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Global Climate Change Now

William P. Hall on July 16, 2023

25/07/2023 (for the last version see 8/07/2023)

What’s this article about, and why is the date important?

As I write this, the average climate for our WHOLE PLANET is changing so freaking fast we can see visibly measurable changes in the averages from one day to the next!

The sudden speed up of changes in several climate indicators at the same time suggests that we may be crossing a critical tipping point in the complex interactions of important temperature related feedbacks controlling the behavior of Earth’s Climate System, as shown in the Featured Image. The speed-up is highlighted by the fact that the average air temperature 2 meters above the surface of our planet is at an all time record (and especially in the satellite era beginning in 1979). These changes will affect the whole 8,000,000,000+ humans and alive today along with all other life on the planet. The charts and maps presented here graphically illustrate measurements of important climate variables up to the last 1 to 4 days.

**Fig. 1**. ClimateReanalyzer’s Time Series plotting of Earth’s global average temperature at 2 meters above the surface from the NCEP Climate Forecast System (CFS) version 2 (April 2011 – present) and CFS Reanalysis (January 1979 – March 2011). CFS/CFSR is a numerical climate/weather modeling framework that ingests **surface, radiosonde, and satellite observations** to estimate the state of the atmosphere at hourly time resolution onward from 1 January 1979. The horizontal gridcell resolution is 0.5°x0.5° (~ 55km at 45°N). The **time series chart** displays area-weighted means for the selected domain. For example, if *World* is selected, then each daily temperature value on the chart represents the average of all gridcells 90°S–90°N, 0–360°E and accounts for the convergence of longitudes at the poles.

Again, every day since July 3 has been hotter than any maximum temperature recorded for any prior year back to 1979 when these records were compiled.

@EliotJacobson on Twitter shows this data a bit more legibly. The first record high was on 3 July, and daily average temperatures have remained in annual record high regions for a total of 12 ! continuous days through 14 July. The record is now 21 days!

Fig. 2. Progression of global temperatures higher than all time record temperatures back to 1979. ref. Eliot Jacobson.

The time gap between the instants of measurement depicted in the plots and charts and when they were printed are due to time delays between:

automatically recording millions of readings from hundreds of thousands of networked physical sensors and more millions of readings from remote sensors on a plethora of artificial satellites whizzing around our revolving planet several times a day (“Intensity of observation”, below, illustrates just how comprehensive the sensor network is);
accumulating and assembling the recorded data over the world-wide communications network;
proofing, processing and tabulating the received data on the world’s largest supercomputers; reanalyzing and plotting the observations in the form of charts and graphs comprehensible to humans;
publishing and publishing these outputs onto the public web, where they are accessible to anyone with a computer and the knowledge to find and understand the representations.

Based on the most recent measurements, the ongoing climate changes are accelerating in directions and speeds that will inevitably be lethal to the human and many other species within another century, more or less, if the changes are not stopped and reversed. These changes are a direct consequence of an unplanned experiment that humans began around 1½ centuries ago to burn geologically significant quantities of fossil carbon (e.g., coal, oil, ‘natural’ gas) into usable energy and greenhouse gases trapping an ever growing proportion of the total solar energy striking Planet Earth.

However, some of the combustion energy released by burning fossil carbon has also fueled an exponential growth of knowledge and technology able to produce the I am showing here. These plots provide the evidence our experiment is changing our global climate system to a state that will have existentially catastrophic consequences for Earth’s complex forms of life. This Hellish state is known as “Hothouse Earth“.

This fact that we now have the tools to actually see the evidence of our likely doom gives me some hope that our still exponentially improving technology may also provide us with the ability to stop further damage caused by our rogue experiment and repair enough of the damage already caused, to allow our species to continue evolving into the foreseeable future.

This raises the unavoidable and fraught question: Do we humans have the political will and capability to marshal and mobilize our technologies to engineer solutions that will allow us to avoid the abyss? This is the single most important issue facing the world today. If we don’t solve it, no other issue matters because — before long — no one will be left to worry about it.

Problematically, the world’s governments are dominated by puppets of the fossil fuel industry and related interests. They are doing as much as they can to PREVENT, DELAY, or MINIMIZE any actions that might hamper fossil fuel’s greed and short term interests for the world to burn yet more fuel. Hoping that we humans can solve this single, most important issue, VoteClimateOne is working to revolutionize our governments by replacing or changing parliamentary puppets to prioritize actions to solve the climate crisis first. Also, I am writing articles such as this to demonstrate and explain why this revolution is so urgent and necessary.

To demonstrate just how rapidly we are currently moving down the road to doom in what will be Earth’s Hothouse Hell, this article will be updated at least once a week until there is evidence of a downward trend to safer readings. We are certainly not seeing them yet!

