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Barry O’Farrell has threatened a Sydney inner city council with the sack unless it rescinds a plan to introduce a boycott on Israeli firms and products. New contributor Tony Backhouse says Barry O’Farrell may be “suffering from a belated dose of Candidate Fever”.
Bob Menzies and Barry O’ Farrell
I would like to commend the four Labor councilors who all voted to support Marrickville Council’s BDS motion last December, as their newly found commitment to overturn the policy shows the spineless lack of commitment to social justice issues that their party embraces.
The media, driven by the influence of Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited, actively campaigned for the replacement of one despotic State Government with another.
With the self assurance of his over-inflated mandate Barry O’Farrell attempts to dictate that a democratically elected local government body cannot take actions in support of it’s Palestinian Sister City of Bethlehem — giving them 28 days before sending in the troops. Barry’s threats are reflective of the totalitarian democracy that the state of Israel represents — with targeted oppression of the dissenting viewpoints of minorities.
Is Barry O’Farrell suffering from a belated dose of Candidate Fever or does he truly believe that he is the reincarnation of Bob Menzies who saw nothing unconstitutional or undemocratic in trying to outlaw groups holding a dissenting political position?
What will he do next, sack Sydney City Council because Clover Moore holds the dissenting view that Cyclists should be able to travel along cycleways?
38 Comments
4 million though.
Barry O Farrel is the puppet of these Zionist leader who are trying to corrupt our beautiful nation by supporting Israel, who in turn are killing People around the world for there benefit and greed. Barry, i left my e-mail there if you have the guts to debate with me. Your going to ban Marrickville council in 28 days is so oppressive of you it makes me sick. Sick to the point i dare say you CANT DO IT. Not while im alive. Do it if you CAN barry. Gutless punk.
Stand up everyone. Don’t let this guy walk over us.
Marackville is a case of sooo missing the point in this debate. Within the whole of the middle east there are many pent-up grievances between religious communities and tribes, artificaly lumped together after ww1 – some of which benefit from their dictatorships and others brutalised by them. That includes Jewish society. But to arbitarily pick one society out and say that should be boycotted is subject to the charge of a race based decision. The Greens, to which I support, were desperately trying to gain legitimacy within main stream Australian politics and the Green economy. They now find themselves subject to ridicule and division. I think the whole Marackville decision has been a disaster.
What a tragic situation. The Greens being an environmental party are not allowed to have opinions about what is going on in the rest of the world.We had concerns about Nuclear power in earthquake zones.We had concerns about people thrown into Guantanamo Bay for years without fair trial.We had concerns about Tibet and China.We had concerns about Burma.We had concerns about Trans Fatty Acids in our kids food.We had concerns about Human Rights in all countries.
But what does all this have to do with the environment? Nothing .Of course not . The environment is a weird thing that stands alone from whatever we do in the world,and so long as the Greens don’t mention the war OR the elephants in the room, the rest of the politicians can go on destroying what is left of the environment through their economic driven policies with thieves and cut throats all over the world
RT @independentaus: Why can't Marrickville Council boycott Israel if they want? Why is O'Farrell stopping them? http://fb.me/TCe3Lrmj
What did Israel ever do to Marrickville Council or the Greens in particular?
I think a visit from Senator-Elect Lee Rhiannon and Senators Hanson-Young and Ludlam to Israel before making these outrageous calls is in order, they wouldn’t have a clue as to how hard the Israeli’s have had to fight to secure their own state in the world.
Compare the difference of the former link to the latter and note the major discrepancy, why are the media going to such lengths to deceive? http://www.2gb.com/index2.php?option=com_newsmanager&task=view&id=8702 – http://home.vicnet.net.au/~prsa/history/sandersn.htm
Also of interest: http://www.democracy4sale.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=521:use-of-social-media-in-tebbutts-campaign-raises-many-questions&catid=3:law-reform&Itemid=48
RT @independentaus: Why can't Marrickville Council boycott Israel if they want? Why is O'Farrell stopping them? http://fb.me/TCe3Lrmj
@Righteous Man
…… is the puppet of these Zionist leader who are trying to corrupt our beautiful nation by supporting Israel…
????
……who in turn are killing People around the world for there benefit and greed…
????
