Assemblage

Vincent van Gogh. Men and Women Miners going to Work. 

Marcus Aurelius. Meditations.

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We come to you in times of genius and despair; the assemblage in the hills and on the valley floors, on strategic slopes and within the Brush, as the native forest of this part of the South Coast of New South Wales was once known. 

These were a conquered people; a destroyed lifeform. Only the remnants remain. He could hear them now. 

He found it hard, then, this intersection between the military minded and the abstract, between the place he was and the place he could be; the expression, sometimes, as they, too, wondered at the extraordinary nature of it all, that they could telescope back to this place, and see it how it was, so long ago; so many centuries ago, when the primitives were only just beginning to build a new civilisation. 

Mostly they remained quietly, safely in place; sheltering in place; an option not open to him, or ultimately to them. 

What was the secret then, that they wished to uncover? 

It was not a secret; it was an exploring of wisdom, a desperate attempt to save another danger ridden place, to fight off the evil of their times, the brutality and hostility and indifference of the humans, the primitives, as they thought of these early humans; this unsophisticated time and place, the elementary surgery and primitive, backward medicines. 

They were playing a game they would be well advised to avoid, the manipulation of the species, the clutching for talent and characteristics, already well advanced, should have been avoided. Nature, and thereby the gods, should have been allowed to take its course. But that's not what these geniuses wanted; driven as they were not just by wonder but by greed, by the determination of their bosses, by military strategy, by the full knowledge that humans were now in a rapid state of evolution, and that a sprinkling, or sparkling of futurists and technologists and abstract cosmologists were already well on the task.

To discover what?

So we come to you to warn, to pluck, to show a river to the divine, to answer the prayers of one particular seer, to show him, as he tried to protect and preserve his own people, of his own time, how very much it mattered; no matter how mad, how strange, how fantastical it all might seem. 

This was a time for all time.

This was a time in history when so many things collapsed; faith in government, administrative structures, personnel, representatives, rulers and leaders, scholars and scribes, faith in them all collapsed. 

The government could spend millions sending Bush Masters, a kind of tank, to the war in Ukraine, but could not rescue its own people from the floods of Lismore and its surrounds; the devastating floods which washed away much of the town and almost all its businesses; leaving thousands of houses destroyed.

So many things were happening, so many things would happen, that this moment would seem minute, lost in the history of collapse. 

But these things, the collapse in the faith of governing structures, was key to the collapse of it all.

And so they opened their Christian Bibles and they sought comfort in their own rituals, but in the end it was that destruction of faith, that all was right with the world, that the rulers had the best interests of the common people at heart, that the military served to protect; these faiths, not the faiths in the old gods and new, would be the thing that tore the structure of the society apart.

And so it would be; and so it will always be.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has received a bollocking about cost of living pressures from a pub patron in regional New South Wales, as he campaigned ahead of the federal election.

Key points:

• Mr Morrison was meeting locals at the Edgeworth Tavern in Newcastle when he was confronted by a disability pensioner

• The man questioned the Prime Minister about a lack of financial support for older Australians as living costs rise

• Mr Morrison's character has come under heavy scrutiny in the past week

Mr Morrison made an unannounced visit to the Edgeworth Tavern on the outskirts of Newcastle, where he was accosted by a local disability support pensioner.

The pensioner berated the Prime Minister about the level of financial support for older Australians.

"This is what you said when you got elected last time: 'We're going help all those people that worked all their lives, paid their taxes and those that have a go, get a go'," the man said,

"Well, I've had a go, mate, I've worked all my life and paid my taxes."

The man told the Prime Minister he had worked in the mines for 30 years, but his retirement was being affected by tight restrictions on pension payments.

"You can have a million dollar house you can have $250,000 ... listen to me for a change, right $250,000 in the bank, you can have negative gearing and franking credits, but a disability pensioner can't have any income," he said.

He refused to be drawn away from the Prime Minister, pointing his finger at Scott Morrison as he outlined his frustrations.

"You know another promise you made, you were going to have an integrity commission ... it's the foxes in charge of the henhouse," he said.

Mr Morrison offered several times for the man to speak to one of his staff members about the details of his concerns.

"You better f****ng do something ... I'm sick of your bullshit," the man shouted, at which point the Prime Minister walked away.

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A leaked strategy document from the ALP shows how the party is planning to approach the upcoming federal election campaign, placing restrictions on candidates to conduct media interviews, make public appearances, hold press conferences or write opinion pieces.

The Australian Labor Party has sent an extraordinary letter to its candidates, key members and press secretaries ordering them to ensure all media engagements and talking points are approved by a team of unelected campaign directors.

The internal briefing document – which has been obtained by Sky News Australia – unveils the new measures Labor will take to ensure it controls media messaging this election.

Labor’s candidates, members and press secretaries have been warned that all interviews must be approved by campaign headquarters staff while all policy discussion talking points will be drafted in advance by party bureaucrats.

Candidates will also face limitations on doing “stand-ups” in their electorates, with party bosses warning not all public appearances will be approved.

In the letter, written by the Australian Labor Party’s Director of Campaign HQ John Olenich and Deputy Directors Joanna Heath and Josh Lloyd, the authors demanded cooperation with the directives.

“We realise that this will be a very different way of operating for you and your teams, so thank you in advance for your cooperation,” the letter read.

The Australian Labor Party has sent an extraordinary letter to its candidates, key members and press secretaries ordering them to ensure all media engagements and talking points are approved by a team of unelected campaign directors.

The internal briefing document – which has been obtained by Sky News Australia – unveils the new measures Labor will take to ensure it controls media messaging this election.

Labor’s candidates, members and press secretaries have been warned that all interviews must be approved by campaign headquarters staff while all policy discussion talking points will be drafted in advance by party bureaucrats.

Candidates will also face limitations on doing “stand-ups” in their electorates, with party bosses warning not all public appearances will be approved.

In the letter, written by the Australian Labor Party’s Director of Campaign HQ John Olenich and Deputy Directors Joanna Heath and Josh Lloyd, the authors demanded cooperation with the directives.

“We realise that this will be a very different way of operating for you and your teams, so thank you in advance for your cooperation,” the letter read.