While the words are the readers, it is an SMH decision is to publish them like that. And thus credit for that. As is apparent from the article, not everyone has standards that high.
I think even the most craven paper has to acknowledge when something is so universally disgusting that it needs to be addressed. The only thing that oldschool conservatives love more than hating the right people is doing so with a sense of propriety.
You cannot have conservatism without adherence to cultural norms in every form, otherwise it's just reactionism.
For me I hate all the politicising with the funerals. There's a lot of anger going around, a lot of it (rightly or wrongly) being directed at the government, and the opposition are jumping on the funerals as a way to point score.
Josh Frydenberg has been on an absolute tear at Albo about it, saying he's being disrespectful for not attending. If you listen to any answers Albo gives about not being at the funerals, he's very clearly dancing around saying he's been told by the families that he's not welcome and he's respecting that.
The ABC interviewed a Rabi today that parroted Frydenberg and said Albo should go to the funerals anyway, even if the families told him not to.
Which is an incredibly disrespectful thing to even think let alone articulate!
For real? That’s ludicrous. Albo said he respects the families’ wishes, to which I assume he means they didn’t want him there, or he has intel from his staff that he’s not welcome. Which wouldn’t be surprising given the outrage he’s copping. Then the media use his non-attendance as more hate fuel, with clips of victims or relatives saying he should be there.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t and like many aspects of this furore, the two stances are contradictory.
Exactly, and the sad thing is I think he would absolutely show up knowing that's what's going to happen and cop it because that's what a leader does.
I think it's why they're not lashing the opposition for carrying on like this because there are politicians on that side who are legitimately grieving and scared.
Being told as the leader of the country that you’re not welcome when both the NSW Premier and Governor General are is deeply personally hurtful to Albanese.
Yeah I agree, I think it's clear Albo would be at every single funeral as a mark of respect and grief at this absolute tragedy that happened under his government, and I don't think it's right.
I'm also trying to have grace to all those grieving because I don't know how I'd react if I were in their shoes.
I agree! I was outraged when I read our PM was not welcome at the funerals, but other decisive politicians were. I am honestly disgusted with the way our opposition and media have vilified Anthony Albonese over this. His responses have been genuine, empathetic and sympathetic to all Australians. Shame on them.
I guess that's what happens when the community that was targeted believes that the prime minister didn't do enough to curb antisemitism, and therefore contributed to an environment in which a terrorist attack that targeted Jews occured.
And this is all on the back of ASIO's assessment:
The normalisation of violent protest and intimidating behaviour lowered the threshold for provocative and potentially violent acts. Narratives originally centred on “freeing Palestine” expanded to include incitements to “kill the Jews”. Threats transitioned from harassment and intimidation to specific targeting of Jewish communities, places of worship and prominent figures.
I really hope Josh's atrocious antics over the last few days as a pretty obvious attempt to have another tilt at the leadership backfire spectacularly.
The only person Josh cares about deeply in this world is Josh. Wish he would just fade away once more.
This bit told me I needed to pay no heed to what they say:
The continuation of that antisemitism has been fed by the constant demonisation of Israel, with lies about genocide
Nah mate, you can fuck right off with that. We've all seen the footage out of Gaza. The satellite imagery is there for all to see - entire cities literally razed to dust. To deny the genocide and conflate those that criticize it with actual anti-semites is truly bottom of the barrel stuff.
They're the same kind of people who wouldn't think the Stolen Generation is genocide because it's not as in your face like the Holocaust or more well known Genocide attempts.
and he is in some real sense a causal factor in why some deluded Australian reached the conclusion that guns were the answer here. if he'd like to do something, he can say oops and hang his head.
That said... people in Australia expressing exactly the opinion you and I just objected to is exactly the kind of thing that lets them feel heard and not have to resort to extremism. Their view about who is the victim who is or is not getting unfairly blamed *should* be aired, and refuted if it is wrong. (as I just indicated it was)
The list of leaders in the Middle East who govern equally and fairly for all the citizens within their borders ... is TBMK zero. And that mean pretty much none involved is JUST a victim... well except for the women and kids who are always the ones getting killed when people, often men, grabbing for power pull the levers. So yeah, very few clean hands, definitely no righteous ones, not by any sane moral code.
It’s fuelled by hate, the ‘back in my day’ rhetoric, The Lodge dodging, a plethora of blatant lies, core and non-core promises, warmongering, ignoring Costello, avoiding Abbott, parading ‘Strayan tracksuits and doing laps ’round Lake Burley Griffin.
I don’t think it’s helping. Around 1 in 5 Australian voters wasn’t even born when we voted that decrepit old warmonger out and it only serves to remind those of us who were there what a cunt he actually was
Unfortunately the good news will be accompanied by the entire media apparatus and most of the Labor Party tripping over itself to suck his recently deceased dick in the name of civility
He could have left his legacy of gun control intact. Instead, Howard chooses to politicize this and forever confirm that he only says these things for him and his party.
He only says these things for him - many in his own party considered him a straight up dog. Peter Costello would be a prime example. John Hewson would be in the same choir.
The one thing everyone agreed upon in this country was that John Howard reacted perfectly after Port Arthur. He didn’t care about politics but did what was right.
Throw all of them away. Except maybe for Malcolm Turnbull who was the only one with a calm, measured take, supportive of Albo and telling Netanyahu to stay out of Australian politics.
Fraser returned his LIB life membership in 2009 after Abbott won leadership. He recognised and said it flatly then, "the Liberal Party is no longer a liberal party but a conservative party." He trashed Howard regularly during his leadership too - he was against all Howard's race-baiting, blindly going into Iraq and Afghanistan etc. - but Abbott was the final straw.
Fraser gets trashed for his role in the Dismissal but he and Whitlam eventually became lifelong friends.
John Hewson also gave up his party membership in the Scomo years, but he'd previously (and continues) trashing the party for its rightwing shift years before then.
I think he wanted the leadership position and even bargained with the “devils” within the party which marked his tenure with non eventful policies. After being knifed, he realised the party is no longer what he signed up for, so he resigned from parliament all together.