4 NORTHERN HEMISPHERE HEAT DOMES AT ONCE
Break temperature records, all over, again and again
The Weather Network
At a global warming of 1.3°C
In 10 years 1.5°C
No intervention -unliveable futurehttps://t.co/VZ9MR6URXg #heatwave #climatechange #globalwarming pic.twitter.com/JJSLuR4oAK
— Peter D Carter (@PCarterClimate) July 25, 2023

Measuring progress towards existential catastrophe on Hothouse Earth

The world’s polar regions are critical. Ice and snow covering land and ocean reflects around 90% of the solar energy striking it. As temperature rises, more of the frozen water melts, allowing the exposed earth and water to absorb a much greater proportion of the solar energy during 24 hour-long polar polar daylight (open ocean absorbs ~94% of the energy striking it) , causing polar and global temperatures to rise in a potentially accelerating feedback cycle. In the animated graphic below, this process is clearly visible since the mid 1930s. This particular cycle won’t be broken until the ice is essentially all melted. By then there are several other feedbacks that will likely be in full swing.

**Fig. 3. Zonal-mean (averaged over longitude) temperature anomalies for each year from 1900 to 2022**. The x-axis is latitude (not scaled by distance), and the y-axis is the temperature anomaly. Data is from Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures (BEST; http://berkeleyearth.org/data/) using a reference period of 1951-1980. (Zachary Labe 2023. Climate Indicators.

Ocean measurements are critical

Because most humans live on continental land masses, immersed in the atmosphere, most climatologists are primarily concerned with what goes on in the atmosphere. However, because water covers some 70% of our planet’s surface and because of water’s physical properties, around 90% of the excess solar energy striking Earth is absorbed in the World Ocean. Heat is then transported around the planet in currents and is available to be released to drive climate. See below for explanations of how the major heat engines driving Earth’s Climate System interact and work.

**Fig. 4. Growing heat content held by our warming Ocean Current to Feb. 2023** (N OAA data)

Because these climate ‘engines’ are complex dynamical systems with many interacting components, where the interactions are often non-linear and sometimes even chaotic (in a mathematical sense their behavior is inherently unpredictable to any statistically define degree. Positive feedbacks in such systems can be potentially destructive because they lead to exponentially growing changes that lead to system breakdown (because infinity is impossible in the real world). Mathematical modeling of the interactions of small sets of variables can provide an appreciation of how such breakdowns may occur. Systems engineering as practiced in large defence engineering projects is based around a MilStd known as Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) to identify such kinds of failure modes in order to engineer system solutions mitigate or totally avoid circumstances where they might arise.

The charts and maps below show how some measures of the behavior of Global Climate System have been behaving over the last few months and days. I consider these to be critical because they are likely to be evolved in the kinds of positive feedbacks that can grow exponentially to cause systems failure or collapse.

A definition

Many of the charts represent values of particular variables averaged over the surface of the whole Earth (or some specified region) at a specified point or interval of time. Most maps use colors to indicate the value of a specified variable at a specified point or averaged over an interval of time. In most such cases these measures are presented in the form of “anomalies”. An anomaly is the difference between the particular measurement and the long-term ‘baseline’ average for that measure on that day or interval of the year. For example, the graph immediately below uses a 30 year average (from 1971-2000) for its baseline average. Anomaly plots are particularly useful to highlight changes taking place over time.

Critical Variables

Global Sea-Surface Temperature

The global sea surface temperature anomaly broke into all-time record for the day of the year around 15 March, and by the end of March it was an all time record high since 1981, 0.1 °C above the previous record set on 6 March 2015. This value is so extreme, that along with other variables noted below it suggests that the average rate of global warming observed over the last few decades may be shifting into a new regime where the rate of ocean-surface warming is skyrocketing. As at 29 June it is still 0.2 °C above the previous record for that date – with an uptick after 4 days of downward trend).

**Fig. 5a.** Time series visualizations of daily mean **Sea Surface Temperature (SST)** up to 23 July. Data from NOAA Optimum Interpolation SST (OISST) version 2.1. OISST is a 0.25°x0.25° gridded dataset that provides estimates of temperature based on a blend of satellite, ship, and buoy observations. The datset spans 1 January 1982 to present with a 1 to 2-day lag from the current day. Data are preliminary for about two weeks until a finalized product is posted by NOAA. This status is identified on the maps by “[preliminary]” appearing in the title, and applies to the time series as well. SST anomalies, which are included in the OISST dataset, are based on 1971–2000 climatology. The **time series chart** displays area-weighted means for the selected domain. For example, if *World 60S-60N* is selected, then each daily SST value on the chart represents the average of all ocean gridcells between 60°S and 60°N across all longitudes, and accounts for the convergence of longitudes at the poles. Hide or display individual time series by clicking the year below the chart; *Hide All* and *Show All* buttons are at the chart lower right. The map can be switched between SST and SST anomaly by clicking the toggle button at the map top-left. A sea ice mask is applied to the SST and anomaly maps for gridcells where ice concentration is >= 50%

**Fig. 5b. Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies**. Significant positive heat anomalies exist in normal sinking zones for cooled salty water.

