Poor old Crikey must be doing it really tough, what with dropping the paywall to draw attention to its wares.
That said, why not enjoy an alternative to reptile reading while it lasts, including Bernard Keane's Your cut-out-and-keep guide to 'free trade agreements' ...
And so on, and the pond could have kept on quoting, but wanted to note this from Keane on the reptile-touted UK trade deal ...
You know that the so-called Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement is small beer when Boris Johnson declines to “exaggerate the overall increase of respective GDPs from this”, and says “it’s more important politically and symbolically”.
The numbers being bandied around about the benefits are rounding errors for both economies — 0.02% of GDP for the UK and 0.06% for Australia, though at least the UK media immediately placed the numbers under scrutiny rather than parroting them like Australian journalists did.
The fact that Australia got so little, especially for its beef exporters, who’ll have to wait until the late 2030s for proper access to the UK, is economically irrelevant but interesting politically.
Scott Morrison had a potential Packer-Bond moment here — Boris Johnson was desperate for a deal, any deal, to demonstrate that he had a plan for post-Brexit Britain and an economy that’s been smashed by COVID. In the March quarter, the UK’s GDP was 6% smaller than in February last year and it was still arguing with the EU about trade and border details. A “symbolic” deal was indeed important, to suggest Johnson had some kind of plan.
We’ve been here before, of course — right here in Australia. Tony Abbott in 2014 was in the same position as Johnson — no agenda other than stopping the boats, pretending to be fiscally disciplined, and free trade agreements that he claimed would deliver massive benefits (none of which have ever materialised).
In particular, Abbott was desperate to get a free trade deal with Xi Jinping, and abandoned years of negotiation aimed at protecting Australia’s interests in order to secure one. He even promised to revive the dormant extradition treaty between Australia and China as part of the price for getting a deal.
As it turned out, Xi played Abbott for a sucker, with a deal that was a dud before China binned it out of confected outrage at Australia, though fortunately Labor opposition and a Liberal revolt stopped the endorsement of an extradition treaty...
Ah the onion muncher ... ah the memories. It brought a tear to the pond's eye, just as Rundle on Channel 31 reminded the pond of yet another reason it retained a deep and abiding loathing of men's club only Malware ...
Such a bold and brave feminist and of course the papers were full of news of Malware's principled resignation ...
But all this is not the pond's core business, and as usual on a Thursday, it was time to check out the savvy Savva's deep and abiding loathing of Scotty from marketing ...
Relax, those links aren't hot, that's a screen cap, and the pond usually cuts them out, but the pond left them in this time just to show what a solitary pleasure the savvy Savva has indulged in ...
All the reptiles could discover as links was the ABC under scrutiny like never before, and the glories of SloMo on the world stage, big coups and such like, already covered by the Crikey items above ...
The reptiles ghosted the ABC and its talk of Q, but the savvy Savva uses it as a springboard for a full Savva snark ...
Oh it's all good fun, and from jolly Joe and BoJo, it's just a short walk to the garden of Q ...
It will be noted that the talk of investigating and reporting by media conspicuously omits the lizard Oz, but we already know that from the paucity of the hot links the reptiles drummed up to keep committed loons (aka subscribers) within the paywall ...
Well it's been fun, but sadly there's only a short gobbet of savvy Savva to go ...
We need to hear directly from SloMo that Morrsison and Mrs Stewart's husband were never friends, only "acquaintances" ...
Golly, that's going to be tricky ...
And so to the rest of the reptile stew for a bonus item...
The lizard Oz editorialist on the "free" trade agreement with the UK? Been there, done that.
The minimum wage getting a minor boost? Of course the lizard Oz editorialist would be agitated.
The reptiles have a workplace editor, with a catch? Pass the jaffas, there's an aisle just begging for a rolling ...
There was only one solution, call on the bromancer, who had been lifted above the commentariat ruck to the top of the digital page early in the morning ...
Oh that wretched hired-in snap means the pond could write this one in its sleep... while pining for the good old days of the cult master when this sort of story would have been illustrated by an alarming dragon...
Yes, it's just a standard bout of climate science denialism in modern reptile garb, while also maintaining the reptile war on China.
Nothing to do with us, nothing to see here, it's everybody else's fault. Act as a role model, seize the day, set an example? Even offer up some of the glib technological solutions that SloMo routinely trots out as an excuse for doing nothing?
Not on the bromancer's watch. Never forget you're reading the thoughts of an old friend of the onion "climate change is crap" muncher ..
The trouble, of course, is that this sort of crap is taken seriously by the opposition ... and so the reptiles can run this little story, full of joy for them ...
Well the pond never had an interest in voting for the party of Joel, but keep it up Maddy, and soon enough you'll be celebrated by the reptiles, while maintaining your life in eternal opposition ...
Now back to the bromancer, still celebrating SloMo and blaming it all on those wretches who buy dinkum clean pure innocent virginal Oz coal and gas, oi, oi, oi ...
Yes, indeed, indeed, and provided we can keep exporting dinkum clean Oz coal and gas, all will be well ...
Sorry, you'll have to head here to discover how to become an important Senator ... and if that means missing the final gobbet from the bromancer, you're not missing much at all ... just more of the usual reptile climate science denialist mantra, dressed down as hard-headed realism ...