I think the only reason that he didnt jump ship to Labour is for being marked as traitor by politicians and this narrative can be played to the public.
People give Turnbull a pass for being the least shit Liberal with a lot of potential for good, but he still rolled over and did the bidding of his corporate masters to further his own position and line his own pockets. It wasn't until he was out the door and couldn't profit from it any more that he started saying things we could all agree with.
I think more than anything he rolled over for the party apparatchiks. Remember that he started out trying to join the Labor party when it was a much, much more traditionally lefty party (and for good reason).
Ultimately he was under the false impression that the party would support Australia over corporations. He was very, very wrong.
I will always hold dear the International Cricket Council led by the Asian nations who rejected Howard’s bid to be a VP and eventually President causing the worm some great embarrassment the only time I ever truly admired the sport
I've finally got a rough date for upgrading to FTTP: September 2028 ... and that's metro Canberra. FFS, the Libs crewed the pooch with the NBN. I blame Abbott more, though.
Glad to see I'm not the only one disgusted by the LNP using this tragedy to advance their politics. For a while there, I thought I was losing my mind with so many on social media agreeing that the PM was "personally" responsible for the death.
There were so many identical comments posted on the Australian YouTube, it got me thinking 'am I naive to think these are fake, or naive to imagine any are real'?
We have to remember that social media is confirmed to be how hostile nations like Russia attack our democracy with astroturfing to influence our opinion. A million short comments demanding Albo "resign" and saying "vote one nation" are without a doubt advocating the worst possible path (swing to fascism and anti-immigration division and chaos, US-style) for us that is not in our interests as a nation.
We have to remember that social media is confirmed to be how hostile nations like Russia attack our democracy with astroturfing to influence our opinion.
You say that like it's novel, or hasn't been the entire point of these US-based corporate institutions since their inception.
It's been the usual horrid point scoring attempts you see from the LNP. Never able to offer any real policy or planning, just go on the attack when an opportunity presents itself.
The last few days feel like they have hit a new low, which even for the Liberal party is a rather impressive feat.
Today I got lunch with some friends and saw my parents, it's the first time I've seen a bit of a broader not-online set of opinions on the whole Bondi tragedy.
I also thought I have been going insane the last few days with the coverage.
I was 10 when Port Arthur happened so I cant remember much but through the tragedies we have faced I have never felt such vitriol from an opposition during a national tragedy.
which, given the editorial bias that newspaper has had since NEIN bought it, is saying a lot.
either they have received hundreds of letters and felt compelled to publish, and or this is an older editor who felt some balance was due against the newspapers general bias and published the letter to counter.
never been a defender of the herald... but they did decide to publish the readers comments and present them as coherent whole... they may well and likely are pressing red buttons to drive up engagement and revenue somewhere else... but so far I did not see that in that article. But the paper and the journalist involved did "good work" AKA the kind of journalism I missed occasionally seeing when I was young. (before they mainstreamed click/rage bait) back then you had to buy the Truth, or some gutter ujounalism tabloid to get tittliated like that. (anywhere other than page 3)
I feel sadness at what happened but right now, the media including the SMH are being divisive. The media are blaming albo for the deaths. They’re saying because albo supported Palestine, the shooting happened.
He was criticised for supporting Palestine and now the entire media landscape is saying “Albanese is responsible for those 16 deaths” etc etc
Media commentators are saying "if we didn't have those protests, then the attack wouldn't have happened." We don't know this at all and the media is using that non 0 possibility as a narrative to attack albo/labor.
You may personally disagree with those protests, but to make that big of a leap is just irresponsible.
Sidenote: The media is also somewhat using this incident to turn people into anti immigration, saying things like "maybe we shouldn't import these guys and those guys".
Talk about putting oil on top of a flame. Absolutely divisive and irresponsible.
The idea that a man known to be associated with an Isis cell was prompted to commit this atrocious act because of government recognition of Palestine and public protest is utterly absurd.
How could anyone disagree with those protests? There was (and likely still is, no Trump did not end the Gaza war) kids being slaughtered on a daily basis by a blood thirsty IDF. It should outrage everyone. But unfortunately it does not.
because there are lot of people who equate ANY criticism of Israels actions as Antisemitism.
for decades, if a person or a country criticised Israel, they would trot out that accusation, regular as clockwork, and it would work-it would sent people and diplomats scurrying back to the shadows, terrified of the accusation of Antisemitism.
Now though, with Netanyahu's unhinged and unrestricted terror campaign in Gaza that has seen 70000 people slaughtered and the entire region carpet bombed to oblivion, people are finally standing up.
Criticizing Israels actions is not Antisemitism. it is not denying the rights of Jews to live.
It is calling the State of Israel to account. because they have become the monster.
hunt down and destroy Hamas, but Netanyahu and his cronies and a great many Israeli's see every single Palestinian as a member of Hamas and have no compunction about killing them all.
THAT is what the protests are about. Israels continual denial of that fact and continuation of its campaign far beyond reason has cost 10s of thousand of lives, and a lot of goodwill.
AND is the cause of the increase in antisemitism worldwide. misguided people blaming individual Jews instead of directing their ire to the state of Israel.
Sorry, interview with Josh freidenberg tying the fate of Australia to the fate of Israel and holding the prime Minister personally accountable. Craziest possible spin on the situation. And his ticket back into politics I guess
its playing politics, the coalition wants to attach the blame to Albo, so they can have a very easy attack avenue to go against him, its nothing more complex then that
Something that concerns me is that "albos/govs fault" represents a view about leadership that is very dictator-ago coded. I guess we're all used to Trump ruling by decree now, and bots writing those comments to divide us might have that bias as a result of only knowing dictatorship.
But we're a functioning representative democracy, and our people should understand that our government is not separate from us. The whole "gov has blood on its hands" angle hints at the spread of a fundamentally undemocratic undestanding of leadership roles, as if there's supposed to be this one guy ruling over and above calling the right shots, while we have no role in decision making.
Ironically, the only person that can logically be held responsible for the attacks is Netanyahu. If Israel was living a peaceful existence and not murdering thousands of innocent kids, then you probably wouldn't have anyone giving a shit about your everyday Jewish person.
