HOAX ALERT - Part 2 (Anyhow...have a Winfield)

Just two months or so after his recent nontroversy about Cadbury removing the word Easter from its seasonal chocolate eggs (they hadn’t), Senator Glenn Lazarus has been caught out again, embroidering some Murdochrian “truth” and failing to check the facts before posting his outrage on his Facebook page. This time, it's a new variant of that old chestnut about refugees receiving all manner of luxurious benefits.

The insinuation is that if we didn’t give the cursed asylum seekers so much extravagance, we’d be able to afford to look after our veterans and pensioners.

His Facebook post from this afternoon has the following to say:

Why are asylum seekers on Manus Island being treated like kings and being given free cigarettes and other perks at the expense of Australian taxpayers when we have Australian veterans who have fought for our country living on the streets, families who are struggling to live week to week and pensioners who have worked all their life and paid tax and can not afford to buy bread and milk.

The RUBBISH needs to STOP!

I have had enough of the major parties. We desperately need politicians who are prepared to put Australians and our country first.

But it’s true, I hear you scream from all four corners of your flat earth. It says so in the email!

Ahh yes. Let’s deal with the email. This one has been around so long that the government had to post an entire debunking on their own website. The Gillard Government, that is, in 2012. 

So infamous is this email that it’s been also been debunked by Hoax Slayer, snopes.com, the Refugee Council, Wikipedia, the Australian Government, CPSU, Sunrise host David Koch, and me. I’m not even going to link to each of these articles; they are summarised quite well on the APH website.

As for the Senator’s claims today about detainees on Manus using their taxpayer funded ciggies to barter for alcohol and drugs, we know exactly where that came from. Enter the News Corp tabloids. Late last night, the Herald Sun published an article by Peter Michael, under the cracking headline, “Manus Island asylum seekers trading taxpayer-funded cigarettes for booze, marijuana”.  Other News Corp titles picked up the piece not long after.

And what a cracking piece of journalism it is. The article, peppered with emotive yet vaguely inaccurate terms like “illegal” and “sources”, tells us that Aussie taxpayers are supplying detainees with packets of cigarettes as a reward for good behaviour. And that's accurate - we are. 

Before going gazebo all over our Facebook pages, let’s introduce some perspective.

Two years ago, the cost to accommodate, feed and guard one asylum seeker detained on Manus Island for one year was around $400,000, or $1095 per day. Add a pack a day of Winfield Blue 25s at $26.25 per pack (that’s RRP – the government would be paying far less) and the cost balloons out by quite a bit less than $10,000 per year, or less than $9 million across the facility.  The truth is that Australia would save money if we abandoned the cruel offshore detention policy and place asylum seekers - with their cigarettes - in community detention. 

Closing Manus Island now, and bringing the 900 asylum seekers into Australian detention centres would immediately save the government more than $150 million dollars per year on running costs alone. Community detention is even less expensive, and tends to result in more positive human outcomes. The savings at the one-year mark for the population of Manus Island Offshore Detention Centre would be well over a quarter of a billion dollars. Sadly, that's only about an extra $100 per year to each of our aged pensioners. 

Senator Lazarus's fretting about a cigarette allowance as though it would make any practical difference to the living standards of veterans and pensioners is disingenuous.

Manus Island Detainees living like kings.

But what of the rest of Senator Lazarus’s rant? The compound on Manus Island bears no resemblance to the palace the Senator seems to think exists, in which a safe and luxurious lifestyle is provided at the expense of the wellbeing of honest, hardworking Aussies. It’s a stinking hot, humid cesspit, with a history that smells as much of desperation as it does of sweat. 

That there is anything luxurious for these men on Manus Island is a fabrication of the Senator’s own making. If we take away their cigarette ration, which many of them don’t seem to want anyway, the maximum annual saving would be in the well short of ten million dollars – hardly more than Bronwyn Bishop’s helicopter and limousine budget.

Senator Lazarus is right about one thing, though: this rubbish needs to stop. The Papua New Guinean Government might love the money Australia pays them to keep a few hundred unwanted men in a prison on one of their islands, but there is no love, little compassion and only unwilling tolerance of the men imprisoned there. There is simply no sane reason to keep Manus Island and Nauru Offshore Processing Centres operating. 

This merciless policy diminishes all of us.

Additional Reading: Penny wise, pound foolish: how to really save money on refugees

Hoax Alert - Part 1

Don't believe everything you read.

A few months ago, my uncle received an email that rang a few alarm bells. It was one of those things that gets forwarded from person to person across borders and barriers, with adaptations to make it appear local. don't know what it was that set Uncle Ken's spidey senses tingling, but mine were in hyperdrive before I'd finished reading the headline.

I've reproduced the email below.

