Andrew Bartlett

working for social change for 40+ years, incl ~12 years as a Senator. Personal account. RTs etc ≠ agreement. Interests incl immigration, music, sport, housing

[💧Michael West @MichaelWestBiz]

Are Aust weapons sales enabling atrocities in Sudan? Fmr Senator @AndrewBartlett for @WarPowersReform
#auspol @DavidShoebridge
https://t.co/VRK3sOezaC

[Deepcut News @deepcutnews]

🚨 BREAKING 🚨

The Queensland government’s controversial ban on two pro-Palestine phrases – 'from the river to the sea' and 'globalise the intifada' – will be challenged in the High Court with seven plaintiffs lodging a writ of summons and statement of claim on Tuesday.

Marque Lawyers, acting on behalf of the plaintiffs and led by Stephen Keim SC, is seeking to strike out “s 52DA of the Criminal Code and the amendments to the Police Powers Act” on the grounds they “impermissibly burden the implied freedom of political communication and are thereby invalid”.

https://t.co/i4rC4kF7xC

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

Upton Sinclair is also responsible for something else that passes without notice in our lives: the way we use shirt collars to talk about class.

About fifteen years after publishing The Jungle, Sinclair wrote "The Brass Check," which was a muckraking expose on American newsrooms. In it, he described the office clerks upstairs as wearing white collar dress shirts, while the people in the mailroom below as wearing blue collar button-ups. This taxonomic shorthand — white collar vs blue collar — would become a popular way for writers to sidestep the uncomfortable discussion of class throughout the 20th century.

Sinclair suggested that the ability to wear a white dress shirt allowed office clerks and middle managers to see themselves as socially distinct from laborers, even if they shared similar interests. An excerpt:

"It is a fact with which every union workingman is familiar, that his most bitter despisers are the petty underlings of the business world, the poor office-clerks, who are often the worst exploited of proletarians, but who, because they are allowed to wear a white collar and to work in the office with the boss, regard themselves as members of the capitalist class."

Of course, there were other dynamics at the time, such as race, but this taxonomic device (white collar, blue collar) continues to be popular today, especially in a post-industrial economy.

[David Shoebridge @DavidShoebridge]

With the utter failure of the government’s public housing program its galling to see ever more billions poured into AUKUS

[Doug Cameron @DougCameron51]

The US trashes the so called “free trade” agreement with Australia.
Increases tariffs on our goods based on lies, threatens our jobs and US sycophant in chief Marles supports subsidising US shipbuilding jobs🤬
So much for the “rules based order” that Marles uses to justify AUKUS

[Andrew Bartlett @AndrewBartlett]

@calvin21987 @RizviAbul It’s news because the leader of a political party that has the potential to form part of a government is supporting it - despite obviously not knowing what it would it mean in practice

[Abul Rizvi @RizviAbul]

4 things about Trump’s mass deportation. (1) Cost to date around $US100B. Asking Congress for another $US70B in 26-27. (2) Huge numbers of mistakes/deaths for which compensation will be paid. (3) Courts & detention centres clogged. (4) Actual deportations up only marginally.

[Andrew Bartlett @AndrewBartlett]

@threedogsonekid @hughriminton Yep - every time you get help from a nurse, a doctor, a teacher, an aged care worker, a cop, an admin person who processes your pay, etc, make sure you tell them they are zero-productivity deadweights.

[rosie @therosieum]

https://t.co/F2G1usjT2E

[Andrew Bartlett @AndrewBartlett]

Haha. I was going easy on Hanson/One Nation - most voters don’t care about soap opera & neither do I. But I’m well across the major problems happening in Britain & when Hanson promotes the views of someone with a record of egging on violent racist hatred, that’s relevant for Queensland voters.

[Andrew Bartlett @AndrewBartlett]

About to do 15 minutes or so chatting with Kat Feeney on @abcbrisbane (along with ex-Labor MP Graham Perrett) about a current political issue or two.

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

"My message to the people of the UK is that I'll train the new guy but you're going to have to stick with one of them eventually."

[Andrew Bartlett @AndrewBartlett]

@stinko69x @RizviAbul If your “will” is based on false information & thus a mistaken understanding, then of course it should be ignored. It’s not a good idea to base policy on things that are incorrect.

[Juez Central @Juezcentral]

Nico Williams es campeón del mundo. Y tras la premiación, va directo a la tribuna a entregarle la medalla a su madre. Ella, que en 1994 salió de Ghana y cruzó parte del Sahara para poder llegar a España en busca de nuevas oportunidades.

Una campeona más.

[Iain Cameron @theiaincameron]

Spain v Argentina is the World Cup's only match where both the teams lay claim to islands in other countries.

Spain's Vélez de la Gomera is a tidal island just off Morocco. Argentina has Isla Apipé, an exclave wholly within the Paraguay river (and within Paraguay’s border).

[Abul Rizvi @RizviAbul]

I was under the impression she opposed entry of foreign criminals to OZ? Robinson’s lengthy criminal record would mean he is automatically be found not to be of good character. Would Hanson override that?

[Andrew Bartlett @AndrewBartlett]

@heisenbison @abcbrisbane I prefer to confine my snark to Twitter (and Facebook)

[Andrew Bartlett @AndrewBartlett]

It’s such an odd thing to suggest that “Parliament would never say to yes” to war. Apart from the 2nd Iraq War - which was also demonstrably stupid, destructive, dishonest & disastrous - it’s very likely past Aust Parliaments would have approved them all. Sounds like they’re just scared of transparency & accountability.

[KellieTranter @KellieTranter]

[Why hasn't the Australian government just come out and said that a critical reason for AUKUS is to give America a military base in the Indian Ocean. Christopher Pyne's statement of that fact is understated but definite. Yet another demonstration of why we need more information about exactly what AUKUS means for Australia.]

"And the media coverage of AUKUS is very much about the submarine procurement, but it's a lot more than the submarine procurement. And from a strategic point of view, it's not something that's ever really discussed in the public, but it's one of the most important aspects of it. AUKUS is also a new United States submarine base in the Indian Ocean. The US doesn't have a submarine base in the Indian Ocean.

A submarine base in your city can, at HMAS Stirling. In the Second World War, HMAS Stirling hosted 140 submarines. It was one of the biggest submarine bases on the globe, because the Dutch, the British, the Americans, the Australians based their submarines at HMAS Stirling. It's actually a fabulous submarine base. And it's been great for Australia, of course, for the Collins-class. But for the Americans, being able to have a submarine base in the Indian Ocean is a massive strategic advantage."

~ Former Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne, at the #AUKUSPublicInquiry

#AUKUSPublicInquiry #auspol

[RTÉ News @rtenews]

Former Irish president Mary Robinson and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark have warned of the potential disappearance of the Palestinian territories and called for an end to what they called Israeli "impunity"
https://t.co/2qannl1Ygh