It's been so crushing seeing basically every chill. Chill morning. Show that grandmas watch constantly shoveling anti-labor proliberal spin on this tragedy. Absolutely everywhere I look except maybe the ABC who gets called commies for it
It's going to show just how ignorant the media is saying this is because Albo supported Palestine. The two clowns behind the terrorist attack said they were inspired by ISIS who absolutely despise Palestine and Hamas. They hate each other so much Israel gave ISIS linked gangs in Gaza weapons so they'd fight Hamas.
Those who are making this claim should take a look at the UK’s designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group. That has only spurred on people who support it to protest and challenge the ruling even more. An attempt to crackdown on Pro-Palestine protests here would probably get similar results.
I’m someone who finds the protests gross, the chants disgusting and thinks Albo didn’t do enough to condemn anti-Semitic language that was becoming part of the body politic in this country.
I still don’t think he’s personally responsible for this. Anyone claiming so is fucked in the head.
The fact we can’t talk about it here in this sub half the time is infuriating
I think ultimately this will end up souring the mouth of voters even more. Australians are bruised, but we’re not stupid and anyone with a brain can see what the coalition is clearly doing to score political points. You don’t even have to like Albo, hell you can criticise the living daylight out of him as many rightfully should, whether you’re a labour or liberal voter, but you can’t blame Albo for what happened and to act like antisemitism has been overlooked in Australia is complete nonsense.
And it’s the same for liberal, you can’t blame Tony Abbott for what happened with the 2014 Lindt cafe siege
watching 9 news this evening, every person they interviewed mentioned about also not showing up at the funerals... and when he was asked he said he respected their wishes.
I respect him not using a child’s funeral as a political opportunity. And I wouldn’t want politicians at my child’s funeral either, from any side of politics.
For all the legitimate criticisms that can be made of the Labor party, I don't think it's naive to imagine that, if this terrible event had occurred under the Morrison government, the Labor opposition would've conducted itself rather differently than the Liberal party has to date.
Absolutely. There is onus on the politicians of this country to behave maturely and not stoke division at times like this. The LNP have failed miserably. They have used the horrific deaths of innocent people to take pot shots.
Don't believe a thing these old bigots say. There is a growing number of younger generation Jews who believe that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Palestine. Are they anti semitic?
Try and tell the Israeli lobby that. Conflating the two has been the game worldwide and is a likely contributing factor in making the wider diaspora less safe as the conflation increases confusing Israeli actions with that of the wider community.
Yeah, people are arguing that implementing Siegel's recommendations would have prevented this. Some of her recommendations were bordering on thought policing and would have only protected Jews the way Netanyahu's actions have. Not victim blaming for a second, but genuinely how does banning legitimate criticism (of Israel) help combat actual anti-semitism. No one would ever try and argue in good faith that preventing criticism of Saudi Arabia would reduce Islamophobia
Netanyahu isn’t saying the massacre is the ‘result’ of Albanese’s policies because he actually believes it. He’s saying it to damage the government and heap pressure on it to offer no more support to Palestine.
That his LNP coalition acolytes are playing along for political advantage is one of the most disgusting betrayals of Australia I’ve seen.
I’ve worked in the media, so understand what has been going on in Bondi since Sunday, and it sickens me. So many politicians have turned up at Bondi Pavilion to lay flowers, but then go on a full speaking tour with all the media present. They’re not helping the community or comforting the bereaved, or assisting front line workers, they’re flying in to exploit a media opportunity. Honestly, the lack of genuine compassion and lack of a demonstration of unity has been just one of many shocking things about this whole sorry event.
No mention of Frydenberg’s tasteless timing to use this as the basis for his re-entry into politics, and then use his religion to knock down any difficult questions journos may ask him about this. His interview on the 7:30 report was repulsive and transparent.
John Howard is a horrible man, the only good thing he did was gun laws.
The media landscape in Australia is a disgrace run by a conservative cartel who somehow think genocide is ok, refuse to challenge anything, in the hands of the lobbyists. Absolute arseclowns using a tragedy to gain traction & defend the indefensible.
The overflowing river of misinformation is dangerous. Just got to get a few soundbites out & the useful idiots fall for it and passes for analysis which has the depth of a wading pool.
I can’t stand Johnny but the one thing that is standing out is that Johnny no guns is actually saying don’t blame this event on gun control, look at how it was allowed to happen in the first place. Who dropped the ball? What departments are not sharing information? It’s an absolute shit show and there does need to be accountability that’s for sure. Look inwards at all the processes that should have flagged these two and fix them if that does not happen then it can happen again
I mean, no one has “blamed gun control” they have pretty much said that it needs to be looked into, because clearly it is one of the things that has failed in this circumstance.
At this point in time though, rather than every body jumping at any sort of possible answer, it should be left to the proper investigations to discover what went wrong. But I suppose it doesn’t get you media clicks or political points by sitting round and waiting for the actual facts
It is harder to see them when they are playing right wing musical chairs (this is the version played on an eroding cliff top where the ground underneath the moderate chairs is gradually falling into the ocean until only the far right are left)
The two psychopaths who did the shooting weren't motivated by what Jillian Segal calls "antisemitism", where hippies protesting against kids being bombed is falsely equated with drawing swastikas on Synagogues.
Sure, more needs to be done about antisemitism, but concentrate on the real thing which is hating on Jews for being Jews, not protesting Israel for civilian casualties.
So desperate to seem relevant and yet they are the 'most divisive party in Australia', they continuously 'wolf whistle' to the extremist trying to gain votes, and undertake a lot of 'sabre rattling', from a position of extreme weakness, on the world stage really pissing off our trade partners. They really trashed the relationship with China but from the most unstable basis and their response really hurt a lot of industries via tariffs and at what end? So they can pretend to be tough?
Amazing, how little foresight many of us have, all in the name virtue signalling and political correctness. The naivety is astonishing.
Like most trends, we are usually months or years behind the rest. It’s a curse most times, but for certain things it’s a blessing in disguise and we are on the trajectory of things going tits up with social stability.