THE MAYOR OF MARYBOROUGH, VICTORIA HAS REFUSED TO REMOVE PORK FROM THEIR SCHOOLS CAFETERIA MENUS AND EXPLAINS WHY 

Muslim parents demanded the abolition of pork in all the school canteens of Maryborough. The Mayor of Maryborough has refused, and the town clerk sent a note to all parents to explain why. 

"Muslims must understand that they have to adapt to Australia, its customs, its traditions, and its way of life, because that's where they chose to immigrate. 

"Muslims must understand that they have to integrate and learn to live in Australia. They must understand that it is for them to change their lifestyle, not the Australians who, so generously welcomed them.

 

"Australians are neither racist nor xenophobic. Australia accepted many immigrants before Muslims showed up (whereas the reverse is not true, in that Muslim states will not accept non-Muslim immigrants). 

"Just like other nations, Australians are not willing to give up their identity or their culture. And, since Australia is a land of welcome, it's not the Mayor of Maryborough who welcomes foreigners, but the Australian people as a whole. 

"Finally, they must understand that in Australia with its Judeo-Christian roots, Christmas trees, churches and religious festivals, religion must remain in the private domain." Australia is absolutely right to refuse any concessions to Islam and Sharia. 

"For Muslims who disagree with secularism and do not feel comfortable in Australia, there are 57 beautiful Muslim countries in the world, most of them under-populated and ready to receive them with open halal arms in accordance with Sharia. 

"If you left your country for Australia, and not for other Muslim countries, it is because you have considered that life is better in Australia than elsewhere. We will not let you drag Australia down to the level of those 57 countries."Ask yourself this question - just once, "Why is it better here in Australia than where you came from?" 

"A canteen with pork on the menu is not the problem – it is part of the answer. If you came to Australia with the idea that you will displace us with your prolific propagation and eventually take over the country, you should pack up and go back to the country you came from. We have no room here for you or your ideology. 

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. AUSTRALIA -- LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT !!!MAY ALL BEINGS BE HAPPY AND WELL

I read these words through a couple of times, and aside from the anti-Islam undertones, three things stood out. Firstly, in Australia, Mayors have nothing to do with how schools are run. Schools are a state government responsibility. Secondly, the place where students eat is called the tuck shop, or the canteen. In Aussie schools, we tend not to refer to them as cafeterias. Lastly, there is no mention of the mayor's name, the school's name, or the name of the organisation that petitioned the mayor. It's just too vague to be credible.

Off I went to Internet myth busting specialists, snopes.com, who tracked the tale back to the Belgian town of Ath, in 2013. The mayor of Ath has denied ever being approached by anyone with regard to pork in the school cafeteria. The email showed up in Canada in 2015, with the details changed to a local town, and most recently, started circulating in Australia earlier this year, with the location changed to Maryborough, Vic. The slopes.com verdict has itself been shared on Facebook over 5,000 times.

In short, the email is simply untrue. It's all make believe. It tells of a events which did not happen, but passes them off as fact. Why would anyone do that? Why would anyone deliberately concoct and distribute a fiction which encourages the reader to feel negatively towards a specific ethnic group? The only answer is because the author - and to a lesser extent, the forwarder - wants you to feel angry, aggrieved, hostile towards that ethnic group.

Meanwhile, the Australian version of the email has made it to Facebook, where I saw it a few days ago, shared by someone I've known forever. Politely yet firmly, I made her aware that the story was a nasty hoax designed to spread hatred.

Her response was stunning...at least to me. She accepts that the events may be untrue but she agrees with a lot of things said in the post, and as it wasn't abusive, she believes she has every right to share it. And I agree with that, at least. She has every right to form an opinion and express it...but when faced with evidence that the story is false, surely a reasonable person would at least reconsider sharing it. She is publishing and endorsing something she knows to be a lie because the lie supports her existing opinion. I find that both close-minded and irresponsible.

I am unable to cut and paste the Facebook exchange, as she seems to have blocked me on Facebook. I did track her the FB post she shared back to a Mr Gary Smith of Hervey Bay, and I've contacted him for comment, without response. Mr Smith's FB page includes numerous Reclaim Australia style posts, plus another post, an anti-Islam meme-style image which is also listed as false by snopes.com. It's pasted here for your reference. 

Stay tuned - I have more hoax alerts to share. 

Crispy Critters of the Far Right

Bernard Gaynor’s Australian Liberty Alliance party (ALA) has been out and about, spreading their far, far right wing message through the eastern states. In doing so, they both sought and attracted the attention of various members of the Coalition government with their uncompromising messages of anti-Islam, anti-LGBTI, anti-Halal, anti-progress. In fact, the ALA’s own ‘Manifesto’ lists some of the most uptight, backward looking policies imaginable. 