**Fig. 5c.** Sea Surface Temperatures. ClimateReanalyzer’s SST current SST data can be accessed here.

The North Atlantic’s fever is still has a fever is still growing on 13 July. Warmer than usual water flooding up around southern Greenland right up to the edge of the melting sea-ice, with what looks like cold fresh meltwater flowing out of Baffin Bay along the west side.

Note that the ocean surface temperature is 5 °C right up to the edge of the sea ice, with warmer water than that intruding nearly as far as the ice front in Baffin Bay. The cooler (purple shaded) water flowing down close to the Canadian shoreline has been pushed back into Baffin Bay (between Greenland and Canada. There is no sign in either of the SST maps of ‘cool spots’ which are thought to be the sources of the ‘salty cold water’ forming the deep water branches of the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic. In fact, the ocean in these areas seems to be 10-15 °C. Northern Hemisphere ice extents are low for the date but not yet near record lows, unlike the South!

**Fig. 6a.** Record Sea Surface temperature in North Atlantic for
July 23, only 0.1 °C short of the previous all-time record, set more than a month later last year.

**Fig 6b.** **Sea Surface Temperature distribution in North Atlantic for 23 July 2023.**

Global Sea Ice

Antarctic Sea ice

Around the same time the global average sea-surface temperature began to skyrocket, the rate of sea-ice formation around Antarctica slowed — as would be expected if the surrounding ocean was becoming progressively warmer than has ever before been the case for this time of the year.

**Fig. 7a**. Time series showing he full annual cycle of the melting and freezing of sea ice around Antarctica from Jan 1979 up to 23 July. Seaice.visuals.Earth.

**Fig 7b**. Time series showing daily anomalies in the extent of sea ice around Antarctica from Jan 1979 up to 23 July highlighting the substantial slowing of freezing. Note differences in scale to 5a. **The deviation is 7.12σ**. Dark green shading = 3 sigma, light green = 5 sigma.

Sea ice extent anomaly is strongest in the Weddell and Bellingshausen Sea region. With the Indian Ocean region also showing what looks like the beginning of a strong deviation. The illustration is from the article from the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership that discusses the significance of the anomaly.

Fig. 8. Monthly anomalies in Antarctic sea-ice concentration and sea-surface temperatures for June 2023, showing more negative (i.e., reduced ice freezing) than positive anomalies. Note deep red is -70%, and lack of sea ice in Bellingshausen Sea (west of Antarctic Peninsula). Even though Antarctica is in mid-freeze season, Bellingshausen Sea is almost at summer sea-ice levels. (Source: interactive chart accessed at nilas.org). see also Polar View.

Sea ice extent anomaly is strongest in the Weddell Sea (area above the Antarctic Peninsula) and Bellingshausen Sea region (indicated by the arrow above). With the Indian Ocean region also showing what looks like the beginning of a strong deviation. See especially the article from the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership that discusses the significance of the anomaly.

Fig. 9. Color-coded animation displaying the last 2 weeks of the daily sea ice concentrations. Sea ice concentration is the percent areal coverage of ice within the data element (grid cell) in the Southern Hemisphere. These images use data from the AMSR-E/AMSR2 Unified Level-3 12.5 km product. The different shades of gray over land indicate the land elevation with the lightest gray being the highest elevation.

This graphic from NASA Earth Science’s Current State of Sea Ice Cover shows the slow rate of ice formation around Antarctica. The almost complete absence of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea is remarkable. It is only now in the last few days that it is beginning to ice over. There is also significant open water within the extent of the sea ice.

Arctic Sea Ice

So far, melting of the Arctic sea ice has not been particularly exceptional. With regard to sea-ice at both poles, it is also important to consider thickness and volume. Ice that is only a meter or two thick is accumulated over winter when there is no solar heating (sun largely or completely below the horizon) is normally only a year old. Solid ice reflects most of the solar energy heating it. However, the thinner the ice is, the faster it can melt as it begins to heat under the summer sun and possibly even rain(!), to say nothing of warm currents from the tropics. Around the North Pole, all of the bluish and purple ice shown in the map here can disappear fairly quickly as summer continues to leave open ocean to absorb most of the solar energy striking it that will delay freezing in the following winter.

