Is Australia A Dictatorship?
Just after the last Australian leadership coup, Aussie Insider looked into the Russian "dictatorship" to see how we fare on the freedom-scale compared to Russians - where we discovered we fare just as poorly.
With fresh allegations being made by our government against Venezuela at the UN, we decided it was time to measure how we fare compared to Maduro's "dictatorship" as well.
LET'S COMPARE NOTES...
Of course, we'll start by ignoring Peter Dutton's calls on ABC TV for voters to take to "Bill Shorten with a baseball bat" since the 62 year old who stabbed a Liberal supporter with a corkscrew is not quite what Spud had in mind - wrong party for starters! Ooops! Should've gone to Specsavers.
So, from the top, these are all the gripes our government has expressed disgust for these past few months.
1. At the top of the West's condemnation list is Maduro arresting Anti-Government Protesters
Meanwhile in Australia... PM Scott Morrison arrested an anti-government protester for "attempting" to break an egg on his head, which didn't break since the protester tossed it ever so gently so it could not be mistaken for assault. None-the-less, she was violently tackled to ground, taking out an elderly woman on the way past, man-handled, dragged off in handcuffs and charged with assault anyway.
And it's not just the PM who promotes violence against protestors. A few months beforehand, the now infamous Egg-Boy made the international stage when his egg-trick landed a successful break on Senator Fraser Anning's head. The 16 year old boy - who objected to Anning blaming Muslims for the Christchurch incident - was severely beaten in the face by Anning, crash tackled by half a dozen grown men and held in a choke-hold until police arrived.
In fact, we've lost count of the number of anti-government protesters arrested by this government, from Indigenous protests, to opposing fracking, to opposing new coal mines, to purportedly holding up traffic while dangling underneath a bridge to hang climate change banners.
The PM has gone so far as labeling animal lovers and worker's unionists as "militants"!
2. The UN condemned Maduro for failing to obtain national consensus on the election date
Meanwhile in Australia... PM Scott Morrison smugly fiddled with election dates and parliamentary sitting dates to give his own party the best possible advantage in the lead-up to Federal Elections.
What they don't admit at the UN is, even a democracy such as Australia, leaves the timing of elections up to the sitting Prime Minister - it is by no means achieved by national consensus under any of the Queen's Commonwealth nations. And it is often abused, even within the Queen's own parliament.
And let's not forget, Parliamentarians only worked for 13 days during the months preceding the federal budget in order for the Coalition to avoid public scrutiny.
3. Maduro has also been accused of taking out political opponents during the election campaign
Meanwhile in Australia... many Australians are still baffled over the dual-citizenship fiasco from the last elections which brought down some of Australia's most powerful members of parliament. This wasn't a war waged by Australians voters against corruption in the ranks, it was a war between the parties deliberately trying to take each other out, combined with an attempt to trigger other processes to eliminate yet more opposition.
And then, of course, during the recent federal election campaign heads went rolling hell-west-and-crooked with some of the most ridiculous allegations and accusations regarding social media posts causing members to be either fired or to step down. Again, these were not choices made by Australian voters, they were deliberate attempts by the parties to weaken the opposition.
Australians have also witnessed Murdoch perform numerous soft coups on our sitting PMs - who needs United States military intervention when our mob do it themselves every 12 months?
4. The UN members states have also condemned Maduro for manipulating voters
Meanwhile in Australia... the controversial firm Cambridge Analytica rebranded itself and was hired by several parties to influence Australia's federal elections. It wasn't difficult to work out which parties were involved since they put forward ZERO policies and relied entirely on bad-mouthing the opposition - and, like Trump, they won!
They used Putin, Julian Assange, the Far Right, the Institute of Public Affairs, the Heartland Institute, refugees, the fear of immigration, anti vaxers, and climate change to drive a wedge between facts and our survival instinct. As well as social justice, natural justice, privacy... Name your poison!
And then we've got Clive Palmer attempting to directly manipulate voters using the High Court to bar us from knowing where our preference votes go.
What of advertising only giving Chinese voters instructions on how to vote Liberal and nothing else? Totally corrupt but still legal, apparently.
5. Another accusation leveled at Maduro's government is the introduction of Hate Laws
Meanwhile in Australia... like it or loathe it, we've actually loosened our existing hate laws to protect religious zealots who feel like slagging off at LGBTQI's, non-Christians and Muslims. In fact, then Attorney-General George Brandis defended the Government's plan to amend a key part of the nation's racial discrimination laws, saying people have "a right to be bigots".