Poor, poor man…… so confused. More incoherent than righteous
There is a disturbing lack of free speech in this nation, except for a privileged few with unfettered influence over much of the mass-media for whom talk is relatively cheap.
Marrickvile Council in future will purchase their goods and services from any regime, even if they are Totalitarian Democracies because the government are forcing them to as this is a “free” market.
I note that Canberra University have just boycotted bottled water – If the same were to happen in NSW (as Bundanoon Council has already done http://www.news.com.au/nsw-town-of-bundanoon-votes-to-ban-bottled-water/story-0-1225747578818) would Barry sack them too?
http://antonyloewenstein.com/2011/04/02/australian-murdoch-press-wants-to-insulate-israel-from-global-move-towards-palestinian-justice-and-bds/
Can state governments really sack Councils for boycotting human rights abusing entities? why was this not an issue when Marrickville Council boycotted Burma? Israel has been identified by the South African Human Sciences Research Council as practising the three pillars of apartheid and the additional crime of colonialism. http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Media_Release-378.phtml
The boycotts against apartheid South Africa were widely supported in Australia. In a similar fashion to apartheid South Africa, Israel has failed to obey international law continuously since its inception, denying human and political rights to the region’s indigenous Palestinians on their own land. White South Africans were powerful too – the strength of the Israel lobby in Australia should not be an impediment to individuals and government bodies with conscience joining in solidarity with the call of Palestinians for non-violent boycott since all other methods to achieve justice for Palestinians have failed. BDS is aimed primarily at organisations and institutions which support the Israeli regime’s violation of Palestinian rights. With an overall aim of highlighting Israel’s crimes against humanity, individuals and bodies can decide creatively how they wish to implement the boycotts, divestments and sanctions (see http://bdsmovement.net for info about the global boycott movement). To do this need not cost the Marrickville Council anything in dollar terms. For more background info and to assist in the efforts to support BDS in Marrickville and convince the Council to stand firm, please follow the action plan here:
http://www.kadaitcha.com/2011/04/15/marrickville-bds-resolution-under-attack/
As a Green who concedes this was a contributing factor in the Greens only receiving a 6.6% swing towards them instead of the 7.1% swing needed to win the seat of Marrickville I should be bitter towards Rupert Murdoch’s NewsLimited but this I am not. I have nominated that Rupert Murdoch be made Honorary Patron of The Palestinian BDS movement for bringing this contentious International issue to public attention in a State Election that should have been totally disconnected from issues Foreign Affairs. I feel Marrickville’s act of Solidarity by passing the BDS on behalf of It’s sister City of Bethlehem is totally Justified, if not why have a “Sister Cities” program?
From my facebook wall @ about 10.40PMEST Sunday
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Tony Backhouse
@Oliver Townshend, I don’t know where your comment went but I only received your e-mail, the figure of M$3.7 was the figure from an audit done to see what the value of Israel related goods owned by the Council – that does not automatically… translate to the needless disposal and replacement of what is effectively inanimate inanimate pieces of equipment – such a “book burning” exercise would serve no real purpose and it has been used for a headline grabbing media beat up.See more
about an hour ago · LikeUnlike
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Oliver Townshend Oh it was just a silly comment so I pulled it. But I don’t believe it was a book burning exercise. It was the council bureaucracy’s way of reminding the council what their job was.
about an hour ago · LikeUnlike
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Tony Backhouse I never said that the audit was a “book burning exercise” – it is relevant information, what I said was needlessly disposing of inanimate equipment only to go out and re-purchase serves no purpose, I used “book burning” as an analogy whereby RWNJ’s censored publications by destroying them for publicity – an action that had no real practical effect other than to intimidate.
about an hour ago · Like
What if the Council was sacked and the locals reinstalled them? As much as I am no supporter of trade embargoes, surely it is up for the weekend politicians to make their rules as elected officials, and for the voters to enact their response at the ballot box.
A Comment that I made on Sunday Night on Bill Cashman’s wall.
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Tony Backhouse
The big problem going against us is our transparency. Unlike other parties are posted to our website for easy access of the unwashed Shock Jock. So when we go to a State Election putting out Press Releases on State issues like Part 3A they …got scant coverage as the Coalition Tried to switch the Agenda to the Federal Carbon Tax Debate & both parties focused on a Policy Adopted by a Green led Council in solidarity for its Sister City.”