Arctic sea ice beginning to thin and break up as far as the North Pole. Shades of blue within the ice cap show regions where less than 100 percent of the quadrangle are covered by ice. (Either due to exposed ocean water or puddles of rain/melt-water on top of the ice). In either case this is bad news for reflectivity of the ice cap.

**Fig. 12. Color-coded animation displaying the last 2 weeks from June 25 of the daily sea ice concentrations in the Northern Hemisphere**. These images use data from the AMSR-E/AMSR2 Unified Level-3 12.5 km product. The different shades of gray over land indicate the land elevation with the lightest gray being the highest elevation. From Current State of Sea Ice Cover

Atmosphere and land

Jet streams

**Fig. 13c. Global distribution of jet streams.**

Jet streams are the atmospheric equivalents to major ocean currents that influence all of the other weather systems on the planet to keep them moving latitudinally around the planet. They are driven by temperature differences between the tropical and polar regions of the Earth and Coreolus effects as winds blow towards or away from the poles. Where the temperature differs strongly between poles and equator the jet streams are well organized with high winds. As temperature differences decrease so do the wind speeds, and the streams begin to slowly meander until they may become quite chaotic. Winds less than 60 kt are not considered to be jet streams. At present there has been very little change in the pattern that existed a week and a half ago (as shown in Fig 8b) there are virtually NO jet streams at all in the Northern Hemisphere, and the winds that do exist are completely chaotic — a highly unusual situation. This leaves major heat domes basically motionless, facilitating the buildup and maintenance of record high temperatures.

See: Nature Climate Change, Lenton (2011) Early warning of climate tipping points.

Continental effects

Fig. 14. The taiga biome is found throughout the high northern latitudes, between the tundra and the temperate forest, from about 50°N to 70°N, but with considerable regional variation. (Wikipedia).

Some of the greatest impacts of the disrupted jet stream system are seen over the boreal/taiga forest zones of North America and Eurasia. Arctic tundra and much of the taiga is underlain by carbon rich peat and peaty permafrost soils that are thought to contain at least 2x more carbon than the current amount of carbon in our atmosphere. Depending on circumstances, significant amounts of that carbon can be released in the form of methane, that has more than 80x the greenhouse potential of CO₂ over the first 20 years of emission (20x over 100 years). Aside from greenhouse gases emitted by the burning forests and soils, significant amounts of the black carbon ‘ash’ will settle on Arctic snow and ice – speeding their melting when exposed to sunlight. Collectively, at least over the first few years following wildfire, the burning will provide yet another powerful positive feedback to speed snow and ice melting. Over a longer term, re-vegetation will sequester some atmospheric CO₂, but only if the forest is not burned again.

Fig. 15. By the end of June Canadian wildfires mainly in boreal forests have burned more area before the fire season is half over than in the previous record for a full year in 1989. Phys Org (30 June 2023). As at 24 July 11,582,531 ha have burned. The graph here, sourced from Natural Resources Canada gives the status as at 15 July. This is literally ‘off the chart’, and represents about 1.1% of Canada’s total land area.

Wildfires not only release the carbon contained in burned forests and tundra, but they can also burn the carbon rich peat soils. furthermore, burning off insulating vegetation and surface litter exposes permafrost to melting and release of CO₂ and methane from frozen hydrates.

If the burning releases more greenhouse emissions than can readily be recaptured by re-vegetating forests. These emissions may more than replace any emissions humans cut — providing positive feedback to drive global temperatures still higher. This is one of several crucial tipping points associated with stopping the thermohaline circulation.

Intensity of observation

A hint to how little you can trust claims of reality denying trolls, puppets, and the like, is provided by the number monitoring points that physically monitor the atmosphere at those locations around the surface of the planet we live on used PER DAY.

Atmospheric monitoring

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for the charts plotted on 6 July 2023 as shown below are based on measurements from 92,702 locations. Note 1: this map does not NOT include ocean monitoring points. Note 2: The DATA COLLECTED EVERY DAY by this web of sensors is available to, used, and interpreted by several different national and institutional climate monitoring centers. In other words, the conclusions are cross checked between different centers many times over. The charts above depict scientific facts, not hunches and personal opinions. For more detail on how the accuracy of the observations is controlled see ECMWF’s Monitoring of the observing system.

**Fig. 19. The type and location of 92,702 separate observations used on 6 July 2023 between 3:00 and 9:00 PM for 6 hourly data coverage used by the ECMWF data assimilation system (4DVAR)**. Each plot shows the available data for a family of observations. The current day’s chart can be downloaded here. **SYNOP** refers to encoded information collected and transmitted every 6 hours by more than 7600 manned and unmanned meteorological stations and more than 2500 mobile stations around the world and is used for weather forecasting and climatic statistics. SHIP **METAR** is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by aircraft pilots, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting.

