More anti-Dutton memes

Please share. This meme subverts the LNP's election slogan, "Get Australia back on track". Which is not even original, copied from New Zealand.

But wait, there's more!

Free anti-Dutton memes

Herewith is a collection of anti-Peter Dutton memes designed to reveal the real man, not the nice cuddly bloke he is portraying on social media. How he actually votes reveals his true, elitist nature. He's not on your side! These memes rely on simple facts rather than descending to mockery. Please spread them to help counter the billionaire-funded populist campaigns of the LNP and the toxic Advance Australia. Right-click or CTRL-click a meme to see a sub-menu with 'copy' or 'save' image. If this does not work, take a cropped screenshot and save it somewhere handy. Then post it in your feeds and ask others to share!

Browse and share these anti-Peter Dutton memes:

Liberals settle on the lies they will offer as an election campaign

The Liberal-National coalition seem to have settled on the spinstorm of mistruths they will rely on to elect Peter Dutton in April or May this year.

It's a cleverly constructed barrage of shallow populism that relies on their target voters being ignorant or forgetful of recent history. It pretends that the Big Money party cares about the average worker, when in fact its voting record consistently favours the very rich at the expense of the rest of us.

One core lie is that the last seven quarters of per-capita ("household") recession is a record, all of course all Labor's fault. The term 'household recession' which they have adopted is meaningless, because every recession is a household recession. The correct term is 'per-capita recession', ie where economic growth is less than population growth, which in turn is driven by migration, which Dutton wanted to cut. It means the economy per person is going backwards.

This lie ignores that we had a per-capita recession for almost the entire term of the last LNP government, pre-covid. That's why interest rates were near zero for years, an attempt by the Reserve Bank to stimulate the economy. During this time the national deficit also increased each year, despite Tony Abbott's election lie about Labor's 'debt and deficit crisis'.

Peter Dutton is claiming that Labor's strengthening of public service capabilities and numbers by about 30,000 is driving inflation, interest rates and increasing taxes.

Taxes first: Albanese last year changed LNP laws to deliver tax cuts to every worker, so that's one clear lie. 

The LNP spin also ignores a large corresponding reduction in spending on "consultants" like PwC and the big four accounting firms. They conveniently forget the PwC scandal whereby the LNP brought them in to help increase the tax take from multinational corporations, only to see them use that inside knowledge to sell strategies to the very same corporations aimed at avoiding higher taxes. Result: The government remains short of money, is in higher debt and regular workers continue to pay the lion's share of tax.

This also ignores that the LNP had deliberately hollowed-out and de-skilled the public service, resulting in huge problems such as a backlog of a million unprocessed immigration visas, a mess that Labor is sorting out, and a similar backlog in claims by defence personnel

Now for interest rates. Dutton and shadow finance minister Jane Hume blame Labor for extended high interest rates, because Labor's cost of living relief is apparently fuelling inflation. Never mind that studies show that measures like energy price relief for every household went into paying energy bills, savings or paying down debt, none of which is inflationary and so has not affected interest rates. Never mind Labor's two surplus budgets, which were used to pay down Liberal debt.

The LNP are clear however that they intend to cut taxes and government spending, including cost-of-living relief. So-far the only tax cuts announced are for bosses to enjoy tax-free long lunches, presumably while the workers toil away in the factory or office. Liberal ideology says  this will "unleash" the economy and make us all "prosperous". It's almost as if businesses are like savage dogs straining at the leash of taxes and regulation. They don't explain how cuts can fix external pressures like Putin's energy price hikes, spiralling insurance costs driven by climate change or shipping obstructions caused by Houthis attacking cargo ships in the Suez canal. The LNP never suggest that business owners might simply pocket the extra money, buy a second yacht or invest it in unproductive property speculation.

A big and rising cost for voters is insurance premiums. Claims in Australia due to extreme weather have tripled in the past three years and premiums are becoming unaffordable for many, if indeed their homes are insurable at all. Extreme weather is a long-predicted effect of climate change. The unprecedented LA wildfires have destroyed to date over 12,000 buidings and killed more than 24 people. Insurance costs from this event alone are predicted to drive global rises in insurance premiums.

Some of the 12,000+ buildings destroyed in LA

The Liberals ignore this and in fact want to make the climate worse by opposing clean renewable energy in favour of fossil fuels. They plead their fissile fantasy of cheap, clean nuclear energy but this joke policy has been well exposed elsewhere. Never mind that it would be entirely taxpayer-funded, a strange contadiction in the LNP's low-tax private-enterprise ideology.

