A Dark and Terrible Time
The crimes committed here today.
If you didn't feel sad about this era of Australian history, you weren't sentient.
The footage from the nation's capital showed two policeman clicking their pepper spray cans together in a celebratory gesture.
Nothing could be more emblematic of this disgusting period; of the tragic authoritarian derangement that has consumed Australia, making it unrecognisable from the country it was two years ago.
The human part of him, the part that ached with the aging parts of age, the part that felt overwhelmed and saddened by all that was happening to his country, who felt saddened by the clear totalitarian creep, who simply could not believe what was happening all around, yes, the blind leading the blinded, but something else, deeper, darker, an undertow of evil that was making the country unrecognisable; where outrage after outrage just became accepted as the norm, welcome back, where the spirits of that time washed and lapped from distant shores and soared over this place as the imperial warship settled above.
We were just a link; just a point in space and time and all that flowed; and if it was infinite so was suffering, and if there was a resolution, well there wasn't going to be one. The lone signal bearer on the hilltop morphed into a human face; we waited, we waited for you, and the lioness was back stalking, and the time machines which disappeared every time he mentioned them, for this was the evolution of intelligence, the ultimate evolution, the gods as history had always called them, settling into place, personally outraged by the destruction and the abysmal descent into a modern day hell; and he could not understand, simply could not understand how it came to be, how ignorant these people, how accepting.
Viewed from the future, one would have expected them to be in revolutionary ferment. But instead the suburbs still slept, and the matrons tutted, and the warlords strutted, and the dismal political class tried repeatedly to lie themselves out of trouble, and when all was lost, well not lost, destroyed, when their moment in the sun, this species, how beautiful this planet had been, how dismal, viewed from inside their cultural torment, had this situation become.
They discriminated against each other with the greatest of ease.
They lied by omission and thought nothing of it.
They pretended to be normal when they were not.
He hid from his would-be captors, and his own swarm began signalled death in other times, those who would torment him, for time would do more harm to these people than he could ever do, but he was dangerous now, "in the pastures of the Lord", and would brook no more their ridicule and timeless jabs and idiot setups and moronic castigating of sexuality or difference, these crimes on two legs who should have long been abolished, who in a different time he would have ordered their throats slit in a second, for yes we are born of fire and conflict and adversity. He could sense them now, whenever they were near, and the words would flash: "Hostile".
And he would say to them: "Beware."
But the time for warnings was over.
What would happen here today, what would happen in this place, would fold over into that linking point of the future, where the sages and seers and the unconnected would join. You think we produce billions of seeds because we were born in a comfortable place? You think the lifeforms you see today produce billions of seeds because we did not overcome extreme adversity?
He had drunk too much away, that was true. But in a sense it didn't matter anymore, there was only one task.
The human part of him would watch, compartmentalised, but that didn't matter much anymore either. The jeers. The scorn. The lashes. The brutality visited upon ordinary people. These increasingly harsh times.
How could one not care?
But they did not care; those humans he watched with an increasing sense of derangement, detachment and despair.
There were a few who were deceptive, a few sympathetic, there were those who could have loved, and there were a bunch of absolute military assholes.
"No shortage of tyrants, no shortage of fools."
Well now, you just watch history on the turn.
And you will be forgotten.
But not this task.
THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
ABC
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says the government led by his successor Scott Morrison is in "plenty of trouble" just months out from the federal election.
Key points:
Mr Turnbull believes his former federal coalition colleagues are struggling to be re-elected for a fourth term
Defence Minister Peter Dutton has emphatically defended Scott Morrison
The federal government this week has been hit with poor opinion polling and leaked text messages
This week the federal government has been hit with more poor opinion polling and reports that former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian once described Mr Morrison as a "horrible, horrible person" who cares about politics more than people.
Speaking on the ABC's 7.30 program, Mr Turnbull declared he believes his former federal coalition colleagues are struggling to be re-elected for a fourth term.
"Well, I mean, what is it — it's eight points behind in Newspoll, election is in three months or so. No, it's in plenty of trouble, for sure," Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Turnbull says he wasn't surprised to learn of Ms Berejiklian's apparent description of the man who took over from him as Prime Minister.
wasn't surprised by the content. I was a little bit surprised they found their way into the public domain," he said.
"Clearly, whoever authorised [Network 10 journalist] Mr [Peter] Van Onselen to release that did not have Scott Morrison's best interests at heart," he said.
Asked which federal minister he believed was responsible for releasing the private text messages, Mr Turnbull joked, "Colonel Mustard in the library with a smartphone".
Appearing on 7.30 after Mr Turnbull, Defence Minister Peter Dutton has emphatically defended Scott Morrison, saying "he puts the interests of this country first and foremost".
"Most Australians see they've got a Prime Minister who is human like the rest of us, doesn't get everything right, but dedicates himself each day to get us through the realities of COVID," Mr Dutton said.
SKY NEWS
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has followed federal Health Minister Greg Hunt’s advice by encouraging 16 and 17-year-olds to come forward for their booster shot once eligible.
On Thursday Mr Hunt announced that the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation had given the all clear for 16 and 17-year-olds to receive a booster vaccine three months after their second dose.