Oceanographic monitoring

Argo

Argo floats profiles physical properties of the surrounding water, minimally ocean temperature, salinity, pressure (i.e., depth). Each float operates on a 10 day cycle, spending most of the cycle ‘resting’ at an intermediate depth. On the 10th day it sinks to a specified depth and begins recording inputs from its sensors as it floats up to the surface. The standard float sinks to a depth of 2 km (2,000 m) and records all the way up to the surface, where it then determines its GPS position to within a few meters and messages a passing relay satellite with its location and profile data before sinking to its resting depth waiting for the next profile position. As shown on the world map here, for June 2023, shows the locations of 3849 profiles received over the month. Of these ~1,400 recorded the profile from 2 km deep in the ocean to the surface. Some floats are designed to sink to the bottom and thus record a profile for the full depth of the ocean. A few include several additional sensors to levels for things like acidity, oxygen, nitrate, light level, and some more I don’t recognize. The Argo system is really quite amazing.

Some even have ice sensors allowing them to operate even in ice-covered waters by warning if they might be fatally damaged by striking ice overhead. For these, if they sense ice, they’ll record the profile in memory, and drop back and rest until the next cycle (which may again prevent surfacing). These interrupted cycles will keep repeating until the float can safely surface — in which case all of the aborted profiles will be messaged to the satellite relay along with the current one (better late than never!)

**Fig. 20. Argo floats operational in June 2023**. For the latest data see Ocean Ops dashboard

And then there is a plethora of other ocean sensor systems. The full gamut of them shown next. The various different types are named in the legend. Collectively, on 26 June 2023, the ocean sensing system measuring in-situ variables includes 7973 ‘platforms’ (including the different kinds of Argo Floats) and results from 104 ‘cruises’ of ships ranging from specialized oceanographic vessels to fishing boats. Some of these non-Argo systems also record partial or complete (i.e., to the bottom) profiles.

Almost all of the data collected from the range of sensors is freely accessible via the public World Wide Web.

**Fig. 21. Location of ocean sensor platforms.**

Satellite remote sensing systems

As if the plethora of physical systems for directly measuring weather and climate is not enough. There is now a cloud of satellite-based remote sensing systems buzzing around our planet, making literally millions of observations every day of critical weather and climate variables. NASA EarthData’s What is remote sensing? gives a high level overview of some of the capabilities of these systems. You can be assured that the measurements made by the earth-based and space-based sensing systems are carefully cross calibrated to ensure the various systems are all working together towards a common view of the actual physical reality.

Major heat engine domains of the Earth System

Dynamic changes in the Universe through time are driven by spontaneous flows and transformations of energy from ‘sources’ at high potential to entropy and ‘sinks’ at lower potentials (e.g., water flowing down a hill). This flux can be used to drive other processes through a system of coupled interactions forming a thermodynamic system or heat engine. As governed by the universal physical Laws of Thermodynamics (especially the Second Law), as long as there is a potential difference between source and sink, the flux of energy between them will continue to spontaneously flow through the system/heat engine as long as long as the system’s net entropy production remains positive.

The ‘Earth System’ includes all the shell-like layered components of the planet from the edge of outer space to its center. The three main ones concerning us here from inside out are the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The biosphere formed in the interface between atmosphere and geosphere (on the planetary scale) is a microscopically thin turbulent layer of carbonaceous macromolecules and water combined with other elements and molecules exhibiting the properties of life. We humans form part of that biosphere.

The heat engines described here circulate masses of matter that transport heat energy from place to place within the Earth System.

Geosphere

The geosphere comprises Planet Earth’s, solid (‘rocky’) components. The geosphere’s heat engine is based on the geologically slow process of plate tectonics that drives continental drift.

Fig. 22. Geological heat engine at work. Mantle convection may be the main driver behind plate tectonics. Image via University of Sydney.

The plate tectonics engine is driven by the slow radioactive decay of unstable isotopes of elements such as potassium, uranium and thorium remaining from the formation of Earth some 4.5 billion years ago.

Enough heat has and is being generated by this decay to melt the planet’s core and heat and expand the overlying mantle rocks enough to make them less dense and plastic enough for them to form convection cells like you see in a pan of nearly boiling water. Hotter and less dense rocks float up towards Earth’s harder crust and spread out (carrying surface crust and even lighter continental rocks, i.e., ‘plates’) to become cool enough for gravitational force to pull the solidified plates back towards the molten core in subduction zones that also form oceanic trenches.