I lived in Sweden from around 2008, back when the government opened its doors for employment for non-EU workers through to 2015/2016 when the government made the decision to take in a huge number of refugees.
The changes to the country and social stability was startling. Many districts in the south of Sweden went from relative quietness to violent all out gang wars, so much so that at time, Swedish police designated these areas as no-go zones. I lived way up north, in a relatively small/mid sized town, in my early years there, I never once saw a homeless person, the local migration department was always empty, dropped my camera and my wallet in the snow whilst biking home, went the town’s police station and found out that someone had dropped it off the night before. Nothing missing.
Cue 2016/2017, my last few months, there were refugees begging and loitering all around town in the cold of winter, and the migration department was filled to the brim. A mate of mine, accidently left their wallet on the bus, never seen again.
The Swedish Democrats, a far right party, went from a rabble bunch of xenophobes, to entering parliament and winning at not so insignificant number of seats, it has been gaining traction since.
One of the main causations of this shit-show was due to the fact that Sweden at the time did not have an effective integration programs in place. The conversations we are having now in Australia, is exactly the same debate that happened back in Sweden in the early 2010s.
It’s not bigoted to want migrants to integrate, it’s not bigoted to call out bad cultural/religious ideas. It’s not bigoted to believe not all cultures are equal. I’m a non-white, non-European Aussie, a child of a migrant from 40/50s. If we could integrate then, I don’t understand why migrants over the last 2 decades can’t do a better job. Johnny has a point, it’s hard point to swallow, but he is right.
The way I see it, all we are doing is providing a huge platform, for the far right. The last thing I want fucking want is one nation, afp with more seats.
You know it's serious when they defrost poor old Johnnie and paste a bit of makeup on 'im. Some poor bastard has to shove their arm up his arse to make his mouth move. The old cunt enjoys it too, by the look of it.
So where you’ve dropped the ball and not stamped out the antisemitism, you can’t be called out on the fact you dropped the ball?
I’ve never seen so much hate for the Jews in Australia, they probably have fuck all to do with what Israel is doing and they get attacked in Australia for it?
Josh freidenberg immediately politicized the issue, called out the PM and then acted shocked when he goes to call the for using this as a return to politics
I’ve read hundreds of comments under a dozen or more posts on this tragedy this week - and a huge majority in this sub has completely fallen for the rhetoric and not too subtle lobbying.
The only thing surprising here is that this post title isn’t at all editorialised by OP and that the SMH is actually calling a spade a spade.
Technically it's the SMH readers, not actually the paper itself. Still good to see
While the words are the readers, it is an SMH decision is to publish them like that. And thus credit for that. As is apparent from the article, not everyone has standards that high.
No editorialising here ✋🤚
I think even the most craven paper has to acknowledge when something is so universally disgusting that it needs to be addressed. The only thing that oldschool conservatives love more than hating the right people is doing so with a sense of propriety.
You cannot have conservatism without adherence to cultural norms in every form, otherwise it's just reactionism.
Some things are actually important and not just a chance for a free simplistic tribal dig that will appeal to shallow thought.
It’s a letter to the editor
Nah it's just the letters section
For me I hate all the politicising with the funerals. There's a lot of anger going around, a lot of it (rightly or wrongly) being directed at the government, and the opposition are jumping on the funerals as a way to point score.
Josh Frydenberg has been on an absolute tear at Albo about it, saying he's being disrespectful for not attending. If you listen to any answers Albo gives about not being at the funerals, he's very clearly dancing around saying he's been told by the families that he's not welcome and he's respecting that.
The ABC interviewed a Rabi today that parroted Frydenberg and said Albo should go to the funerals anyway, even if the families told him not to.
Which is an incredibly disrespectful thing to even think let alone articulate!
For real? That’s ludicrous. Albo said he respects the families’ wishes, to which I assume he means they didn’t want him there, or he has intel from his staff that he’s not welcome. Which wouldn’t be surprising given the outrage he’s copping. Then the media use his non-attendance as more hate fuel, with clips of victims or relatives saying he should be there.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t and like many aspects of this furore, the two stances are contradictory.
They want him there so he is booed or confronted. No other reason.
Exactly, and the sad thing is I think he would absolutely show up knowing that's what's going to happen and cop it because that's what a leader does.
I think it's why they're not lashing the opposition for carrying on like this because there are politicians on that side who are legitimately grieving and scared.
Being told as the leader of the country that you’re not welcome when both the NSW Premier and Governor General are is deeply personally hurtful to Albanese.
Yeah I agree, I think it's clear Albo would be at every single funeral as a mark of respect and grief at this absolute tragedy that happened under his government, and I don't think it's right.
I'm also trying to have grace to all those grieving because I don't know how I'd react if I were in their shoes.
I agree! I was outraged when I read our PM was not welcome at the funerals, but other decisive politicians were. I am honestly disgusted with the way our opposition and media have vilified Anthony Albonese over this. His responses have been genuine, empathetic and sympathetic to all Australians. Shame on them.
I guess that's what happens when the community that was targeted believes that the prime minister didn't do enough to curb antisemitism, and therefore contributed to an environment in which a terrorist attack that targeted Jews occured.
And this is all on the back of ASIO's assessment:
-ASIO Annual Threat Assessment 2025
Just listening to Josh carrying on, is such a turn off. He makes it out as if Albo was the one who organised the shooting.
Don't worry, maybe he will force himself to shake the hands of victims just like his colleague Scott.
I really hope Josh's atrocious antics over the last few days as a pretty obvious attempt to have another tilt at the leadership backfire spectacularly.
The only person Josh cares about deeply in this world is Josh. Wish he would just fade away once more.
Telling that the only vaguely balanced section of the SMH is the reader’s letters. Although I couldn’t help but laugh at this one:
Benjamin Netanyahu is not the victim here.
This bit told me I needed to pay no heed to what they say:
Nah mate, you can fuck right off with that. We've all seen the footage out of Gaza. The satellite imagery is there for all to see - entire cities literally razed to dust. To deny the genocide and conflate those that criticize it with actual anti-semites is truly bottom of the barrel stuff.