And our racial vilification laws are much broader than simply stating "Angry mobs can't burn people in the streets", being the very reason Maduro was forced to crack down on such behaviour. Like Venezuela, our laws also include hatred on the Internet.
Despite having these laws, our government has still allowed the targeting of those the hate laws aimed to protect. Under the auspices of free speech, our government has allowed the far right and neo-nazi's to infiltrate political parties unchallenged.
And what we once knew as anti-semitism has now turned against the Muslims, making them feel as unwelcome and unwanted as the Jews ever did.
6. Many claim Maduro's military "shoot to kill powers" against violent protests and riots are excessive
Meanwhile in Australia... police in nearly every state have been granted "shoot to kill powers" as well as the ability to call in the military to fire upon civilians. It all sounds very reassuring when considering terrorist attacks, until we look into what our government deems "terrorism" - which includes worker's union and environmental protests.
There is, in fact, a far higher probability of being shot by police in Australia than a member of the public. Aussie Insider would dearly like to provide the actual statistics of this finding however, the Australian government has removed it from public viewing because they're not particularly fond of us knowing or quoting anti-government facts.
They've even got teachers telling our children that listening to 'alternative music' makes them susceptible to radicalization!
7. Among the claims of the West are Maduro's misuse of executive powers to amend/rewrite/remove parts of the Constitution
Meanwhile in Australia... our constitution has been whittled down from a 1000 page annotated book to a handful of pages using the unlawful Australia Act, specifically devised to avoid holding referendums. Without first holding a referendum to ask us to approve the Australia Act, it is Ultra vires (without power) - as are any changes made under it and any legislation made through it.
To add insult to injury, many referendums that were held where we specifically voted "No" are now enacted unlawfully (ie "Mode of Altering the Constitution" April 20 1974 and "Insert a preamble" 6 November 1999).
Among many other examples, in July 1988, a referendum was held to request our permission to recognise local government (ie councils) in the Constitution so they may hold power on a local level. Australia resoundingly voted "No" yet local councils are now taking our homes and selling them out from under us using powers we never granted them.
And our politically controlled High Courts simply overlook these unfortunate facts.
8. Maduro's government has also been accused of lack of separation of powers between the Executive & Judiciary
Meanwhile in Australia... despite this being a fundamental cornerstone of democracy, we do not have separation of powers because many roles of the Parliament, the Executive and the Judiciary overlap. It is not possible to keep power in check when High Court judges, the Prime Minister and ministers are officially appointed by the Governor-General, who is also part of the Parliament and the Executive.
To give an example of how this plays out, in 2017, three parliamentary ministers set about undermining the Judiciary and, as a result, all three were held in aggravated contempt. This would normally constitute separation of powers however all three used their positions to have the Prima Facie charges waived and their political intervention was eventually ruled into law anyway (despite obvious breeches of the Human Rights Convention).
The Australian government also holds political prisoners indefinitely. The vast majority have never committed a crime and have been held for many years with no means for remedy. The judiciary is not permitted to hear their cases and police are not permitted to take any complaints of mistreatment or violence committed against them. And the media is not allowed to report on their situations.
And the media has been banned from reporting anything going on in our detention facilities!
9. UN member states have also criticized Maduro for giving government positions away (or creating news ones) for mates
Meanwhile in Australia... the Government has come under fire for the number of appointments of Liberal MPs, staffers or party officials to a string of positions over recent years, some of which the High Court ruled unconstitutional.
The Attorney General Christian Porter also recently appointed six former parliamentarians and eight former staffers from Coalition ranks to the administrative appeals tribunal - one of whom referred to refugee activists and environmentalists as “a bunch of cockroaches” which indicates how many appeals will be unfairly dealt with after these appointments.
Senator Barnaby Joyce was ruled ineligible to stand for elections due to breaking electoral laws, yet somehow re-entered Parliament as Deputy Prime Minister. He then created a new government position for his mistress, who he knocked up and then left his wife and children to shack up with her at tax-payers expense. Known as the perpetrator of Australia's "Watergate" scandal, Joyce then stepped down as Deputy Prime Minister only to return from the backbench in the recent federal elections, all while under investigation for rape.
The Nationals party were later busted and let off for neo-Nazi branch stacking with the principal purpose of influencing the outcome of internal preselections.
10 . Maduro is often accused of jailing people without charge or trial and/or torture
Meanwhile in Australia... our government claims its detention regime “is administrative in nature and not for punitive purposes” however it is becoming more and more apparent that this is not true. Some ex-prison guards now working in these "administrative" detention facilities say it is far more punitive than supermax.