Dutton and useful idiot Angus Taylor have both lied that their fissile fantasy would reduce energy bills by 44%, citing the freebie Frontier Economics analysis they commissioned. The report says nothing of the sort, but hey, credulous voters won't check and Murdoch media will megaphone the lies, which is what the LNP is counting on. 

Dutton also lies that Ontario's energy bills are far lower than Australia's because of the state's nuclear plants. But he does not mention that the state subsidises these bills by $8bn per year and that building them sent the state generator bankrupt. 

Meanwhile Labor's Anthony Albanese seems stuck in an old TV-era pattern of what Crikey has called 'deliverism', endlessly banging on about good policies they have delivered. His own delivery sounds like the 1975 Treasurer's report at the Dubbo RSL AGM, so it does not cut through in this digital era of personality and populism.

I know it's old-fashioned to care about truth and reality but the rubber has to hit the road at some point.

What the NSW Drugs Summit requested

Just for the record, and to highlight the craven bad faith showed by Chris Minns and the Labor party, here are the full recommendations of the Summit. These are the top ones:

Safety And Justice 

• Decriminalise drug use and possession 
• Introduce Drug Checking Services 
• Stop the use of drug detection dogs at music festivals and in public spaces 
• Stop strip searches for suspected drug possession 
• Review of EDDI including: enhanced eligibility, removing police discretion, consistency between EDDI and the Cannabis Cautioning Scheme and a clear evaluation framework

NSW regresses to the 1930s by ignoring its own Drugs Summit

Mr 1930s ignoring truckloads of evidence
that the War on Drugs has failed.

Oh dear, the NSW Drugs Summit is reportedly getting fractious as experts find themselves ignored by Labor Premier Chris Minns, who declared before it even started that he would not be decriminalising cannabis.

He offered no rationale for his position except to say he had no mandate for it. Such cross-eyed nonsense implies that a government cannot do anything unless it was part of its election pitch – and ignores that the Drugs Summit was part of its election pitch.

To promise this Summit only to ignore its findings is disingenuous to say the least. At least Minns and his minions are not (so far) trotting out the usual dribbling response that  decriminalisation would "send the wrong message".

Minns also ruled out pill-testing before the summit, presumably because he was keen to see more kids die at music festivals after being strip-searched by police. However reports say he might now consider a trial program, ignoring the clear success of such schemes in the ACT and Queensland.

Roadside drug tests are also at issue, with delegates urging that medical cannabis users be treated the same as people using other prescription drugs. Currently a positive Roadside Drug Test does not prove impairment but results in immediate license suspension and prosecution. Among many thousands of people who have lost their transport and their jobs from this law is a Victorian truck driver who testified at an inquiry in his state.

The man, who had a prescription for medical cannabis for chronic pain, tested positive and lost his licence. Unable to drive, he had to sell his truck which was being paid off, and eventually his home – all on the strength of mere presence of cannabis in his body with no evidence of impairment. He now uses addictive but legal opioids for his pain even though they definitely impair driving.

The Victorians have responded to their inquiry by allowing medical cannabis use to be a defence in court after a positive roadside test. Small mercies but streets ahead of NSW. Just how much reality can Minns ignore in his blind addiction to a 1930s prohibition mindset? Ignoring too much stuff only leads to ignorance and a minus political score.

Meta-study debunks claims of next-day impairment from cannabis

Results of the Sydney University study.

Yet more evidence shows up the unfair and draconian drug driving laws in NSW and other states, which can heavily convict people for cannabis traces detected days after consumption.

“Most studies didn’t detect ‘next day’ effects of cannabis use, and the few that did had significant limitations,” Dr McCartney said.

“Overall, it appears that there is limited scientific evidence to support the assertion that cannabis use impairs ‘next day’ performance.

ACT decriminalises, will we see ramped-up drug policing?

Great to see the ACT decriminalising drugs. Amusing to see butt-hurt conservatives, welded to prohibition myths from last century, bleating "It sends the wrong message" and ensuring they will never be elected. 

Alarm must be spreading through police drug squads as they see their dream wicket of easy busts, helicopter joyrides and regular promotion under threat. I predict they will follow the example of some US states after legalisation and ramp up actions like roadside drug tests and sniffer dog patrols so they can lie: "See, usage has gone through the roof. We told you so!". That of course will be amplified by the Murdoch press.