They're the same kind of people who wouldn't think the Stolen Generation is genocide because it's not as in your face like the Holocaust or more well known Genocide attempts.
and he is in some real sense a causal factor in why some deluded Australian reached the conclusion that guns were the answer here. if he'd like to do something, he can say oops and hang his head.
That said... people in Australia expressing exactly the opinion you and I just objected to is exactly the kind of thing that lets them feel heard and not have to resort to extremism. Their view about who is the victim who is or is not getting unfairly blamed *should* be aired, and refuted if it is wrong. (as I just indicated it was)
The list of leaders in the Middle East who govern equally and fairly for all the citizens within their borders ... is TBMK zero. And that mean pretty much none involved is JUST a victim... well except for the women and kids who are always the ones getting killed when people, often men, grabbing for power pull the levers. So yeah, very few clean hands, definitely no righteous ones, not by any sane moral code.
There is no behaviour that is beneath John Howard. Oh look! Those foreigners are throwing their kids in the ocean!
Imagine being 86 fucking years old and still motivated by hate.
They always trundle that old cunt out
Then re-animate his corpse
It’s fuelled by hate, the ‘back in my day’ rhetoric, The Lodge dodging, a plethora of blatant lies, core and non-core promises, warmongering, ignoring Costello, avoiding Abbott, parading ‘Strayan tracksuits and doing laps ’round Lake Burley Griffin.
They need to go back four PMs to find the last... Not entirely incompetent one?
The oldies love a bit of Howard because he stopped the guns.
Abbott didn't stop the gays and Morrison didn't stop the Covid so they don't send them Christmas cards.
I don’t think it’s helping. Around 1 in 5 Australian voters wasn’t even born when we voted that decrepit old warmonger out and it only serves to remind those of us who were there what a cunt he actually was
Guess who is 94 and still motivated by hate.
It seems it's a secret to longevity. Father time is undefeated though, we'll get the good news eventually.
Unfortunately the good news will be accompanied by the entire media apparatus and most of the Labor Party tripping over itself to suck his recently deceased dick in the name of civility
evil lives for so long....
If this was America he would be a legitimate contender for leader.
Tbf he was motivated by hate for 86 years, the real surprise would be him finding empathy
I wish that miserable old cunt would slither back into his political coffin and put the lid on. There’s a reason he got the arse in 2007…
just a political coffin?
I eagerly look forward to reading that swines obituary.
We didn’t deserve Kevin 07
Howard might go to jail if Labor party or a young party sent him to Hague.
He's responsible for the Iraq invasion.
You give him too much credit. He wasn’t responsible for anything, he was nothing more than George W Bush’s little yes man.
Following orders as a defence for war crimes? Tell 'im he's dreamin'!
He could have left his legacy of gun control intact. Instead, Howard chooses to politicize this and forever confirm that he only says these things for him and his party.
He only says these things for him - many in his own party considered him a straight up dog. Peter Costello would be a prime example. John Hewson would be in the same choir.
The one thing everyone agreed upon in this country was that John Howard reacted perfectly after Port Arthur. He didn’t care about politics but did what was right.
He’s destroyed that legacy in the past few days.
Yes, agreed. He gave us the greatest gift that any Prime Minister has when he banned guns. And it wasn’t without personal risk, either.
Boomers and the top end of town would say the greatest gift was the capital gains tax discount.
only last week John Howard was supporting firearm law reform, but not now
Such an abominable strategy they had to use it again a few years later.
That event was my political awakening. Couldn’t even vote back then, but yep: leftie locked in.
The guy is a deadset cunt. And yet, he probably gave the country the greatest gift that any Prime Minister ever has when he banned guns.
Hawke and Medicare also high in my rankings.
Absolutely. And superannuation.
What’s even more amazing is they think anyone still cares what this bloke has to say.
i though scomo forcing a handshake during black summer was bad but this is a whole new low for the lame numpty party
Throw all of them away. Except maybe for Malcolm Turnbull who was the only one with a calm, measured take, supportive of Albo and telling Netanyahu to stay out of Australian politics.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSTAv2FDCLb/?l=1
Turnbull was very gracious in his commentary. I am absolutely appalled by the behaviour of the rest of the Liberals and media apparatus.
Probably the only real human leader the coalition has had.
Fraser returned his LIB life membership in 2009 after Abbott won leadership. He recognised and said it flatly then, "the Liberal Party is no longer a liberal party but a conservative party." He trashed Howard regularly during his leadership too - he was against all Howard's race-baiting, blindly going into Iraq and Afghanistan etc. - but Abbott was the final straw.
Fraser gets trashed for his role in the Dismissal but he and Whitlam eventually became lifelong friends.
John Hewson also gave up his party membership in the Scomo years, but he'd previously (and continues) trashing the party for its rightwing shift years before then.
Hewson seems like a good person, he just had the misfortune of coming up against Keating.
There's a reason Turnbull never really wanted the leadership position
I think he wanted the leadership position and even bargained with the “devils” within the party which marked his tenure with non eventful policies. After being knifed, he realised the party is no longer what he signed up for, so he resigned from parliament all together.
I think the only reason that he didnt jump ship to Labour is for being marked as traitor by politicians and this narrative can be played to the public.
I'll never forgive Turnbull for his role in the trashing of the NBN
People give Turnbull a pass for being the least shit Liberal with a lot of potential for good, but he still rolled over and did the bidding of his corporate masters to further his own position and line his own pockets. It wasn't until he was out the door and couldn't profit from it any more that he started saying things we could all agree with.
I think more than anything he rolled over for the party apparatchiks. Remember that he started out trying to join the Labor party when it was a much, much more traditionally lefty party (and for good reason).
Ultimately he was under the false impression that the party would support Australia over corporations. He was very, very wrong.
Won’t forgive little j for taking us to war.
