2026 Commonwealth Games

The Scottish government is on the verge of agreeing a deal to host the Commonwealth Games in 2026.

www.bbc.com

Why Australia is set to pay $5million to NOT host Commonwealth Games

Australia is set to fork out millions of dollars for Scotland to host the Commonwealth Games that Victoria rejected

www.dailymail.co.uk

5 million is not that much in the context of how much the games cost though.

We could have spent the 5 billion over the top of the initial estimates instead...

 

[Eagleboy2011]

5 million is not that much in the context of how much the games cost though.

We could have spent the 5 billion over the top of the initial estimates instead...

True but who cares about these games. Throw in Victoria's amount. The UK gov didnt want to put anything in. Our games people will come back now asking for more money to cover any deficits.

 

[Mutineer]

 

[Mutineer]

ABC again in the shit, now even slipping evem lower in foisting "doctored" videos on their website...More Aussie taxpayers $$$$$'s down the chute. This has to be a new low. Heads should roll. This disgusting despicable by the ABC.

Australia's most trusted news source my arse!!!

Bigman’s Training Reports

I believe most would agree that they are a highlight of this board during the preseason and they can often be lost because of bickering, you know who you are, so perhaps a dedicated thread would be useful. That’s of course if you’re happy to bigman ? Perhaps even start the thread yourself for...

www.bigfooty.com

‘Huge questions to answer for’: ABC lashed over allegations it doctored footage recorded by Australian soldier​

The national broadcaster has come under fire over allegations it doctored footage recorded by an Australian soldier in one of its investigative programs on alleged war crimes.

The Coalition says the ABC has some “huge questions to answer” after the national broadcaster was accused of doctoring a soldier’s helmet footage in an investigative piece on alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.
The 15-second clip aired by the ABC in 2022 appears to show an Australian soldier firing six shots at two men from a helicopter.

But the ex-special forces commander whose helmet captured the footage in 2012, Heston Russell, has accused the ABC of adding in extra gunshots.
Mr Russell was engaged in a separate defamation case with the broadcaster when it published the report.

He told Sky News on Monday he had to “sit on my hands and be quiet” until the court battle, which he won, was over.

“I think the key part to note here is that, one, they doctored the footage,” he said.

“But two, we actually then provided them with the whole, raw helmet cam footage, because they took 15 seconds and said this was me and my guy shooting unarmed civilians.”

He said the full footage showed them getting out of the helicopter and getting ambushed while pursuing an insurgent.

“So there’s a whole narrative here, not just them editing gunshots, that the ABC needs to be accountable for,” Mr Russell said.

“There needs to be a parliamentary inquiry into the investigations unit because they have now been found to spend taxpayer funds to doctor footage and allegedly try and frame special forces veterans from combat in Afghanistan.”
Channel 7 first published that the clip had been altered.

A spokesperson for the ABC told NewsWire it “removed the online video where an error has been identified”.

“The ABC is seeking more information on how this occurred,” the spokesperson said.

They added that ABC journalists Jo Puccini, Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson, who were involved in the original reporting, “had no role in the production and editing of the online video.”

“Any suggestion that they have acted inappropriately or unethically is completely false,” the spokesperson said.

Senior Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash called on the ABC to explain itself.

“The ABC have some huge questions to answer if the report is true,” she told Sky News on Monday.

“It is the Australian taxpayer that funds the ABC. So quite frankly, on behalf of the Australian taxpayer, I would like to see the ABC standing up in front of the cameras and explaining exactly what has happened.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles has not yet commented on the matter.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

ABC again in the shit, now even slipping evem lower in foisting "doctored" videos on their website...More Aussie taxpayers $$$$$'s down the chute. This has to be a new low. Heads should roll. This disgusting despicable by the ABC.

Australia's most trusted news source my arse!!!

Bigman’s Training Reports

I believe most would agree that they are a highlight of this board during the preseason and they can often be lost because of bickering, you know who you are, so perhaps a dedicated thread would be useful. That’s of course if you’re happy to bigman ? Perhaps even start the thread yourself for...

www.bigfooty.com

‘Huge questions to answer for’: ABC lashed over allegations it doctored footage recorded by Australian soldier​

The national broadcaster has come under fire over allegations it doctored footage recorded by an Australian soldier in one of its investigative programs on alleged war crimes.