Bernard Gaynor

Mr Gaynor has been hovering in and around minor conservative politics for several years, holding positions inside the Katter Party, the Queensland Party and Family First. He is the only ALA candidate on the Queensland senate ballot paper and leader of the party.

ALA New South Wales Senate Candidate is Kirralie Smith, who is the Director of Halal Choices, a special interest group devoted to removing Halal certification from the Australian products.

Just last week, the ALA announced that they were running a high profile second Senate candidate in New South Wales. Former rocker Angry Anderson has been convinced to sign on to the ALA ticket. It’s not his first attempt at a political career; the 67 year old was officially preselected in 2014 by the Nationals to run in the Hunter Valley state seat of Cessnock, but pulled out in 2015 “for personalreasons”. Prior to this, he was linked with the National Party’s federal campaign. The third candidate on the ticket is water rights campaigner Ron Pike.

Angry Anderson

An additional two candidates in Western Australia, one in South Australia and one in Victoria have been named, yet it’s still the three major names, Gaynor, Smith and Anderson, who are attracting attention.

Bowman’s perpetual back-bench Liberal, Andrew Laming, attended an ALA meeting inCleveland. Bernard Gaynor recognised Mr Laming and snapped a pic of him taking notes. The pic was tweeted to the local paper, the Redland City Bulletin, and to the ABC. Both published the story and pic online, along with comments from Bernard Gaynor and from Andrew Laming.

According to Mr Laming, he attended the meeting to correct any errors that the ALA may have made about Liberal policy. Apparently there were quite a few errors, and Mr Laming spoke to almost all of the attendees, presumably correcting the record in what he described as a series of “interventions”. 

Mr Gaynor said Mr Laming attended to “assess the damage that (Prime Minister) Malcolm Turnbull has inflicted on the Liberal Party with his pro-Islamic rhetoric”.

However, Mr Laming said he attended to see if there were any inconsistencies or errors that he could address.

“I’d go to any meeting where alternate political views are expressed,” he said.

The MP said he spoke to about 30 of the 37 attendees.

“It was an effective intervention to speak to anyone who was contemplating voting for the ALA,” he said.

He said Mr Gaynor had conveyed errors and misconceptions about issues including Islamic school funding, how halal works and government debt.

A sneaky peak at the ALA’s Facebook page suggests that some ALA members would be delighted to have Mr Laming within their ranks. But Mr Laming is not the only Coalition MP being courted by the ALA. In a role reversal, Mohammed has indeed gone to the Coalition mountain.

Buzzfeed Australia has reported that Kirralie Smith, ALA’s New South Wales candidate forthe Senate, has met with several Liberal and National Party MPs and senators inCanberra, presenting them with a petition in support of dismantling the Halal Certification “industry”. Choosing to stay with the conservative right, Ms Smith met with Senator Cory Bernardi, Queensland MP George Christensen and NSW MP David Gillespie. Both Bernardi and Christensen are known to exist at the crispy conservative edge of the Coalition pie; Dr Gillespie is Ms Smith’s local member of parliament. 

According to website theyvoteforyou.org.au, Dr Gillespie’s voting record in the House of Representatives is identical to extreme anti-Islam group Reclaim Australia sympathiser George Christensen’s record, which places them in alignment with the ALA. 

The most prominent policies of the ALA are those that deal with Islam and Muslims in Australia. These include a ten year freeze on people from any of the Organisation of Islamic Countries nations from immigrating to Australia, the end of Halal food certification in Australia, the banning of full face coverings in public, and the prohibition of Sharia Law, particularly as it relates to finance.

The ALA will find their anti-Islam policies difficult to implement if we also consider the next policy listed in the Manifesto: Real Reconciliation: No place for Apartheid in Australia, which includes the directive, “We stand for an integrated multi-ethnic Australia that everyone can be proud to call home.” Note the use of the term 'multi-ethnic' and not the more usual 'multicultural'. The ALA seems to support an integrated multi-ethnic Australia, provided that all the ethnicities that aren't white Australian leave their cultures at home.

Other highlights of the ALA's raft of policies include:

o   rejection of same sex marriage and same sex adoption,  

o   rejection of climate science as described by the IPCC

o   rejection of the UN Charter on Refugees,

o   rejection of assisted euthanasia

o   beefing up of the military,

o   preservation of the monarch as head of state

o   retention of the current flag

Lord Mayor-Elect of London, Sadiq Khan

Existing members of cross benches - Jacqui Lambie, John Madigan, Ricky Muir, David Leyonjhelm, Dio Wang and Glenn Lazarus will have to work very hard to retain their senate seats under the new voting process which favours the major parties. The ALA has the support of the extreme right, yet as we have seen in the London Mayoral election this weekend, ignorance and hatred can be beaten.