I thought Australia had free speech? Is this Barry O’Farrell seriously proposing to sack a council for reaching a democratice, moral decision? Outrageous.
I think it’s a courageous act by Marrickville Council to decide to boycott Israeli goods until Israel upholds international humanitarian law. Every time a council or local governing body takes a decision like this it has resonance in the fight against apartheid. In fact, as national governments refuse to act to protect the Palestinian people from occupation, apartheid and war crimes, it is up to local governments and civil society to take a stand. BDS represents a non-violent way to resist injustice and is surely to be encouraged and embraced. The practicalities of what to boycott can be worked out to ensure that there is no loss to the council but the principle remains the same: resist apartheid and stand in solidarity with those doing so. This is admirable and hopefully more councils will follow Marrickville. There is quite a precedent with councils in Ireland, for example, withdrawing contracts from companies acting illegally and in complicity with occupation and major trader unions supporting the BDS call.
I hope more and more councils decide to boycott apartheid Israel.
The Media campaign waged against the Greens cannot make up it’s mind if the Greens are Left Wing Communists or Right Wing as long as they supposedly speak for the Centre. But I will run a little history lesson by you as an example: Hitler’s media guy Joseph Goebbels achieved so much for him because he plotted against minorities to unite the Centre of Politics, Conservative Lutheran Protestants mainly from the North with Conservative Catholics From the South such as was Hitler himself who was Austrian. Those Minorities were both liberal and conservative – they spoke of the “Judeo-Bolshevic conspiracy” concocted to unite the two foes into a common scapegoat.
Second line should have been “Right Wing Fascists”
Another tactic of interest is the creation of a Right Wing Stooge Independent. This was what took much of Bob Menzies Agenda so far to the Right, Manly State MP Douglass Darby – Populist strike-breaker and Anti-Communist Crusader, a founding member of the Liberal Party was to turn independent and pursue his Agenda mainly against the Peoples Republic of China. Note that Pauline Hanson’s Campaign was also started in one respect from Manly as her handler was Tony Abbott’s (supposedly former) advisor David Oldfield. Douglas Darby’s son Micheal, as State Director of the Christian Democrats was the man behind the running of nine Christian Democrat candidates for the Federal seat of Bradfield.
I could not find any reference to complaints from the Federal Government of Douglass Darby running a Foreign Affairs Campaign from his Office as an Elected State MLA for Manly.
Certainly not when the Liberal’s were in power Federally.
The residents of Marrickville and not the aspiring White Knight Barry should decide whether Marrickville Council’s mayor and councillors are living in pixiland, in this case.
For the person who asked
NO, we do not have Freedom of Speech in this country, thank God
We have Freedom of Expression, which the State of Victoria has serioulsy curtailed even more and is in the process of making it even worst.
“United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 19 affirms the right to free speech:
Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Members of the Commonwealth Parliament reaffirmed the principles of the Declaration during a sitting on 10 December 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the UDHR and pledged to give wholehearted support to the principles enshrined in the Declaration”
“The Australian Constitution does not have any express provision relating to freedom of speech. In theory, therefore, the Commonwealth Parliament may restrict or censor speech through censorship legislation or other laws, as long as they are otherwise within constitutional power. The Constitution consists mainly of provisions relating to the structure of the Commonwealth Parliament, executive government and the federal judicial system. There is no list of personal rights or freedoms which may be enforced in the courts. There are however some provisions relating to personal rights such as the right to trial by jury (section 80), and the right to freedom of religion (section 116).
Since 1992 decisions of the High Court have indicated that there are implied rights to free speech and communication on matters concerning politics and government, e.g. permitting political advertising during election campaigns. This is known as the ‘implied freedom of political communication’. Issues arising from these decisions include defining when communication is ‘political’ and when the freedom should prevail over competing public interests”
As to your thoughts on Israel and/or the Gazan Arabs, the matter is irrevelant.
The point is that Marrickville Council well and truly overstepped the boundary of what they can and can’t do
Councils are there for the good of the local community. They do not even have place in the Constitution.