The Coalition says the ABC has some “huge questions to answer” after the national broadcaster was accused of doctoring a soldier’s helmet footage in an investigative piece on alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.
The 15-second clip aired by the ABC in 2022 appears to show an Australian soldier firing six shots at two men from a helicopter.

But the ex-special forces commander whose helmet captured the footage in 2012, Heston Russell, has accused the ABC of adding in extra gunshots.
Mr Russell was engaged in a separate defamation case with the broadcaster when it published the report.

He told Sky News on Monday he had to “sit on my hands and be quiet” until the court battle, which he won, was over.

“I think the key part to note here is that, one, they doctored the footage,” he said.

“But two, we actually then provided them with the whole, raw helmet cam footage, because they took 15 seconds and said this was me and my guy shooting unarmed civilians.”

He said the full footage showed them getting out of the helicopter and getting ambushed while pursuing an insurgent.

“So there’s a whole narrative here, not just them editing gunshots, that the ABC needs to be accountable for,” Mr Russell said.

“There needs to be a parliamentary inquiry into the investigations unit because they have now been found to spend taxpayer funds to doctor footage and allegedly try and frame special forces veterans from combat in Afghanistan.”
Channel 7 first published that the clip had been altered.

A spokesperson for the ABC told NewsWire it “removed the online video where an error has been identified”.

“The ABC is seeking more information on how this occurred,” the spokesperson said.

They added that ABC journalists Jo Puccini, Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson, who were involved in the original reporting, “had no role in the production and editing of the online video.”

“Any suggestion that they have acted inappropriately or unethically is completely false,” the spokesperson said.

Senior Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash called on the ABC to explain itself.

“The ABC have some huge questions to answer if the report is true,” she told Sky News on Monday.

“It is the Australian taxpayer that funds the ABC. So quite frankly, on behalf of the Australian taxpayer, I would like to see the ABC standing up in front of the cameras and explaining exactly what has happened.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles has not yet commented on the matter.

Heads need to roll as we expect impartial reporting.

 

[Slippery Pete]

 

[Slippery Pete]

So for those not playing at home, that example makes it pretty clear why Albo, and his mates in the media and academia want this online “misinformation” legislation to be passed.

So they themselves can spread it freely & without restraint.

Any questions folks?

 

[Slippery Pete]

Heads need to roll as we expect impartial reporting.

From the ABC? Lmao

 

[Mutineer]

Heads need to roll as we expect impartial reporting.

We await with interest....

Will be a massive surprise if anyone other than the person/scapegoat that did the initial "ëdits" gets thrown under the bus, when it should be go right up the line to who is responsible for putting it to air , at the very least Mark Willacy should be the first to be boned.

 

[Mutineer]

The astonishing arrogance of the ABC’s war on truth

THE FRONT DORE: A Federal Court case uncovered in graphic detail how a ‘hazy’ decade-old memory turned into a fake war crime expose. But rather than apologise, the ABC and Mark Willacy have dug their heels in.

thenightly.com.au

THE FRONT DORE: The astonishing arrogance of ABC’s war on truth amid Mark Willacy’s fake war crime expose​

il how a “hazy” decade-old memory turned into a fake war crime expose.

