Wake-up call for Liberal snakes behind disgraceful rumours about Sussan Ley - and Labor goes full steam ahead on super raid every expert says is a disaster: PVO
The new opposition leader Sussan Ley has had rather a lot to contend with since assuming what is often described as the toughest job in politics.
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Reuters
14 minutes ago
- Reuters
Australia's Albanese downplays Netanyahu's criticism as ties sour
SYDNEY, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday that he treats leaders of other countries with respect after his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu attacked him over his decision to recognise a Palestinian state. "I don't take these things personally, I engage with people diplomatically. He has had similar things to say about other leaders," Albanese said during a media briefing. Netanyahu's personal attack on Albanese has further strained relations between the two countries. Ties soured after Australia decided last week to conditionally recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September. "History will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia's Jews," Netanyahu said in a post on X on Tuesday. Albanese told reporters that he had informed Netanyahu about Australia's decision to support a Palestinian state before his centre-left government formally announced the plan. "At that time, I gave Prime Minister Netanyahu a clear indication of my view and Australia's view going forward but also a clear indication of the direction in which we were headed," Albanese said. "I gave him the opportunity to outline what political solution there was and gave him that opportunity." Israel this week revoked the visas of Australian diplomats to the Palestinian Authority after Albanese's Labor government cancelled the visa of an Israeli lawmaker over remarks the Australian government considered controversial and inflammatory. Israel has been facing increasing international pressure over its military offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed thousands of civilians and plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, displacing most of its population. The offensive began nearly two years ago after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 more hostage.
Daily Mail
14 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
How Kyle and Jackie O were thrown into the centre of a huge political spat: 'Hypocritical'
A proposal to ban a council from advertising on the Kyle and Jackie O show has spectacularly backfired, with Labor accused of hypocrisy for the suggestion. The firestorm began after Brisbane City Council's Labor team pushed to prohibit council advertising on the Kyle and Jackie O Show was met with backlash. The motion, introduced by Labor councillor Lucy Collier, called for the council to immediately stop buying advertising during the breakfast program. Brisbane City Council is the nation's biggest local authority, representing more than 1.2million residents, a population larger than the ACT, Tasmania and the Northern Territory combined. The council has been under Liberal National Party (LNP) control since 2004. Collier accused the LNP of misusing ratepayer funds to 'sponsor shock jocks,' saying money should instead be directed to 'roads, footpaths and libraries.' 'Advertising is more than just a placement, it's an endorsement,' Collier argued. 'Residents expect better than their money being used to boost a show that is racist, sexist, mean, divisive and deeply disrespectful.' But her attack quickly unravelled when LNP councillors pointed out Labor's own history of advertising with ARN, the network that airs the Kyle and Jackie O Show, particularly during election campaigns. Deputy Mayor Fiona Cunningham branded Collier's move 'hypocritical' and politically motivated. 'This opposition is dominated by men who, week after week, disrespect women in this chamber,' Cunningham said. 'For Cr Collier to come in here lecturing us about Kyle and Jackie O while her own party advertises on the same network is transparently hypocritical.' Cunningham also highlighted gender dynamics inside the chamber, pointing out that 65 per cent of LNP councillors are women, compared with a male-dominated Labor opposition. 'These [Labor] men have referred to female LNP councillors as dogs and grubs,' she said. 'They accuse female councillors of shouting and sniping. They mock their hobbies and they shout over them. In fact, I'm sure every single woman on this side of the chamber can think of a time when a male Labor councillor has shouted over them.' She also noted that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has appeared on the Kyle and Jackie O Show 11 times, even attending host Kyle Sandilands' wedding. 'If it's good enough for the Prime Minister to appear on the program, how can Labor argue Brisbane City Council should boycott it? This is not about community standards, it's about politics,' Cunningham said. She further rejected Collier's central claim the council was 'sponsoring' the show. 'We don't sponsor Kyle and Jackie O,' she said. 'We advertise with one of the largest commercial radio networks in Australia. That's all. Council does not regulate or censor content, that's the job of the federal communications minister.' Collier refused to answer repeated questions about whether Labor itself had purchased advertising with ARN. The chamber then descended into heated exchanges, with Collier citing the show's past controversies while LNP councillors accused her of cherry-picking. In the end, the motion failed, with just five councillors supporting it and 16 voting against. In her right of reply, Collier insisted the LNP was avoiding accountability. 'The best argument the LNP can make is that if someone else does it, then it's okay for them,' she said, maintaining that advertising during the Kyle and Jackie O program still amounted to an endorsement. In March, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that the Kyle & Jackie O Show breached decency rules under the Commercial Radio Code of Practice, over two separate segments that discussed graphic sexual acts. In 2024, the show faced backlash over a segment in which Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson ran a competition where female staff recorded themselves urinating, with the 'boys… trying to guess whose flaps made the sound.'