This follows the discovery of a new unknown drug, sold as ketamine, by the ACT's pill testing centre – another measure slammed by conservative fossils for "sending the wrong message". Because good information and facts are left-wing, you know.  Far better to ride high on the fictions and lies of the likes of Donald Trump, Alex 'Sandy Hook' Jones and Sky News. Reality is very inconvenient.

War on pot a huge success

 

NSW doubles down on tired Drug War rhetoric, street murders

Welcome to NSW, the family-friendly state

The NSW Libs today, backed by Labor, doubled down with tired old rhetoric that decriminalisation of possession of small amounts of drugs would 'send the wrong message'. Of course they can 'send any message' they like so it's utter BS.This comes after them sitting on the findings of the Ice Inquiry for over two years. Decriminalisation was a key recommendation. Refusing to decriminalise 'illicit drugs' of course keeps them illicit, a perfect circular logic. 

Meanwhile Sydney's Postcode Wars will continue, underpinned by rivers of drug money enabling public executioners to be paid six-figure sums as shown in the recent Four Corners episode. That program, however, joined a conspiracy of media silence by never once mentioning Prohibition, the framework that enables these criminal gangs. That, apparently, is the 'right message'. https://www.abc.net.au/.../the-postcode-wars.../14051188

California heatwave over the top

 

Support for legalisation rises

Support for legalising drugs has risen in Australia, with 66.1% of North Canberrans top-scoring on the legalisation of cannabis. [paywalled link]

... data indicates 41 per cent of Australians support legalising cannabis use and support for legalising cocaine and ecstasy use stands at eight per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively.

Those numbers are up markedly from the 2010 reporting period 

However support drops markedly in some regions.

National Drug Research Institute Adjunct Professor Dr Nicole Lee said people were recognising the current system was not working. 

"Most people believe that drugs are illegal because they're dangerous, but it's actually the other way around. So they're actually made more dangerous because they're illegal," she said.

Professor Lee said research showed majority of people who used illicit drugs recreationally did not have issues or require treatment. And she said there was no evidence suggesting the number of people using drugs had increased in places where drugs had been legalised."

Is there some way we can persuade the hold-outs, especially those in government, to Google "Portugal's drug policies" and wake up from their delusory dream? 

Medicinal cannabis inquiry reveals the dodgy police story on drug driving

MLC Cate Faerhmann

Many interesting snippets in this paywalled article from the Newcastle Herald, describing a parliamentary enquiry driven by a bill from Greens MLC Cate Faerhmann. It reveals the dark underside of alarmist police statements justifying their massive prohibition budget.

EG it appears there is zero research or evidence linking cannabis use to NSW accidents. The Police merely noted its presence in 60 out of 264 fatal accidents. By my maths, that's about 22% which is not far off the number of people who use it. So is that significant? If, say, left-handed people were 22% of the population and were involved in 22% of accidents, could you say that being a southpaw contributed to tragic road deaths?

Can you believe Clive?

 

Stoned driving again comes up WAY safer than drunk driving

A large meta-study has shown the dangers of driving while on cannabis are negligible compared to even threshold alcohol blood concentrations.  This once more shows the extreme injustice – and pointlessness – of roadside drug testing which measures only the presence of the drug, not impairment. A positive swab results in arrest and instant loss of licence.

"Canadian researchers analyzed data from 57 studies assessing the influence of cannabis and alcohol on driving behavior and crash risk. 

They acknowledged that cannabis exposure was typically associated with deviation in drivers’ lateral positioning (lane weaving) and a decrease in their average speed. Cannabis use was “not associated with an increase in crashes in experimental studies.” Authors also found “no compelling evidence” that cannabis influenced hazard response time, headway variability, time out of lane, speed variability, speed exceedance, or time speeding. 

They concluded, “Specifically, for the measures reported here, there are no instances where the average effect of cannabis is equal to or greater than the driving performance decrements associated with BAC concentration ranging from 0.04 to 0.06 percent.”

Scott Morrison's Australia Day address, 2022

 

Exclusive! We have obtained an advance copy of the PM's speech.