Inside Australian veteran’s defamation battle with ABC​

TV
3 Min Read
16 Sep 2024

‘Shocking’: Veteran Heston Russell demands ABC boss meeting​

Australia
4 Min Read
16 Sep 2024
Willacy believes war criminals abound in the Australian forces.
He covets attention for exposing the murderous, callous inhumanity of Australian men wearing uniform.
Men sent to war, into dusty, desolate combat zones, to fight an enemy often not wearing a uniform but brandishing a smile, a weapon and a determination to kill Australians. Willacy reckons the reputation of noble Australian soldiers, and our nation’s good name, have been ruined by bad men. Murderers in khaki, killing innocent people, breaking the rules of war.
Willacy rails against the toxic culture in the military, and apologises to Afghan families he believes were poorly treated by Australian commandos.
Willacy chides the Australian public for not getting it. For not being outraged, like he is, by Australians apparently behaving badly during combat.
Willacy takes himself very seriously. He’s on a grand mission. Uncovering the truth. Exposing cover-ups. Catching killers.
Winning awards.
Willacy reckons he’s got a good nose for a yarn.
As he told Chris Masters in 2021 while celebrating his precious Gold Walkley award: “I got a bit of luck, but it was one of those situations . . . like all of the journalists who have worked in this space, you could smell something . . . it was a matter of getting to the bottom of it.”
So imagine how Willacy’s nose radar was going off when a US marine reached out to him with a shocking tale about Australian soldiers almost a decade earlier on a joint mission callously executing a bound prisoner in Afghanistan because there was no room left on an evacuation chopper.
This was his account. “I was providing overwatch as they conducted a drug raid after being dropped off . . . they had managed to capture a half dozen prisoners or so, and they called in to get picked up and gave the count of themselves and the prisoners for the helicopters coming to pick them up. The helicopter pilots informed them they were one person over capacity for the flight back, and seconds later we heard a gunshot over the radios, and they ended up saying they had one less prisoner than they originally reported. The flight back was silent in our aircraft, and nobody acknowledged what we had all heard because our comms were recorded, but it seemed pretty clear to everyone what happened.”
The marine told Willacy he didn’t see the execution. He heard it. He was wearing ear-plugs. And ear-muffs. But he heard it. The whole crew talked about it. Out-of-control Aussie killers in the wild. What a yarn.
Willacy was all in. He reached out to a few well-placed sources. They had never heard of the murder but were happy to back it in. Sounds about right, he says he was told. Those sources, like their motivations, remain anonymous and unknown.
When it came to publication, the ear-witness marine did raise a bit of an issue with Willacy. “My memory is pretty hazy,” he said.
“My memory is fuzzy enough that I would be useless anyways when it comes to giving specific enough details to go on,” he added.

It’s the audacity. The absolutely astonishing, unadulterated arrogance.

“It happened a long time ago . . . I had very little sleep . . . so I likely won’t be able to provide you with actionable information that could go anywhere useful in any specific investigations — only the bits and pieces I can remember.”
Of the mission he was on that night, the marine told Willacy: “ I couldn’t tell you exactly where it was . . . everything is kind of a blur.”
On the Australian soldiers he was accusing of murder: “Almost all of (the Aussies) had long wild hair, some of them had gauged ear piercings and most wore baseball style hats and tennis shoes instead of boots.”
Willacy had almost no detail. But he did have a bright red flag. His star witness, his only witness, could not have been more unreliable. How do we know? He kept telling Willacy precisely that. Willacy did not talk to one other person, American or Australian, on that mission. He barely tried.
Willacy recruited an ABC colleague, highly regarded investigative reporter Dan Oakes, to help out. Oakes phoned a source, a former commando. “Mark’s got this story from this US pilot. He’s talking about Australian soldiers shooting an unarmed civilian and then planting a weapon and killing an entire family in their home and killing an Afghani prisoner because there wasn’t enough room on a chopper for him. Do you remember anything like that happening?”
Commando source: “No — not that specifically. But I did hear other stuff. It was certainly at a high level.”
Rather than sit on the story, Willacy made little effort to corroborate it, satisfying himself after a few conversations that the American was an upstanding guy, and facing almost no resistance from his editors at the ABC, the journalist rushed it out, desperate to sneak it into the public domain before the notorious Brereton report into alleged war crimes was due to land days later.
“I am told the Inspector General of Defence could be releasing his long-awaited report this month and I think your story would be good to get out there before that happens as a news feature,” Willacy told the marine.
Ahead of the pack. Awards night, here we come.
In reality, it would later become very clear, the marine’s story was fanciful. Aside from all the other flaws in the vague tale, he couldn’t possibly have heard what he called a “pop” from the executor’s weapon from high above the scene piloting his helicopter.
To the world, Willacy and his colleagues in the ABC Investigations unit are experienced, highly qualified, reputable, respected and recognised professionals. They have a reputation. In the media, when Mark Willacy puts his name to a story, it is believed. He has done the work. Even if he can’t tell the full story, for whatever reason, we are satisfied that he knows what’s really going on.
What Willacy may not have expected when publishing this tall tale was that the commander of the unit identified in the story — a distinguished soldier by the name of Heston Russell — would take exception, and find media outlets, in particular broadcaster Ben Fordham and The Daily Telegraph in Sydney, prepared to tell his version.
Willacy immediately went into damage control, emailing his marine source: “Let me know if you hear from any Aussie journos! But as suggested, I’d just say I stand by my account, read the ABC story, and I won’t answer any questions. Murdoch’s people are tabloid bottom-feeders.”
As Russell fought to clear his name, the ABC’s Investigative Unit doubled down. They went after the former soldier, determined to discredit him in any way possible to cover for their shoddy hit job. The ABC, knowing the story wasn’t true, decided to use taxpayer money, more than $1 million of it, to unsuccessfully defend the defamation case in the Federal Court.
The ABC was ordered to pay Russell $400,000 even though the judge, Michael Lee, clearly took a dislike to the former commando, and was obviously enamoured and forgiving of the reporters.