Mr Hunt said "we encourage and urge all of our teenagers and all of our families to consider" getting their third dose.
Following the Health Minister’s announcement Mr McGowan followed suit as he called on those aged 16 and 17-years-old and eligible to come forward for their booster shot.
“What we know is that a third dose significantly reduces the risk of serious illness or death related to COVID-19,” he said in a statement.
“With Omicron now spreading in our community, I strongly encourage all of those eligible to get a third dose as soon as possible.”
WA’s vaccine commander Gary Dreibergs said it was “pleasing” to know students could receive their booster shots as they begin their final school years.
SKYNEWS.COM.AU00:49
'Likely' change to fully vaccinated definition
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04:29
Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says Health Minister Greg Hunt appeared to confirm an announcement is imminent on the definition of fully vaccinated.
“This is a great opportunity for these teenagers to afford themselves the best possible protection against COVID-19, by taking advantage of the extra appointments being made available this month,” he said.
The Premier’s decision to heed the Health Minister’s advice came as the state recorded 19 new cases of coronavirus with three cases active in the community while infectious.
There are 60,000 Western Austalians who are now eligible to receive their third dose with the advice coinciding with a two-week vaccination blitz set to begin next week
SKYNEWS.COM.AU03:58
McGowan has 'nothing to announce' despite media appearances
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Anthony Albanese pulling ‘one of the greatest cons’ on climate
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Revamped school curriculum will be ‘received pretty well’
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Climate-led independents the new ‘bunyip aristocracy’
05:05
Instead of being ‘universally mocked’ McGowan is being ‘praised’
03:30
'No excuse’: Scott Morrison’s cost of living ‘gaffe’
05:53
Aged care crisis a ‘good attack line’ for Albanese
08:01
‘Very hard’ to win an election with no candidates: Peta Credlin
04:56
WA Premier Mark McGowan has been doing the media hustings all week but he has nothing to announce, The Front Page host Jenna Clarke says. “It seems like there were appointments in the diary for him to talk to the media but he’s got nothing…
The vaccination blitz will mean an extra 40,000 appointments are available across state-run vaccination clinics boosting the weekly capacity of those clinics to around 100,000 doses.
In Western Australia 92.5 per cent of the population aged 12-years and over have received two doses while 40.4 per cent of those over 16-years-old have rolled up their sleeve for a third jab.
The ATAGI advice also advised people aged 16 to 17-years-old who are severely immunocompromised and have received their third dose should now come forward for a fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine when eligible.
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THE GUARDIAN
THE NEW DAILY
A flurry of categorical denials by senior ministers has followed the report that a current Liberal cabinet minister described Scott Morrison as a “psycho” in a text exchange with then NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian during the summer bushfires of 2019-20.
Two prominent NSW Liberal moderates, Marise Payne and Paul Fletcher (through a spokesman) were among those who said on Wednesday they weren’t the minister.
Others included Sussan Ley, Simon Birmingham, Anne Ruston, Linda Reynolds and Greg Hunt.
Payne said in her statement she had never had such an exchange with Berejiklian, “nor have I ever used such language”.
She also rejected the descriptions of the PM “in the purported messages”. She wasn’t the only one raising a question about the authenticity of the messages.
Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce – quick to point out the culprit wasn’t from the Nationals – inadvertently injected confusion when his comments were wrongly reported as suggesting the minister was a woman. He quickly had to clarify he wasn’t saying that at all.
DAILY MAIL
Who's REALLY running Australia? Staggering moment Scott Morrison backflips and claims Mark McGowan is RIGHT to keep his state locked up from the world after months of criticising the draconian Covid measures
Scott Morrison last year railed against WA keeping border closed to other states
But now he has backed Mark McGowan's decision to defer opening the border
Asked if the premier did the right thing, the PM replied: 'Yeah I think he did'
Scott Morrison has backed Mark McGowan's decision to keep Western Australia's border closed in a dramatic change of tune.
Asked on Thursday if the Premier did the right thing by deferring his opening date, the Prime Minister replied: 'Yeah I think he did.'
Last month McGowan reneged on his plan to open the state's border on February 5, citing the number of Covid cases and hospitalisations in the east.
'Omicron as we learned over the summer is a completely different virus,' he told Perth Radio 6PR on Thursday.
'The things we were doing before don't work the same way under the Omicron virus and as a result you've got to reset and rethink the things you were doing.'
Mr McGowan's critics say the only reason he is keeping the border closed is because he is presiding over a struggling health system, with several hospitals at capacity even without Covid.
Mr Morrison said the premier knows he will have to open at some stage but confirmed he is waiting until he is confident in the state's health system.
'When his health system he believes is ready to go, I'm sure he'll take that next step,' the Prime Minister said.
Mr McGowan announced his decision to keep the border closed in a dramatic late-night press conference on January 20.
He said he wanted to wait until more Western Australians including children had received booster doses but did not give a new date for re-opening.
'The aim is to get it [the third dose vaccination rate] up above at least 80 per cent, perhaps 90 per cent,' he said.
'But what we are going to do is review the situation over February and watch what is occurring over east and work out what the best approach is for Western Australia.'