"Today I announce a raft of measures central to the life of Australians, and Australia. That’s why I am surrounded by Australian flags and am wearing an Australian flag face mask, as well as my Australian flag lapel badge. Because Australians like that. It makes them feel we in Australia are all in this together, pushing through the windscreen.

Clearly these measures are vital to Australia, a place where Australians never look into the rear-vision mirror, even when reversing at full speed.

Australians already like the Positive Energy we are bringing to Australia, because they clearly support technology like clean coal rather than the punishing taxes Labor will propose one day. Just look at the brown hydrogen we are already exporting from Australia.

Some Australian journalists are so desperate for content they have actually accused Australia’s Prime Minister of lying. I stand before you today to solemnly assure Australians I have never lied. Australia is better than that. 

Today I ask Australians to Stand Strong, because our Australian focus groups show that Australia now prefers two-word slogans to the old three-word ones. If Australians stand strong and push through, Australia has a bright future in the eyes of God, my personal mate.

Australia can only benefit from having children driving forklifts and importing cheap foreign workers, because Australians have better things to do than train for skilled Australian jobs. Australia is better off importing technology and cars, for instance, while exporting any bright ideas Australians might have. That enhances Australia’s reputation in the world, especially in France and Serbia. 

We are clearly best at managing the Australian economy to benefit Australians. We have cleverly arranged for future generations of Australians to pay off our manageable debt, while bringing wealthy Australians unprecedented tax cuts in the tradition of one of Australia’s favourite books, the Magic Pudding. We have fostered record prices for Australian family homes, making many Australians better off than they have ever been.

We understand the pain Australians are going through because of this global pandemic that’s all China’s fault. But we also recognise that Australians want to keep prices down in Australia by blocking pay rises or unaffordable staffing ratios for Australian heroes like nurses and aged care workers. We salute these heroes as they underpin the profits of our rich Australian mates, proving that if Australia privatises everything, Australians are better off.

But Australians can rest assured that one day this pandemic will fade from memory, like a miracle, just before Australia’s next federal election, when the wisdom of letting it rip will be obvious to all Australians who didn’t die from it.

But more immediately, I urge all Australians to get behind Australia Day, that sacred celebration of white Australia’s supremacy, culture and Australian beer. I’ll be having one myself while watching my favourite Australian footy team and wearing a Chinese-made baseball cap and eating an Australian meat pie for the Australian photographers. With sauce of course.

I urge First Nations people, here before Australia was even Australia, to celebrate our unity as Australians and don’t look in the rear vision mirror. It’s time Australians moved on from our history, except of course for the glorious achievements Australia can boast. Thank you Australia. We won’t be taking any questions at this time, or ever if we can help it. Amen."

'Screw what the people think! We love prohibition.'

Leading Liberals Domicron and Morrison 
prefer praying in cosplay to fixing
actual problems. Labor is not much better.

Too many governments, state and federal, continue with prohibition despite overwhelming evidence and opinion that it should be scrapped, notably for cannabis. Not to mention that it's very expensive for zero benefit.

The latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey spells it out clearly.

"One particular question asked, was whether they ‘believe the possession of cannabis for personal use should be a criminal offence’. The data tells us that 15.9 million Australians think cannabis should be decriminalised. The trend has been on a steady [upward] slope since the question was first asked in 2010."

Blathering boofhead bigwigs blow hard about prohibition

Lying racist Henry Anslinger
at the height of his corrupt power.

Idiotic prohibitionists flaunt their ignorance all over the papers today in their spray about Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) Cocaine culture. "This drug is illegal for good reason" lied Police Minister David Elliott as Magistrate Ross Hudson sprayed similar nonsense. "These people seem to think cocaine is part of a normal night out," one blathered even in the face of his outrage that it evidently is exactly that. THESE people seem to actually believe certain drugs are prohibited for some valid reason, contrary to all evidence and expert opinion. They simply repeat the lies of the original, deeply corrupt far-right murderer and prohibitionist, Henry Anslinger who produced the now hilarious movie 'Reefer Madness'. I'm no fan of coke myself – at least not the highly cut crap mostly available in Australia – but these pontificating clowns are completely detached from reality. And they rule us.

Habitual pot smokers are safe drivers – study

Mindless persecution in the name of road safety.

Just as pot smokers have been claiming forever, regular smokers under the influence drive slower and just as safely as sober drivers. This piles on more evidence against the Roadside Drug testing rules in Australia which mandate instant loss of licence if any THC whatsoever is detected.