Secrecy over war crimes drags every Digger through the mud​

Opinion

9
3 Min Read
13 Sep 2024
Journalism can be messy. But the detailed breakdown of how the stories came to be published, as depicted in the trial, were beyond belief. Reckless is an understatement. It’s a study in shoddiness.
And yet, the ABC has never acknowledged it, or apologised and there have been no ramifications for anyone involved.
Willacy still stands as an ABC hero, undiminished, reputation intact.
ABC managing director David Anderson stubbornly refused to admit any wrongdoing: “I am not going to apologise to Heston Russell,” he told Parliament. His news boss Justin Stevens added:
“Mark Willacy is an exceptional investigative journalist and one of the country’s most formidable public interest journalism journalists in this country. His journalism is beyond disrepute. He has done some of the most important investigations in this country. He is one of the country’s best foreign correspondents and spent a hundred days straight, or thereabouts, covering the Iraq War for this country.
“He’s a fantastic journalist, and I think it’s important that, aside from the specifies of legal cases, his journalism is beyond repute. More broadly, I assume senators are alive to the fact that defamation law can at times constrain good public interest journalism. The bar is extremely high with truth defences with regard to the deployment of truth defences in defamation cases, sometimes to the detriment of good journalism.”
The implication here is the story, as outlined above, was actually accurate, we, the ABC, just couldn’t prove it in a court of law.
It’s the audacity. The absolutely astonishing, unadulterated arrogance.
The malice and the mendacity.
Willacy was caught out fudging, manipulating, manufacturing, spinning, cinching a half-baked battlefield rumour into a war crime.
Yet the ABC stands unbowed and unrelenting, blinded by their misguided mission, their obsession with awards and recognition and, frankly, themselves.
The righteous Willacy believes everyone else is in the wrong.

‘War crimes’ reporting shows ABC has lost its way​

Opinion

13
3 Min Read
16 Sep 2024
“The thing that pisses me off . . . I spent two months working on a particular story involving, you know, a US helicopter crewman.
“They dropped the commandos, then it was time to pick them up. And you know, they radio in and said, ‘we have got six, you know our guys, and six prisoners.’ And the chopper pilot he heard it through the communication, he said. ‘Well, we’ve only got room for five.’ And then “pop” . ‘Yep, we’re good, we got five’.”
“Now I check that story with other sources that I couldn’t, I couldn’t really go into. And I spent two months checking out, going back to this guy, getting more detail, more detail, speaking to other people who were there.
“We put it out, we went to Defence, and then, a while later a newspaper comes out with a headline “ABC’s Pop Fiction”.
“You know, there’s this idea that we make shit up and we don’t.
“I found it a bit disappointing that you know, yeah, come after me if I’ve made a mistake or I’ve been loose with my journalism, come after me, I welcome it.
“But this journalist didn’t even call me. Didn’t ask to speak to the people I’ve spoken to. And I just found it annoying that in one day someone can pull down reporting or will try to pull it down, that takes two months.”
He made these remarks in front of an audience at a Walkley awards event. He was being celebrated for his journalism.
Aside from this account being hilarious in its hypocrisy, riddled with distortions, the irony is, his story was as close to a fabrication as you can imagine and the newspaper counter-punch was accurate after all.
New ABC chairman Kim Williams once railed against what he called the “tummy compass” editors at News Corp used to make editorial calls. Judgment, news sense, experience, according to Williams at the time, was to make way for more measurable stuff, like data.
Williams, now at the ABC, might want to take a reading from his own tummy compass and do something about the culture that has been allowed to consume the national broadcaster from within. If that doesn’t work. Just check the data. It’s damning.
You, literally, couldn’t make this shit up.