Heat transported from radioactive decay is released into the hydrosphere and atmosphere from conduction through the crust + hot springs and geysers; by molten basalt lava coming to the surface in oceanic and terrestrial spreading (‘rift zones’); and volcanoes associated with localized ‘hot spots of rising magma or with the rift zones. Lavas associated with the latter type of volcanoes are formed of lighter, lower melting point rocks forming a scum on top of the denser crustal rocks of the drifting plates.

Hydrosphere

Earth’s hydrosphere is the thin film of water between the geosphere and atmosphere forming the salty Ocean covering around 70% of the planetary surface along with lakes and streams of generally nearly salt-free water serving as feeding tendrils draining water condensed from the land. The hydrosphere also includes a solid component of ice and a gaseous component of vapor. These components have very different properties compared to water and each other.

The liquid component of the hydrospheric heat engine absorbs solar energy in the form of heat warming volumes of water, in the form of latent heat of fusion (i.e., melting of ice) absorbing about 80 cal/gm of ice melted, and latent of vaporization (i.e., turning liquid water into an atmospheric gas) absorbing about 540 cal/gm of water vaporized (6.75 times as much energy as required to melt the gm of ice). The heat absorbed becomes ‘latent’ in that the energy transforms the state from liquid to solid or from liquid to gas without changing the measurable or feel-able (i.e., ‘sensible’) temperature of the mass. When the water vapor condenses or the water freezes, of course the latent energies are released in the form of sensible heat.

Basically, the hydrospheric heat engine is driven by the absorption of excess amounts solar radiation (the source) in equatorial, tropical, and subtropical regions of the planet that is mainly carried by ocean currents towards the polar and sub-polar regions where the an excess of heat energy released from water and freezing ice is carried away from the planet in the form of long-wave infrared radiation to the cold sink of outer space. Many different local, regional, and global ocean currents are involved in moving energy around the planetary sphere. Proportionately, a small amount of geothermal heat energy is absorbed from the geospheric heat engine by water, and larger amounts of heat are exchanged with the atmospheric heat engine(s) in a variety of ways.

Water has some very peculiar properties that play very important roles in the climate system and biospheric systems, especially around the freezing point. Most materials contract and become denser as they cool. This is also true for pure water, down to a temperature of 4 °C when it begins to expand and become less dense until it begins to freeze. Ice at 0°C is even lighter such that it easily floats. This is because water molecules are shaped like boomerangs with the oxygen atom at the apex and the two hydrogen atoms sticking out at angles. When they are warmer they jitter around in a relatively random way, such that warming makes the molecules jitter faster and further, while as they cool the jitter slows and they come closer such that a given number of molecules take up less space. As the jitter slows further at and below 4 °C, molecules tend to spread out some to form a quasi crystalline structure approaching that of ice where they are more or less locked into that structure, where the solid water is significantly lighter than the liquid. The presence of dissolved salts and minerals depresses the freezing temperature. As as ice freezes, crystallization of the water also tends to concentrate and expel dissolved minerals and gases in extra-cold plumes of particularly dense and very cold salty water (i.e., brine) — cold enough that tubes of ice may form from the less salty water around the brine.

Water is also a god solvent, able to carry substantial amounts of gases, (e.g., oxygen, CO₂, methane – CH₄), salts, carbonates, nitrates, sulfates, metal ions, etc). The ocean carries a lot of salt – enough to play an important role in the ocean circulation system. Oxygen and CO₂ play essential roles in living systems, CO₂ and carbonates play important roles in interactions between water, the Geosphere and the atmosphere. CO₂ and methane in the atmosphere, along with water vapor, are the most important greenhouse gases, etc…..

Fig. 23. A summary of the path of the thermohaline circulation. Blue paths represent deep-water currents, while red paths represent surface currents. This map shows the pattern of thermohaline circulation also known as “meridional overturning circulation”. This collection of currents is responsible for the large-scale exchange of water masses in the ocean, including providing oxygen to the deep ocean. The entire circulation pattern takes ~2000 year. Wikipedia

The principal current system driving ocean heat transport is known as the ‘thermohaline circulation‘. Basically, seawater is warmed in the equatorial, tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It also increases in density due to the evaporation of water vapor into the atmosphere. However, parcels of water are kept hot enough that thermal expansion more than compensates for the densification from becoming saltier. However, as currents carry the hot, salty surface water further towards the poles, the water begins to cool until the warm salty water carrying a full load of oxygen becomes dense enough around 4 °C to sink through layers of still warmish but less salty water, carrying a full load of oxygen down to the bottom of the ocean. The salt in this descending water is diluted by mixing with relatively fresh ice water from terrestrial runoffs, melting glacial and sea ice, etc sourced from zones even closer to the poles than where the dense salty water normally sinks.