I will always hold dear the International Cricket Council led by the Asian nations who rejected Howard’s bid to be a VP and eventually President causing the worm some great embarrassment the only time I ever truly admired the sport
I've finally got a rough date for upgrading to FTTP: September 2028 ... and that's metro Canberra. FFS, the Libs crewed the pooch with the NBN. I blame Abbott more, though.
He was attempting a Laying of Hands, dontchaknow. He's a pentecostal iirc.
Glad to see I'm not the only one disgusted by the LNP using this tragedy to advance their politics. For a while there, I thought I was losing my mind with so many on social media agreeing that the PM was "personally" responsible for the death.
We've got a stack of mysterious anonymous accounts making hundreds of these comments every day across Facebook and here.
I can't imagine where they might be getting the idea to only post that nonsense from
There were so many identical comments posted on the Australian YouTube, it got me thinking 'am I naive to think these are fake, or naive to imagine any are real'?
We have to remember that social media is confirmed to be how hostile nations like Russia attack our democracy with astroturfing to influence our opinion. A million short comments demanding Albo "resign" and saying "vote one nation" are without a doubt advocating the worst possible path (swing to fascism and anti-immigration division and chaos, US-style) for us that is not in our interests as a nation.
Our last election results were not reflective at all of the messaging online. Take solace in that.
You say that like it's novel, or hasn't been the entire point of these US-based corporate institutions since their inception.
You're absolutely not the only one.
It's been the usual horrid point scoring attempts you see from the LNP. Never able to offer any real policy or planning, just go on the attack when an opportunity presents itself.
The last few days feel like they have hit a new low, which even for the Liberal party is a rather impressive feat.
Today I got lunch with some friends and saw my parents, it's the first time I've seen a bit of a broader not-online set of opinions on the whole Bondi tragedy.
Everyone was sickened at the politicisation.
They've been so desperate for traction for months, kind of crazy that this is going to be their entire personality in 2026
I also thought I have been going insane the last few days with the coverage.
I was 10 when Port Arthur happened so I cant remember much but through the tragedies we have faced I have never felt such vitriol from an opposition during a national tragedy.
John Howard continues to add to the long shit stain he's left in this country
They must have broken land speed records rushing to buy their flights to Sydney. Opportunistic, desperate scumbags.
You know the LNP sunk to a new low when even SMH says enough is enough…
Its a letter to the editor not the SMH themselves. However, it is surprising they even printed/posted it.
It’s a letter from a reader, not the SMH journalists.
Yeah I read them all, but the SMH has placed the ones shaming the LNP on top, and the title (written by SMH) slams LNP
yeah, but they published it.
which, given the editorial bias that newspaper has had since NEIN bought it, is saying a lot.
either they have received hundreds of letters and felt compelled to publish, and or this is an older editor who felt some balance was due against the newspapers general bias and published the letter to counter.
never been a defender of the herald... but they did decide to publish the readers comments and present them as coherent whole... they may well and likely are pressing red buttons to drive up engagement and revenue somewhere else... but so far I did not see that in that article. But the paper and the journalist involved did "good work" AKA the kind of journalism I missed occasionally seeing when I was young. (before they mainstreamed click/rage bait) back then you had to buy the Truth, or some gutter ujounalism tabloid to get tittliated like that. (anywhere other than page 3)
I feel sadness at what happened but right now, the media including the SMH are being divisive. The media are blaming albo for the deaths. They’re saying because albo supported Palestine, the shooting happened.
He was criticised for supporting Palestine and now the entire media landscape is saying “Albanese is responsible for those 16 deaths” etc etc
Media commentators are saying "if we didn't have those protests, then the attack wouldn't have happened." We don't know this at all and the media is using that non 0 possibility as a narrative to attack albo/labor.
You may personally disagree with those protests, but to make that big of a leap is just irresponsible.
Sidenote: The media is also somewhat using this incident to turn people into anti immigration, saying things like "maybe we shouldn't import these guys and those guys".
Talk about putting oil on top of a flame. Absolutely divisive and irresponsible.
Yeah yeah yeah, but it’s driving up “engagement”…
Terrorists want to divide us, but they're amateurs compared to Murdoch and his pet politicians.
The idea that a man known to be associated with an Isis cell was prompted to commit this atrocious act because of government recognition of Palestine and public protest is utterly absurd.
How could anyone disagree with those protests? There was (and likely still is, no Trump did not end the Gaza war) kids being slaughtered on a daily basis by a blood thirsty IDF. It should outrage everyone. But unfortunately it does not.
because there are lot of people who equate ANY criticism of Israels actions as Antisemitism.
for decades, if a person or a country criticised Israel, they would trot out that accusation, regular as clockwork, and it would work-it would sent people and diplomats scurrying back to the shadows, terrified of the accusation of Antisemitism.
Now though, with Netanyahu's unhinged and unrestricted terror campaign in Gaza that has seen 70000 people slaughtered and the entire region carpet bombed to oblivion, people are finally standing up.
Criticizing Israels actions is not Antisemitism. it is not denying the rights of Jews to live.
It is calling the State of Israel to account. because they have become the monster.
hunt down and destroy Hamas, but Netanyahu and his cronies and a great many Israeli's see every single Palestinian as a member of Hamas and have no compunction about killing them all.
THAT is what the protests are about. Israels continual denial of that fact and continuation of its campaign far beyond reason has cost 10s of thousand of lives, and a lot of goodwill.
AND is the cause of the increase in antisemitism worldwide. misguided people blaming individual Jews instead of directing their ire to the state of Israel.
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Sorry, interview with Josh freidenberg tying the fate of Australia to the fate of Israel and holding the prime Minister personally accountable. Craziest possible spin on the situation. And his ticket back into politics I guess
Didn't you get the memo? Trump called it peace and we're all supposed to believe that and move on, regardless of what's happening in reality.
its playing politics, the coalition wants to attach the blame to Albo, so they can have a very easy attack avenue to go against him, its nothing more complex then that
Something that concerns me is that "albos/govs fault" represents a view about leadership that is very dictator-ago coded. I guess we're all used to Trump ruling by decree now, and bots writing those comments to divide us might have that bias as a result of only knowing dictatorship.