The group working towards this are now very angry, after this prank, it may well never happen.
(1)Total spin and beat up designed to wedge and tame the Greens. To roll over will ensure that the Greens right triumphs with the aid of Zionism, the major parties and the media. It ‘s McCarthyism for the 21st Century.Message: rock the boat and you pay big time. So should the Greens submit?
(2)The complication is that the Greens did not take off UNTIL they also became a social justice party. and tried to fill that left niche in Australia. Where is the contradiction — either in terms of human or environment terms? The Greens burden is not so much environment neglect but how they deal or don’t deal with environment issues. Similarly whatever happened to the base slogan:”Act locally/Think globally”? Marrickville, according to Brown and Hutton, is supposed to only act in a sort of NIMBY or IMBY mode. What if it was rainforest timber rather than these pesky Palestinians? That said, if the Greens roll over on this BDS issue even their environment agenda (as well as “ours” collectively inside and outside the Greens) — let alone any radical version of it –will suffer as that is PRECISELY what the game is about. Roll back. Terrorising the left of Labor franchise. The Palestine bogey is an excuse for a much broader perspective of undermining any Greens ascendency. (If it wasn’t this issue it would be another issue…later on). And the Greens seem keen to placate their accusers and play tame cat because that’s their modus operandi…unfortunately.
(3) QUOTE: “Sometimes, looked at from the outside, Australia is a strange place. In other ‘western democracies’ the ‘debate’ about the enduring injustice dealt the Palestinians and Israel’s lawlessness has moved forward to the point where the cynical campaign of anti-Semitism smears is no longer effective –
in the UK, much of Europe and even the United States. If Israel’s bloody assault on Lebanon was not the turning point, the criminal attack on the imprisoned population of Gaza certainly was. The same is true of the BDS movement. This eminently reasonable, decent and necessary campaign enjoys a respectability across the world, not least in South Africa, where it’s backed by the likes of Desmond Tutu and especially those Jews who fought the apartheid regime. The University of Johannesburg, the country’s biggest, has just broken all ties with Israel. Justice for Palestine, said, Mandela, is ‘the greatest moral issue of our time’. That’s the company those Marrickville councillors who have stood up for this ‘greatest moral issue’, keep. And those who have wavered and walked away should think again – remembering other waverers who, long ago, walked away from speaking out against what was being done to Jews. The scale is very different; the principle is the same. Do not be intimidated by Murdoch vendettas or by anyone else. All power to you.”
– John Pilger
Lets not forget the main Message http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oADfmYQWmW8 especially the part about “understanding” it comes from using logical reason and gaining knowledge from all parties concerned. We must carefully assess all information before we quote it as fact. Unfortunately some have an agenda to mis-inform but in reality they are a minority.
@Shirl thanks for shedding some light on the issue of constitutionality of the issue – Yes Australia is one of the few Nations without a Statute or Charter of Rights, yet implied rights are open to interpretation, Local Government is not enshrined in the constitution, but imposed intervention might be covered by article 19, Wingecarribee Council (I think?) fought off such a threat when Challenged by a State Government backed by the Bottled water industry arguing that Bundanoon’s Bottled water boycott was anti free trade.
There needs to be reasonable conditions placed on rights,thus few should not be absolute – for instance free speech should not offer carte-blanche to libel, defame, slander or plagerise. Many people in this country are appalled at the how the USA’s right to bear arms stifles any chance of reasonable gun control there.
Ultimately we are supposed to be living in a three tiered democracy – and the concept of democracy requires free speech, thus reasonable free speech is therefore implied. We have one of the better political system’s in the world it is in our best interest to utilize it ethically.