The main source of power that drives the thermohaline circulation heat engine is the conversion gravitational potential energy in the sinking masses of water as they sink to the ocean floor this sinking helps to pull surface waters into the ‘sinkhole’. Further assists to the circulation are provided by prevailing atmospheric winds pushing surface waters away from continental shores, pulling up cold, deoxygenated, CO₂ and mineral rich deep waters to the surface where they fertilize the blooms of micro-algae that add more oxygen and feed the whole food chains of larger organisms in the oceans.

Atmosphere

Fig. 24. (top) Plan and (bottom) cross-section schematic view representations of the general circulation of the atmosphere. Three main circulations exist between the equator and poles due to solar heating and Earth’s rotation: 1) Hadley cell – Low-latitude air moves toward the equator. Due to solar heating, air near the equator rises vertically and moves poleward in the upper atmosphere. 2) Ferrel cell – A midlatitude mean atmospheric circulation cell. In this cell, the air flows poleward and eastward near the surface and equatorward and westward at higher levels. 3) Polar cell – Air rises, diverges, and travels toward the poles. Once over the poles, the air sinks, forming the polar highs. At the surface, air diverges outward from the polar highs. Surface winds in the polar cell are easterly (polar easterlies). A high pressure band is located at about 30° N/S latitude, leading to dry/hot weather due to descending air motion (subtropical dry zones are indicated in orange in the schematic views). Expanding tropics (indicted by orange arrows) are associated with a poleward shift of the subtropical dry zones. A low pressure band is found at 50°–60° N/S, with rainy and stormy weather in relation to the polar jet stream bands of strong westerly wind in the upper levels of the atmosphere. From Wikipedia Hadley Cell.

The atmosphere includes the gaseous components of Earth’s global heat engine. The transport and transfer of heat energy and the Coriolis effect are the major drivers. The major sources of heat are direct conduction of sensible heat across the atmosphere : ocean/land interface, the conversion of latent heat into sensible heat through the evaporation and condensation of water vapor (mainly from the oceans), and direct solar heating (note: because the atmosphere is largely transparent to most radiation, most solar energy is not captured by the atmosphere itself.)

The diagram here shows how the transport of heat from the Earth’s surface to the top of the atmosphere where it radiates away as infrared to the heat sink of outer space organizes the wind systems into three major cycles. Note that the moisture laden warm air cools as it rises and releases a lot more energy as the water vapor condenses into rain or hail to keep the rising air warmer for longer.

Biosphere

The Biosphere (“Life”) – the totality of the living components of the planetary sphere, generally residing in the interface between the Atmophere and the Geosphere/Hydrosphere, where living things are characterized by their capacity to self-organize, self-regulate, and self-reproduce their properties of life through time.

The biosphere’s “Engine of Life” is predominantly driven by the complexly catalyzed formation of high energy chemical bonds from the capture of solar radiant or activation energy from redox reactions to combine oxygen and carbon to produce high energy carbohydrates (i.e., captured by chlorophyll in photosynthesis) used or ‘burned’ to fuel all kinds of metabolic activities and processes in living things. Living components of the Earth System have and depend for their continued survival and reproduction on their capacity to catalyze all kinds of energy transformations within and between the other Earth Systems. Over time the Engine of Life has profoundly affected the other planetary spheres. A tiny fraction of energy is captured in abyssal depths and deep in the earth through the process of chemosynthesis

Over evolutionary time the emergence and evolution Life has affected major global transformations involving many aspects of Earth’s other subsystems. Evolutionary processes are complexly dynamic and many of them include many potentially powerful positive feedbacks able to drive changes at exponential rates. All life can evolve genetically to live under a wide variety of environmental conditions over multi generational time scales due to natural selection at the genetic level.

A few species and humans in particular, can evolve culturally at intra-generational timescales to drive changes at exponentially explosive rates to the extent that WE are literally threatening all complex life on the planet with global mass extinction – quite possibly within two or three of our own generations!

Interpersonal competition to gain ever more personal power from the burning of globally significant quantities of fossil carbon in less than a century that was accumulated in the geosphere over millions of years by life processes has destabilized Earth’s Climate System. TODAY, we seem to be in the midst of flipping the global climate system from the Glacial-Interglacial Cycle most life has adapted genetically to live under, to the Hothouse Earth regime that very few organisms will be able to survive in without hundreds or thousands of generations or more of genetic adaptation. SEE FEATURED IMAGE!

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.

Global Climate Change 8/07/2023

William P. Hall on July 15, 2023

08/07/2023

What’s this article about, and why is the date in the title important?