But we're a functioning representative democracy, and our people should understand that our government is not separate from us. The whole "gov has blood on its hands" angle hints at the spread of a fundamentally undemocratic undestanding of leadership roles, as if there's supposed to be this one guy ruling over and above calling the right shots, while we have no role in decision making.
Ironically, the only person that can logically be held responsible for the attacks is Netanyahu. If Israel was living a peaceful existence and not murdering thousands of innocent kids, then you probably wouldn't have anyone giving a shit about your everyday Jewish person.
It's been so crushing seeing basically every chill. Chill morning. Show that grandmas watch constantly shoveling anti-labor proliberal spin on this tragedy. Absolutely everywhere I look except maybe the ABC who gets called commies for it
It's going to show just how ignorant the media is saying this is because Albo supported Palestine. The two clowns behind the terrorist attack said they were inspired by ISIS who absolutely despise Palestine and Hamas. They hate each other so much Israel gave ISIS linked gangs in Gaza weapons so they'd fight Hamas.
Those who are making this claim should take a look at the UK’s designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group. That has only spurred on people who support it to protest and challenge the ruling even more. An attempt to crackdown on Pro-Palestine protests here would probably get similar results.
I’m someone who finds the protests gross, the chants disgusting and thinks Albo didn’t do enough to condemn anti-Semitic language that was becoming part of the body politic in this country.
I still don’t think he’s personally responsible for this. Anyone claiming so is fucked in the head.
The fact we can’t talk about it here in this sub half the time is infuriating
I think ultimately this will end up souring the mouth of voters even more. Australians are bruised, but we’re not stupid and anyone with a brain can see what the coalition is clearly doing to score political points. You don’t even have to like Albo, hell you can criticise the living daylight out of him as many rightfully should, whether you’re a labour or liberal voter, but you can’t blame Albo for what happened and to act like antisemitism has been overlooked in Australia is complete nonsense.
And it’s the same for liberal, you can’t blame Tony Abbott for what happened with the 2014 Lindt cafe siege
watching 9 news this evening, every person they interviewed mentioned about also not showing up at the funerals... and when he was asked he said he respected their wishes.
Exactly. The PM turning up in this security environment would be a shitshow for the families anyway.
I respect him not using a child’s funeral as a political opportunity. And I wouldn’t want politicians at my child’s funeral either, from any side of politics.
For all the legitimate criticisms that can be made of the Labor party, I don't think it's naive to imagine that, if this terrible event had occurred under the Morrison government, the Labor opposition would've conducted itself rather differently than the Liberal party has to date.
See the Lindt siege. Not quite anti Zionism, but still a terror attack. No one blamed Abbott.
And no one blamed Howard for Port Arthur either.
Absolutely. There is onus on the politicians of this country to behave maturely and not stoke division at times like this. The LNP have failed miserably. They have used the horrific deaths of innocent people to take pot shots.
Don't believe a thing these old bigots say. There is a growing number of younger generation Jews who believe that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Palestine. Are they anti semitic?
Anti Israeli government and anti semitism are not the same thing.
Try and tell the Israeli lobby that. Conflating the two has been the game worldwide and is a likely contributing factor in making the wider diaspora less safe as the conflation increases confusing Israeli actions with that of the wider community.
Yeah, people are arguing that implementing Siegel's recommendations would have prevented this. Some of her recommendations were bordering on thought policing and would have only protected Jews the way Netanyahu's actions have. Not victim blaming for a second, but genuinely how does banning legitimate criticism (of Israel) help combat actual anti-semitism. No one would ever try and argue in good faith that preventing criticism of Saudi Arabia would reduce Islamophobia
Not bordering on. Flat out thought policing.
And more to do with protecting Israel than actually making Australian Jews safer.
The report was an overreach before these tragic attacks and remain so after.
huge number of jews of all ages all over the globe, including in Israel, think the same.
Netanyahu isn’t saying the massacre is the ‘result’ of Albanese’s policies because he actually believes it. He’s saying it to damage the government and heap pressure on it to offer no more support to Palestine.
That his LNP coalition acolytes are playing along for political advantage is one of the most disgusting betrayals of Australia I’ve seen.
In exactly as common words, Australian summer is hot
They don't care about dead people. It's all just opportunity for them. Wedges to push, hatred to plant, outrage to harvest. Repulsive.
I’ve worked in the media, so understand what has been going on in Bondi since Sunday, and it sickens me. So many politicians have turned up at Bondi Pavilion to lay flowers, but then go on a full speaking tour with all the media present. They’re not helping the community or comforting the bereaved, or assisting front line workers, they’re flying in to exploit a media opportunity. Honestly, the lack of genuine compassion and lack of a demonstration of unity has been just one of many shocking things about this whole sorry event.
That lying little stump is still around?
Someone put Howard back into cryo storage. Cunt is cooked.
I am not sure Johnny represents the coalition officially in any way these days. He is just a sad old cumt who fucked the country into a cocked hat.
That sounds like a perfect representation of the coalition though to be fair.
Ummm duhhh is that a shocker. This is also ammo for Pauline Hanson and the One Nation kumquats...
John “children overboard” Howard at it again
John Howard sold generations out for political and financial gain
Nothing is below them
No mention of Frydenberg’s tasteless timing to use this as the basis for his re-entry into politics, and then use his religion to knock down any difficult questions journos may ask him about this. His interview on the 7:30 report was repulsive and transparent.
John Howard is a horrible man, the only good thing he did was gun laws.
The media landscape in Australia is a disgrace run by a conservative cartel who somehow think genocide is ok, refuse to challenge anything, in the hands of the lobbyists. Absolute arseclowns using a tragedy to gain traction & defend the indefensible.
The overflowing river of misinformation is dangerous. Just got to get a few soundbites out & the useful idiots fall for it and passes for analysis which has the depth of a wading pool.
I can’t stand Johnny but the one thing that is standing out is that Johnny no guns is actually saying don’t blame this event on gun control, look at how it was allowed to happen in the first place. Who dropped the ball? What departments are not sharing information? It’s an absolute shit show and there does need to be accountability that’s for sure. Look inwards at all the processes that should have flagged these two and fix them if that does not happen then it can happen again
I mean, no one has “blamed gun control” they have pretty much said that it needs to be looked into, because clearly it is one of the things that has failed in this circumstance.