 

[Mutineer]

Kane McGoodwin

And now we have this..

Mark Willacy's position is untenable, he should be dismissed immediately, he's an absolute lowlife to stuff around with people's lives based on a pack of made up lies.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/abc-manipulated-my-war-crimes-quotes-us-dea-leader/news-story/8b3d19a8a9526470b0bab4a5a0807a55

ABC ‘manipulated’ my war crimes quotes: US DEA leader​

A “furious” Bret Hamilton has demanded the ABC remove another war crimes story, claiming he was misrepresented when talking about Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. Watch the video

A former US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) leader has demanded the ABC remove another war crimes story, claiming he was misrepresented and taken out of context.
Bret Hamilton, who agreed to an interview with veteran journalist Mark Willacy, said he felt his comments had been portrayed by the public broadcaster to infer he was calling for a specific investigation into Australian soldiers.

He also believed Willacy initially informed him he was researching a “positive” story about the relationship between the DEA and Australian specialist troops attached to Task Force 66.

“They manipulated my sound bite. The story should absolutely be taken down. And it should be taken down with an apology” Mr Hamilton said.

“I was under the impression that he (Willacy) would use me to tell all the positive things there were to say about Task Force 66.”
The Daily Telegraph has obtained the unedited audio and video of Mr Hamilton’s two conversations with Willacy, and compared them to what eventually went to air on program 7:30.

In the first discussion over the phone in November 2021, Mr Willacy is heard assuring Mr Hamilton he was “interested in doing something positive … about the actual achievements you guys racked up with the (Australian) Commandos at some point.

“I’m not too interested in going down the road of this negative stuff” Willacy said.

The pair then conducted a secondary interview on camera, which lasted for 35 minutes and where Mr Hamilton was overwhelmingly positive about his dealings with Task Force 66.
Towards the end, Mr Willacy asked an open-ended question about possible war crimes: “philosophically, from a reflective point of view, should those sorts of things be investigated? And if they are, should everyone be investigated? How do you approach that issue of potential war crimes on the ground?”

Mr Hamilton responded: “look, alleged war crimes should always be investigated. Absolutely. We have to, and I will say they have to be investigated through the eyes of a soldier, in combat. But yes, they should definitely be investigated.

“We’re civilised nations. We’ve got to be able to show that we’ve held our soldiers accountable when we’ve proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they’ve committed crimes.”

However - when Willacy’s story went to air on the ABC on September 21, 2022, Mr Hamilton said he was appalled to discover how his quotes had been used.

He felt his remarks about war crimes were presented out of context at the conclusion of a 12 minute video package, where Willacy had reported Afghan prisoners were allegedly executed by Australian soldiers.
A transcript from the final ABC story reads:

Willacy: “the Commandos of Task Force 66 were also there to lay the groundwork for a peaceful and politically stable Afghanistan. But in a war with no clear battle lines, it appears those objectives may have been forgotten by a handful of soldiers.”

Australian Soldier: “you just got f***ed by Task Force 66.”

Hamilton: “yes, they should definitely be investigated, we’ve got to be able to show that we’ve held our soldiers accountable.”

The ABC is in damage control after being forced to delete a separate story following revelations by Channel 7 it had added 6 gunshots to a video of Australian soldiers conducting a helicopter mission in Afghanistan.

Several other war crimes reports were removed last year after Willacy and the ABC lost a defamation case against retired Special Forces Commander Heston Russell, who was wrongly linked to a criminal investigation.

This masthead has put a range of questions to Mark Willacy, ABC publicity and chairperson Kim Williams on Tuesday but did not receive a response.