Correction on second paragraph Should read “thus few should be absolute”
Many Peacenicks like “the Weavers” Pete Seeger who strove in support of the Zionist cause back in the 1940′s before Israel was created now many can see that absolute power corrupts absolutely and that Isreal has gone too far so now endorse the BDS . The literal building walls http://www.vtjp.org/background/Separation_Wall_Report.htm is no solution for peace, the answer to understanding requires logical discussion.
http://972mag.com/breaking-pete-seeger-endorses-bds/
I am disappointed that some Greens particularly Cate, Max and Bob may have flippantly dismissed the BDS because of the reaction to mass circulation misinformation campaign, sometimes there are circumstances where appeasing your opponent is a practical compromise but as Winston Churchill pointed out the policy of “Peace in our time” adopted by Neville Chamberlain was a cave in. My understanding of Totalitarianism developed when I was given a George Orwell Omnibus by my Sister for Christmas in 1983 then set about reading it starting with the book 1984
At first like most I just thought it was a chronicle of the life of “proletarian” Winston Smith in one of three future continental trading block nations somewhat like Soviet Russia, these were at continual war with each other. It was a monotonous groundhog day existence under constant threat of surveillance from the thought police. Most Government departments actually had the opposite to their stated function – hence the term “Orwellian”. Most people dismiss this book as a comment on Communism and the future of the Cold War but the real plot runs much deeper, The Official Language of Winston’s homeland was “Newsweek” the lexicon of which was being continually edited and simplified, the use of the forbidden words or “Oldspeak” was forbidden. Without words you cannot express your emotions so you can only act instinctively rather than rationally, for a dyslexic teenager this was an important concept – without words you really cannot think or convey thoughts to others, thus Censorship and misinformation are the cornerstone of any Totalitarian Regime and the term can equally apply to regimes from the Left, Right,or Centre – this was an issue I pursued against Senator Conroy Before the Federal Election.
Many people have commented how The Greens are not explaining our policies, our views were rarely published in Letters Column, the only Letter I had published on a State election issue during the Campaign was on Part 3a and only published by the Illawarra Mercury that I know of. I saw no-one getting letters published explaining Greens Policies, neither were our press releases against a snow job of media misinformation.
Where the Federal Labor Party are losing Credibility, it is for not being able to explain their policies in a similar “snow-storm” – we are starting to follow their lead if we cave in to the likes of Andrew Bolt – it will do nothing for our credibility.
The basic concept of Democracy is Government by the people by – without basic free speech this concept is null and void
I was also to find out many years later later in life that I am Bipolar – a trait that was a double edged sword for two great wartime Prime Ministers in Winston Churchill and John Curtain. Sometimes this means we are not distracted by the bluff and can focus on the underlying agenda – but sometimes the worry of this disturbs our sleep patterns and we cannot function.
Please take this information on board – Winston Churchill was not perfect as our Gallipoli veterans could attest and when he saw through Hitler’s bluff (he was also wary of Stalin but formed a pragmatic allegiance) His warnings were dismissed as warmongering. When John Curtain realized that Britain had abandoned us the nervous exhaustion was literally the cause of his death.
Get rid of Clover and her stupid bike lines. Get into building homes not parks. The first thing you did was make Pittwater area a national park where lovely homes could have been built. You are the same as Keneally unfortunately Barry wanting Australian shops like Coles to close over Easter and Anzac Day but little the small stores which are usually run by foreigners open and rip off anyone who is sillier enough to shop there. If you want shops to close be fair and close them all you are only out to please the small shops that hate Coles but shop there and put items in their shop and double the prices.
sb “Newspeak”
http://www.irishecho.com.au/2011/04/20/the-political-assassination-of-a-suburban-greens-mayor/9258?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4daff944312a55ff%2C0 – http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/rates-roads–and-justice-in-gaza-20110417-1djkc.html – http://antonyloewenstein.com/2011/04/20/marrickville-madness-over-bds-but-palestine-rights-arent-forgotten/
http://webapps01.un.org/dsd/partnerships/public/partnerships/104.html
Point 8.2 of the Local Government Act – Showing “community leadership”, listen to the Audio Track http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/04/15/3192177.htm
A free market is not about coercing participation between unwilling trading partner’s which may result in a “commercial in confidence” style conflict against free speech or expression.”
When I think of it “Conspiracy to financially mis-manage” probably is covered by the states new CRIMETHINK laws that the Government intends to put through retrospectively – guilty as charged
I think Barry is a Greenie in disguise. He will support no new developments. Wants people on the dole. Development brings jobs.
Jealous people try to stop their neighsbour building but Barry is Okay with that. Not worried about lack of Hospitals with good staff and Islamic Schools that have been rejected on account of religious bias and Hillsong refused by Keneally. Only wants parks and bludgers. More power to Councils means more corruption.