Confirming the old story of the police pulling over the hippie Kombi van because it was driving so slowly, a new study compared regular smokers with occasional smokers and non-smokers being put through their paces on a driving simulator.

The results make a further mockery of NSW's increased quotas for such tests, especially as they target particular areas such as the Northern Rivers. As many campaigners have pointed out, this is especially harsh as there is little public transport there and loss of license can have serious consequences for victims who live some distance from their nearest town or workplace. Our 'justice system' is designed for injustice.

Still, both Liberal and Labor state administrations refuse to relax these rules, let alone make progress towards regulated legalisation or even scale back their intrusive sniffer dog/strip search regime.

And just as the original corrupt prohibitionist Harry Anslinger did in the 1930s, police continue to demonise and target small-time users and people of colour so their impressive arrest statistics ensure ever-increasing budgets and promotion opportunities. It's a racket.

The original study is here.

ANOM sting fuels increased surveillance and prohibition

The recent global mega-bust around the ANOM app and devices is predictably being used by politicians to push for increased surveillance powers for police and spy agencies, and to justify drug prohibition.

The sting uncovered a wealth of drugs and drug money along with very welcome takedowns of people planning murder and violence. Conservatives and police have leapt on this opportunity to reinforce the old but false prohibition narrative, conflating drugs and criminal violence. 

This is essentially a circular argument because the only link between drugs and criminals is of course prohibition. In essence it reads “we need prohibition because prohibition”. The police always boast that huge drug hauls have been “taken off the market” rather than admit they are evidence prohibition has failed. The unspoken assumption is that drug use will increase under a legal, regulated framework, despite clear evidence it does not.

Another fallacy in this narrative is the lumping together of all illicit drugs. These spruikers push a moral panic around ice, heroin and cocaine and rarely mention more benign and non-addictive drugs like cannabis and MDMA.

“There is nothing social about illicit drug use in this country,” intoned a pious and triumphant Prime Minister Scott Morrison, eagerly taking some credit for this operation, while conveniently deflecting from more troublesome issues denting his popularity. He went on to appeal to Australians to stop using drugs because it fuels organised crime.

China only part of the footprint

 

People still deny global heating

 

Temperature up, sunshine down

 Maybe it's actually caused by humans burning stuff??

Glaciers are melting. The water has to go somewhere!

 

This is why sea levels have risen in the past, but now it's happening fast.

War on Drugs linked to Aboriginal deaths

 

Taylah Gray. Pic: Max Mason-Hubers/
Newcastle Herald

Some important dots were joined today, linking the War on Drugs with Aboriginal deaths in custody.

"Police in NSW pursue more than 80 per cent of Aboriginal people found with a small amount of cannabis through the courts while letting others off with warnings.

"Start with bail and stop locking black people up, let our children home. Bailey Mackander whose inquest was happening today was a 19-year-old boy in prison."

Thus spake University of Newcastle PHD candidate and Wiradjuri woman Taylah Gray in the Newcastle Herald today.  

While Australia struggles with solutions to the problem despite the Black Deaths Royal Commission laying out several actions, legalising and regulating cannabis (and even all other drugs) would eliminate one of the big four reasons First Nations people are locked up in the first place.

Of course it would solve many other problems, and could even create revenue for the government, as is now clear from the success of legalisation and decriminalisation in other countries and states.

There is no rational reason for prohibition. We know it does not work, with history including Al Capone waging Tommy-Gun battles on the streets and now daily drive-by shootings, stabbings and murders in some parts of Sydney as criminal dealer gangs fight out their differences.

But Liberal and Labor governments turn a blind eye to the obvious and perpetuate this failed, expensive, murderous policy. More people should punish them at the ballot box!

Roadside drug testing again shown to be deeply unjust

A misleading message from a
Howard-era anti-cannabis campaign.

The unjust persecution of drivers detected with cannabis in their bodies – but little or no impairment – just took another hit, with a Sydney University meta-study showing limited impairment times. 

The injustice is pretty clear – 

"users were impaired for between three and 10 hours after taking moderate to high doses of the intoxicating component of cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

THC can be detected in the body for weeks after cannabis consumption, meaning users can face fines and loss of their licence, despite being unaffected by the drug." (from the linked ABC News story)

Furthermore the 10-hour figure applied to heavy oral consumption. Smokers and long-term users had a shorter period of impairment.