Daily Mail
43 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
These are controversial comments that got Israeli figures BANNED from Australia - putting them in the same club as Bonnie Blue and Kanye
The diplomatic spat between Israel and Australia marks the lowest point in this country's relationship with the Jewish state since it was founded in 1948. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded Anthony Albanese a 'weak leader' who 'abandoned' Australia's Jews, while Immigration Minister Tony Burke hit back, claiming 'strength was not measured by how many people you can blow up'. But what triggered it? Australia's announcement last week that it would recognise the state of Palestine set Albanese on a collision course with Netanyahu. Yet, Australia is no outlier. The UK, France and Canada will also move to recognise Palestine at the UN next month. The escalation in language between both sides was prompted when Burke personally revoked the visas of far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman, former Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked and controversial Israeli advocate Hillel Fuld. In turn, Israel 's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar - who recently accused Albanese of 'loving Hamas' - said the visas of Australia's representatives to the Palestinian Authority had been revoked. So what did Rothman, Shaked and Fuld say to gain membership to an exclusive - and unwelcome - club, which already includes the likes of domestic abuser Chris Brown, sex pest Bonnie Blue and rapper-turned-Hitler-fan Kanye West? Simcha Rothman Rothman, 45, is a democratically-elected member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, for the far-right National Religious Party - Religious Zionism. He was due to embark on a 'solidarity tour' of Australia this week, organised by the Australian Jewish Association, but had his visa pulled at the last minute. The Department of Home Affairs said it 'does not comment on individual cases' but a leaked document, published by Sky News, revealed that officials alleged Rothman had referred to Palestinian children as 'enemies' in an interview with Channel 4. 'When the interviewer asked why doesn't Israel let the children leave Gaza, the visa holder replied "They are our enemies",' the government document states. Outspoken Sky News host Sharri Markson claimed that this was a 'wildly inaccurate description' of what he said. The transcript reveals Lindsey Hilsum, the Channel 4 reporter, asked why Israel did not let the people of Gaza over the border into Israel if they wanted them to leave. 'Because they are our enemies,' Rothman responded. Hilsum asked: 'The children are your enemies?' To which Rothamn said: 'They are our enemies and according to international treaties about refugees in the time of war, you don't let them conquer your country with refugees.' Ayelet Shaked Shaked, 49, a right-wing Israeli politician who left parliament in 2022, was denied an Australian visa last year. At the time, Burke declined to explain why it had been rejected and Shaked accused the Albanese administration of anti-Semitism. In 2014, Shaked shared a passage on social media written by the late Israeli writer Uri Elitzur that refers to Palestinian children as 'little snakes' and described the entire Palestinian people as 'the enemy'. 'Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism,' the text read. 'They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. 'They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there. In 2014, Shaked (pictured) shared a passage on social media written by the late Israeli writer Uri Elitzur that refers to Palestinian children as 'little snakes' and described the entire Palestinian people as 'the enemy'. 'They have to die and their houses should be demolished so that they cannot bear any more terrorists.' Immigration Minister Burke defended the decision to block both Rothman and Shaked's visas on Wednesday morning. 'One of them has described Palestinian children as the enemy, and the other has described Palestinian children as little snakes,' he told ABC Radio National. 'Now, if anyone wanted to come on a public speech tour, and they had those views publicly expressed about Israeli children, I would block the visa. 'And I am going to not have a lower bar for the protection of views that are bigoted views against the Palestinian people.' He added: 'I can't stop what reaches people over the internet, but I do have a personal responsibility as to whether or not Australia formally rolls out a welcome mat to people with extreme views and says, come and express them here.' Hillel Fuld Fuld, a Jewish-American entrepreneur and activist, was blocked from coming to Australia for a speaking tour last month. The multi-millionaire received a letter from the Department of Home Affairs, advising him that he was guilty of denying 'documented atrocities and (promoting) Islamophobia rhetoric, which has been received by members of the Australian community as inflammatory and concerning.' In social media posts, Fuld had described Islam as a 'global plague' and claimed up to 15 per cent of Muslims were 'radicalised'. He also compared Gazans to Nazi-era Germans and said they should be 'treated as' such. 'Differentiating between Gazans and Hamas is at best inaccurate, at worst dishonest,' he said. 'The Gazans elected Hamas, and a vast majority of them support October 7.' He also said that some Palestinian children were terrorists. 'Tragically, it is not safe to assume that all children in Gaza are innocent,' he said. 'Children are taught from age zero that murdering a Jew is the highest accomplishment in life, and so often times, Arab terror (including the murderer of my brother), is carried out by children. 'The same goes for women and "journalists" in Gaza.' Fuld's brother, Ari Fuld, was stabbed to death at the age of 45 by a 17-year-old Palestinian at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank on September 16, 2018. On Thursday, Executive Council of Australian Jewry's co-CEO Alex Ryvchin called for calm from both the Australian and Israeli governments. 'The Australian Jewish community is profoundly disturbed and concerned by the rapidly deteriorating state of the relations between our government and the government of the state of Israel,' he told the ABC. 'We are calling on both governments to remember what's at stake, to ensure calm heads prevail and to conduct their matters of state privately, diplomatically and with respect for the longstanding diplomatic relationship between the two countries.'
