Australia to recognise Palestinian statehood; New Zealand may follow

from al Jazeera

Australia will recognise a Palestinian state in September, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced, drawing condemnation from Israel.

Albanese said on Monday that his government would formally announce the move when the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meets in New York.

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese said at a news conference in Canberra.

Australia’s announcement comes as Canada, France and the United Kingdom are also preparing to formally recognise Palestine at the meeting next month, joining the vast majority of UN member states that already do so.

Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon said recognition of a Palestinian state will do nothing to end the war in Gaza, telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC): “We reject the recognition, unilateral recognition.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also slammed the Australian announcement as a reward for Hamas for its October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, repeating the Israeli government’s stance on all recognition announcements thus far.

This latest recognition comes about a week after hundreds of thousands of Australians marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip...

read more here 

Australia to recognize Palestinian state at UN General Assembly in September: PM

from PressTV

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that the government will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly next month, aligning with similar actions taken by the United Kingdom, France, and Canada. 

At a press conference following a cabinet meeting in Canberra on Monday, Albanese said Australia would work with the international community to make recognition a reality.

“Australia will recognize the state of Palestine. Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own,” he said.

For his part, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it had been more than 77 years since the world promised a Palestinian state.

“In the nearly two years since October 7, we have been working with the international community on breaking the cycle of violence,” she said.

“We can't keep waiting for the end of a peace process that has ground to a halt,” Wong pointed out.

Last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Albanese that Australia could play an “important” role as a diplomatic middle power by recognizing Palestine. 

Australia's decision aligns with recognition pledges from nations such as France, Canada, and the United Kingdom in recent weeks...

read more here 

Australia Has Barred Everyone Under 16 From Social Media. Will It Work?

(Keep those kids ignorant until the indoctrination is complete. After stuff like this and what they did during Covid-19 (remember the camps they kept the unvaxxed in?) who the hell would ever want to go to Australia even to visit? The Great Reset testing grounds. I feel for the people down there.)

from the NYT

Australia has imposed a sweeping ban on social media for children under 16, one of the world’s most comprehensive measures aimed at safeguarding young people from potential hazards online. But many details were still unclear, such as how it will be enforced and what platforms will be covered.

After sailing through Parliament’s lower house on Wednesday, the bill passed the Senate on Thursday with bipartisan support. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that it puts Australia at the vanguard of efforts to protect the mental health and well-being of children from detrimental effects of social media, such as online hate or bullying.

The law, he has said, puts the onus on social media platforms to take “reasonable steps” to prevent anyone under 16 from having an account. Corporations could be fined up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (about $32 million) for “systemic” failures to implement age requirements.

Neither underage users nor their parents will face punishment for violations. And whether children find ways to get past the restrictions is beside the point, Mr. Albanese said...

read more here

Government Ducks for Cover on Misinformation and Disinformation Bill

from Malcolm Roberts

Australian Bill Targets Harmful Misinformation Online but Hits Free Speech Around the World

('reasonably verifiable as false' that means they don't even have to prove something as false, just put forth a 'reasonable' argument that it may be and presto... censored.)

from CATO Institute

Last week, Australia dropped its revised Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2024, and it’s about two sandwiches short of a picnic. The bill appears to draw some of its inspiration from the EU’s Digital Services Act in terms of creating significant responsibilities and regulations. And if past is prologue, what happens in Australia doesn’t stay in Australia—such as when Australia passed its “link tax” bill, which taxed social media companies when users shared links to news articles. That link tax spread to Canada and has been actively considered in the United States. Canada is also considering replicating Australia’s eSafety Commission, despite various cases of significant censorial overreach.

But whatever the rationale or history here, this bill not only will restrict Australians’ free speech and access to different online services, but its influence may spread and threaten American speech as well.

Let’s first look at how the bill defines misinformation and disinformation, a challenge for any bill or organization in this field. The bill defines misinformation as content that is

• “reasonably verifiable as false, misleading, or deceptive;” and
• “is likely to cause or contribute to serious harm.”

The definition also carves out some space for satire and parody, professional news content, and “reasonable” dissemination of content for “academic, artistic, scientific, or religious” reasons. Disinformation uses the same definition and adds that there must be grounds to suspect that the content was shared with the intent to deceive others or otherwise involves inauthentic behavior.

read more here

Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024

from the government of Australia

On 19 September 2024, the Senate referred the provisions of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 (the bill) to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for report by 25 November 2024.  

Submissions close on the 30 September 2024.

The committee has received a large volume of material for this inquiry. The secretariat is processing this material as quickly as possible. Submissions will be loaded to the committee website in due course. 

About this inquiry: 
The bill proposes to amend the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and would make consequential amendments to other Acts to establish a new framework to safeguard against serious harms caused by misinformation or disinformation.   

The bill would provide the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with new regulatory powers to require digital communications platform providers to take steps to manage the risk that misinformation and disinformation on digital communications platforms poses in Australia. These would include obligations on providers to assess and report on risks relating to misinformation and disinformation, to publish their policy in relation to managing misinformation and disinformation, and develop and publish a media literacy plan.   
 
The bill would also provide ACMA with new information gathering, record keeping, code registration and standard making powers to oversee digital communications platform providers. 

more info here

Trump Shooting: Aussie P.M. Says Don't Think For Yourself - Let the FBI do that for ya

by Scott Creighton

'It's a time for allowing the authorities in the United States to do their job'

According to the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, we shouldn't be looking at any other research or investigations into the attempted murder of former president Donald Trump apart from the glorious FBI. They are going to tell us the truth about the attempt to keep him from becoming president, he says... the agency that tried to keep Trump from becoming president in 2016.

You can't make this up.

What will it take for Labor to act on genocide in Gaza? (Australia)

 from Australia Greens

 

Max Chandler-Mather speaks seconding the Greens motion to recognise the state of Palestine, 29/05/2024. Labor, Liberals and Nationals all joined together to vote against the motion. Only The Greens and Andrew Wilkie voted yes.

New Pandemic of the Vaccinated is Upon Us

 by Scott Creighton

 

All those experimental mRNA jabs are sitting around in warehouses doing no billionaires any good so all of a sudden we have a summer of Covid facing us once more.

It's the new Pandemic of the Vaccinated, folks. Watch this sales pitch from some TV 'news' outlet down under as they get their own 'journalist' to play the part of the sick guy to push their audience to get out there and get more jabs. Get a booster jab. Get the antivirals. Get it all they say. That's 'news' folks.

Notice he mentions he has already had a total of 6 'vaccines' for Covid-19 and this is NOT his first bout with the Rona.

That's a hell of a good product there, right?

Pfizer's stock is dropping. Sales are next to zero. They have a lot of product waiting to be jabbed into unwitting arms so here we go again with yet another Plandemic fear mongering campaign.

Yeah, the Bird Flu is next on the program for us but that doesn't mean they are going to stop trying to move their existing product. Lots of tests to be run on the gullible during the Pandemic of the Vaccinated.

Good luck folks.

A Triad of Tyranny - Malcolm Roberts

 Three Bills are being rammed through the Senate to create legislation that will transform the UN-WEF plans for surveillance and control into a dystopian reality in Australia.

The Government Is Going To Censor You For Your Own Protection

 from Australians vs. The Agenda