Food restrictions are being used to in a punitive manner causing daily confrontations by guards. Detainees are tortured in various ways, such as leaving their lights on all night and random cell searches at all hours to deprive them of sleep. They're also held in solitary confinement for extended periods, sometimes for the crime of making complaints but often for no reason at all. And random attacks by guards, often resulting in serious injuries, are all too common. And mental and physical health is neglected.
The government tells the UN administrative detention averages around 9 months, they tell the detainees to expect 18 months, but in reality 5 to 10 years is the average. And that's only if you're lucky enough to be detained onshore.
Offshore detention is a whole OTHER world of torture and legal black holes with no end.
11. The West claims Maduro's government lacks transparency to hide corruption
Meanwhile in Australia... we are mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed manure. The Australian government is refusing access to documents at record rates, aided by a flawed freedom of information regime beset by delays, understaffing and unnecessary obfuscation.
Patently disgraceful conduct, too often involving the misuse of public money, is routinely covered up, denied, even by those who aren’t directly involved, or excused as within the rules, which merely means that the conduct is not illegal because of self-indulgent rules which the politicians themselves have determined.
Every so often we are told politicians are misusing our taxes for personal affairs, while at the same time telling us we're not "entitled" to welfare assistance, irrespective of our own tax contributions.
And they have literally stolen our entire pension fund, for which 10% of our taxes are still being deducted today.
12. The West has also claimed Maduro rigged the elections and allowed voter fraud
Meanwhile in Australia... the electoral commission has disclosed tens of thousands of fraudulent votes cast in the previous elections because, unlike Venezuela, our election system does not record our thumb prints nor are Australian voters required to present identification at the polling booths. We have no idea if tens of thousands of voters are voting once, twice or ten times per election.
Democracy in Australia has largely been reduced to a sham - a comedic contest between the Coalition and the Labor party. They dominate public discussion and debate, and elections are heavily weighted in their favour. Legislation which THEY enacted provides public funding based on past election results and gives them an overwhelming electoral advantage over other parties and independent candidates because they always receive the most money from the past election.
Additionally, we only have a paper ballots and no way of double-checking the vote counts.
We are far behind even 3rd world countries who have fingerprint ID and electronic voting which is then double-checked against paper ballot counts.
13. It is also claimed that Maduro controls the media and manipulates viewer content
Meanwhile in Australia... the heavily funded Coalition and Labor parties find no obstacles in actively bribing Australian media, which is incredibly easy to do when one single person owns more than 70% of the media landscape. That person, of course, is Rupert Murdoch who is repeatedly promised to pay no taxes on his multi-billion dollar media empire so long as he prints pro-government propaganda.
Misleading and deceptive political conduct is not only legal but widely celebrated by the media. Important information is routinely withheld, distorted and manipulated. Falsehood and propaganda are euphemistically mis-described as spin. Even our own public broadcaster has been raked over the coals and threatened to be sold to Murdoch if they don't comply.
It’s almost impossible for voters to distinguish information and rational opinion from nonsense and lies. Public dissent and criticism are discouraged. Unwelcome ideas are condemned. Hate-speech is synonymous with free speech.
And shock-jocks and vitriolic quasi-intellectual commentators are simply government endorsed bullies with government endorsed public platforms.
14. The West has repeatedly condemned Maduro for torturing people who speak against the government
Meanwhile in Australia... we have the "Fixated Person's Unit" operating at federal level (FTAC) which forcibly injects Australians with anti-psychotics drugs who speak against the government. From internal whistleblowers who expose government corruption to anybody simply lobbying their local member for political change, nobody is safe, not even children.
Despite public interest disclosure laws passed in 2013, Australians may also face up to 161 years in prison for recording evidence of government corruption. And those who report government corruption to the judiciary also face prison time.
Of course, the Australian Government has absolutely no intention of protecting Australian citizen Julian Assange from Human Rights abuses who, according the Australian Federal Police, committed no crime under Australian Laws. Even the so-called "Swedish rape" allegations, consisting of consensual sex and not especially liking the use of condoms, do not constitute a crime in Australia.
And we sure-as-hell didn't launch a world-wide manhunt when George Pell skipped the country to avoid pedophile charges!
What ever THIS is, it ain't democracy! But we do have our fair share of delusional Power-Trippers who drive a mean armchair to the ballot box every 3 years
Note: This opinion piece neither confirms or denies any charges leveled at Venezuelan democracy. It simply compares those charges with the ironies of our own idiotic democracy, most of which the Australian public know to be true but are often too stubborn to admit.