At this point in time though, rather than every body jumping at any sort of possible answer, it should be left to the proper investigations to discover what went wrong. But I suppose it doesn’t get you media clicks or political points by sitting round and waiting for the actual facts
Yeah, current leadership is so dysfunctional the old guard is throwing the grenades.
Current leadership? They’re so bereft of talent that they’ve got a wingnut like Andrew Hastie planning his moves.
It’s an entire party problem.
The LNP has basically gone so far off the rails that the ALP has become the "Conservative" party.
LNP leadership?
what leadership?
It is harder to see them when they are playing right wing musical chairs (this is the version played on an eroding cliff top where the ground underneath the moderate chairs is gradually falling into the ocean until only the far right are left)
So... politics as normal?
It's when they start rolling old John out that you know they're desperate for attention.
A national tragedy like this, an unprecedent and horrific event, is not the time for scoring political points.
He is up to weapons of mass distraction
The two psychopaths who did the shooting weren't motivated by what Jillian Segal calls "antisemitism", where hippies protesting against kids being bombed is falsely equated with drawing swastikas on Synagogues.
Sure, more needs to be done about antisemitism, but concentrate on the real thing which is hating on Jews for being Jews, not protesting Israel for civilian casualties.
Remember that time when Labor wheeled out Paul Keating to blame Tony Abbott for the Lindt Cafe attack?
Frydenburg on the news was attrocious. Really the root cause of this shooting was university protests. Fuck off.
we're turning into america...the blaming rather than coming together is disgusting - aussie who lives in america and is seeing it play out
So desperate to seem relevant and yet they are the 'most divisive party in Australia', they continuously 'wolf whistle' to the extremist trying to gain votes, and undertake a lot of 'sabre rattling', from a position of extreme weakness, on the world stage really pissing off our trade partners. They really trashed the relationship with China but from the most unstable basis and their response really hurt a lot of industries via tariffs and at what end? So they can pretend to be tough?
Hands up who is shocked?
Anyone? Anyone?
Well, I guess when the Joy Division T-shirt didn’t work…
Australia’s right wing really seem to have nothing better to do at the moment than be disgusting opportunistic vultures.
I can’t believe the victims families haven’t spoken out about this, I would be absolutely fuming. It’s not even slightly hidden.
Funny how the father got into the country under the Howard government….
Just when you think they can’t get any lower their on the same level as Hanson too. Vile creatures
It's Hilarious when they get lying John Howard out of the freezer.
Yes. It's so obvious and it's disgusting.
I'm actually amazed the SMH would print letters from readers taking this stance. Credit to them I guess.
In other news water is wet
Amazing, how little foresight many of us have, all in the name virtue signalling and political correctness. The naivety is astonishing.
Like most trends, we are usually months or years behind the rest. It’s a curse most times, but for certain things it’s a blessing in disguise and we are on the trajectory of things going tits up with social stability.
I lived in Sweden from around 2008, back when the government opened its doors for employment for non-EU workers through to 2015/2016 when the government made the decision to take in a huge number of refugees.
The changes to the country and social stability was startling. Many districts in the south of Sweden went from relative quietness to violent all out gang wars, so much so that at time, Swedish police designated these areas as no-go zones. I lived way up north, in a relatively small/mid sized town, in my early years there, I never once saw a homeless person, the local migration department was always empty, dropped my camera and my wallet in the snow whilst biking home, went the town’s police station and found out that someone had dropped it off the night before. Nothing missing.
Cue 2016/2017, my last few months, there were refugees begging and loitering all around town in the cold of winter, and the migration department was filled to the brim. A mate of mine, accidently left their wallet on the bus, never seen again.
The Swedish Democrats, a far right party, went from a rabble bunch of xenophobes, to entering parliament and winning at not so insignificant number of seats, it has been gaining traction since.
One of the main causations of this shit-show was due to the fact that Sweden at the time did not have an effective integration programs in place. The conversations we are having now in Australia, is exactly the same debate that happened back in Sweden in the early 2010s.
It’s not bigoted to want migrants to integrate, it’s not bigoted to call out bad cultural/religious ideas. It’s not bigoted to believe not all cultures are equal. I’m a non-white, non-European Aussie, a child of a migrant from 40/50s. If we could integrate then, I don’t understand why migrants over the last 2 decades can’t do a better job. Johnny has a point, it’s hard point to swallow, but he is right.
The way I see it, all we are doing is providing a huge platform, for the far right. The last thing I want fucking want is one nation, afp with more seats.
Colour me shocked that they would fail to read the room
No surprise there. They do it all the time...
You know it's serious when they defrost poor old Johnnie and paste a bit of makeup on 'im. Some poor bastard has to shove their arm up his arse to make his mouth move. The old cunt enjoys it too, by the look of it.
So where you’ve dropped the ball and not stamped out the antisemitism, you can’t be called out on the fact you dropped the ball?
I’ve never seen so much hate for the Jews in Australia, they probably have fuck all to do with what Israel is doing and they get attacked in Australia for it?
How antisemitic is milking the murder of 15 Jews for political gain ?
It’s wild to me people can balled face call to answer a racist attack with more racism.
Didn't score any points with me. They only made me even more cynical of the right. Bernie Sanders completely nailed it: https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/2001000239361351909?s=20
Josh freidenberg immediately politicized the issue, called out the PM and then acted shocked when he goes to call the for using this as a return to politics
I’ve read hundreds of comments under a dozen or more posts on this tragedy this week - and a huge majority in this sub has completely fallen for the rhetoric and not too subtle lobbying.
They have zero policies and incompetent leadership so must use gutter politics to further their cause. Like bad flatulence this too shall pass
I'm more disgusted by the anti-gunners using the tragedy to push their agenda.
Well, that tracks.
I don't think their prospects have improved much.
Seems like they have been reading peoples reactions to their bullshit and have decided to change tune before everyone turns on them