Let's at least face reality? Yep, the pond is up for that. The reptiles will manage, by irrefutable logic, to go on finding ways to comprehensively fuck the planet ... along with endless excuses ... and the political potatoes on both sides of the aisle will find ways to help them in their mission ... and there's your Murdochian reality, staring you in your Q-faced free trade agreement eye ...
And so for a little light relief to Rowe, celebrating another meeting, with more chances to meet with Rowe here ...
DP - thank you for the Bernard Keane contribution. More explicit than just writing 'New Zealand Australia Free Trade Agreement'
ReplyDeleteAll just part of the wingnut/reptile book of prayers for the faithful ennit: fossil fuels,"free" trade agreements and the American alliance (a bit less enthused by that one now that it's Biden and not TFG, but still loyal to our primary suzerain).
DeleteNever occurs to them that it's just possible to game the alliance just a bit and maybe avoid the most egregious shitfuckery that the US gets involved in. Less reliable allies often get a better deal - of course they often get a coup (Whitlam?) as well.
DeleteAnyway, New Zealand, as usual seem to navigate these waters better than we do.
Befuddled - in anticipation of tomorrow's Henry, I will offer 'NAFTA' as an example of metonymy. Just to save time whenever such agreements pop up in future - as they surely will, with Scotty from Marketing. What else is 'Marketing' for?
DeleteQuite amazing how after all this time, the Bromancer doesn't believe in climate change - not one single iota. So off he spouts: "...the share of fossil fuels in the global energy mix is about the same today as it was a decade ago. How can this possibly be so if the whole world has been moving on climate change ..."
ReplyDeleteWell how about if we wise westerners are significantly cutting our actual use of fossil fuels and the "developing nations", whilst still increasing absolute use are slowing their rate of increase to the point that our cutback is matching their growth for an overall 'net zero' effect at this present stage.
So, "How can this possibly be so if the whole world has been moving on climate change." How indeed. It's a miracle to match the miraculous contribution of FTAs to our national GDP.
Woo Hoo, nearly a pound per annum benefit to British households from the UK-Australia trade deal! I can only assume a similar windfall for Aussie households.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/15/uk-australia-trade-treaty-is-the-new-dawn-you-may-never-notice
"In a case of failing to see the wood for the wattle, total UK-Australia trade is worth £14bn, compared with EU trade worth more than £660bn in imports and exports."
"However, after a glossy photoshoot with the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, exchanging a bag of Penguin biscuits (made in Stockport but owned by a Turkish conglomerate) for some Tim Tams (an Australian favourite owned by a US private equity firm), Johnson is already looking elsewhere."
It's very odd that conservatives are always falling foul of consequences that are unforeseen by them but bloody obvious to everyone else (politicians know they are lying but the voters seem genuinely unaware of what is going down).
Richard Denniss points out one of those consequences here
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/16/scott-morrison-may-be-the-architect-of-a-carbon-tax-whether-he-likes-it-or-not
"Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of “border tax adjustments” in which other countries get to decide the amount of tax that Australian polluters pay, and the way in which they will pay it."
Doubly odd when you consider that conservatives often buy the narrative that they are wresting back control.
I think that "voters" are indeed unaware of what's going down - the big issues (socialism vs capitalism) have all basically been put to sleep, so it's all small stuff from here on out. And you know the "conventional wisdom": don't sweat the small stuff.
DeleteSo politicians just get away with worse and worse stuff and "the voters" just don't seem to care all that much.
Yeah, conservatives are good at pushing the fiction that they are the brave 'anti-cancel' victims of oppression fighting for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, aren't they.
Don't spend your windfall all at once BF, save it for the new taxes ... as per your reference ...
DeleteIf Australia designed and implemented its own carbon pricing regime we would have some control over its timing, scope and size. But having decided instead to repeal the Labor-Greens carbon price back in 2014, the impact of carbon pricing on Australian exporters will instead be determined in Brussels and Washington.
Take aluminium, for example. Aluminium made in Tasmania is made almost entirely from renewable energy, while aluminium made in New South Wales and Victoria relies heavily on coal for electricity. While an Australian designed carbon price would have virtually no impact on the cost of Tasmanian aluminium production, when the Europeans and Americans start imposing carbon prices on our exports at their borders, does anyone think they will distinguish between Tasmanian and Victorian aluminium?
It’s no accident that, at precisely the same time as Australia is in a trade war with China, our closest allies would start to threaten trade restrictions on our emission-intensive exports. They might be our friends, but it’s their job to pursue their own interests. Calls for border taxes on “embodied emissions” in the EU and the US unite both populist protectionists and environmentalists. And the harder China squeezes Australian imports, the more leverage our other trading partners have over us.
There’s no doubt that Morrison can prevent the passage of a carbon price through this parliament. And just like it’s the rest of the world that decides how much Australian coal they will buy, there’s no doubt it’s the rest of the world that will decide whether a carbon tax is imposed on Australian exports. But why let economic or diplomatic reality get in the way of domestic politics?
To be fair, DP, does anybody anywhere anytime let "economic or diplomatic reality" get in the way of domestic politics ? And surely Brexit, for one, is a very fine example of that.
DeleteAnd "peace for our time" wasn't a bad example, either, for both Disraeli and Chamberlain.
True, the pond has always found it better to have absolutely no grasp of any realities ...
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jun/17/earth-trapping-heat-study-nasa-noaa