As I write this, the average climate for our WHOLE PLANET is changing so freaking fast we can see visibly measurable changes in the averages from one day to the next!

The time gap between the instants of measurement depicted in the plots and charts and when they were printed are due to time delays between:

automatically recording millions of readings from hundreds of thousands of networked physical sensors and more millions of readings from remote sensors on a plethora of artificial satellites whizzing around our revolving planet several times a day (“Intensity of observation”, below, illustrates just how comprehensive the sensor network is);
accumulating and assembling the recorded data over the world-wide communications network;
proofing, processing and tabulating the received data on the world’s largest supercomputers; reanalyzing and plotting the observations in the form of charts and graphs comprehensible to humans;
publishing and publishing these outputs onto the public web, where they are accessible to anyone with a computer and the knowledge to find and understand the representations.

Measuring progress towards existential catastrophe on Hothouse Earth

Ocean measurements are critical

**Fig. 2**. Growing heat content held by our warming Ocean Current to Feb. 2023 (N OAA data)

A definition

Critical variables

Global sea-surface temperature

**Fig. 3a.** This chart provides **time series** visualizations of daily mean **Sea Surface Temperature (SST)** up to 4 July from NOAA Optimum Interpolation SST (OISST) version 2.1. OISST is a 0.25°x0.25° gridded dataset that provides estimates of temperature based on a blend of satellite, ship, and buoy observations. The datset spans 1 January 1982 to present with a 1 to 2-day lag from the current day. Data are preliminary for about two weeks until a finalized product is posted by NOAA. This status is identified on the maps by “[preliminary]” appearing in the title, and applies to the time series as well. SST anomalies, which are included in the OISST dataset, are based on 1971–2000 climatology. The **time series chart** displays area-weighted means for the selected domain. For example, if *World 60S-60N* is selected, then each daily SST value on the chart represents the average of all ocean gridcells between 60°S and 60°N across all longitudes, and accounts for the convergence of longitudes at the poles. Hide or display individual time series by clicking the year below the chart; *Hide All* and *Show All* buttons are at the chart lower right. The map can be switched between SST and SST anomaly by clicking the toggle button at the map top-left. A sea ice mask is applied to the SST and anomaly maps for gridcells where ice concentration is >= 50%

**Fig. 3b. Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies**

**Fig. 3c.** Sea Surface Temperatures. ClimateReanalyzer’s SST current SST data can be accessed here.

The North Atlantic still has a fever on 4 July. Warmer than usual water flooding up around southern Greenland right up to the edge of the melting sea-ice, with what looks like cold fresh meltwater flowing out of Baffin Bay along the west side.

Note that the ocean surface temperature is 5 °C right up to the edge of the sea ice, with warmer water than that intruding nearly as far as the ice front in Baffin Bay. Cooler water may be flowing out close to the Canadian shoreline. There is no sign in either of the SST maps of ‘cool spots’ which are thought to be the sources of the ‘salty cold water’ forming the deep water branches of the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic. In fact, the ocean in these areas seems to be 10-15 °C. Northern Hemisphere ice extents are low for the date but not yet near record lows, unlike the South!

**Fig. 4a.** Record Sea Surface temperature in North Atlantic for Jul 4.

**Fig 4b.** Sea Surface Temperature distribution in North Atlantic.

Sea ice

Fig. 6. Monthly anomalies in Antarctic sea-ice concentration for early June 2023, showing more negative than positive anomalies. Note colour bar (deep red is -70%), and lack of sea ice in Bellingshausen Sea (arrowed). Even though Antarctica is in mid-freeze season, Bellingshausen Sea is almost at summer sea-ice levels. (Source: nilas.org). see also Polar View.

Fig. 7. Color-coded animation displaying the last 2 weeks of the daily sea ice concentrations Sea ice concentration is the percent areal coverage of ice within the data element (grid cell) in the Southern Hemisphere. These images use data from the AMSR-E/AMSR2 Unified Level-3 12.5 km product. The different shades of gray over land indicate the land elevation with the lightest gray being the highest elevation.

This graphic from NASA Earth Science’s Current State of Sea Ice Cover shows the slow rate of ice formation around Antarctica. The almost complete absence of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea is remarkable. There is also significant open water within the extent of the sea ice.

Jet streams

**Fig. 10c**. Global distribution of jet streams.

Jet streams are the atmospheric equivalents to major ocean currents that influence all of the other weather systems on the planet to keep them moving latitudinally around the planet. They are driven by temperature differences between the tropical and polar regions of the Earth and Coreolus effects as winds blow towards or away from the poles. Where the temperature differs strongly between poles and equator the jet streams are well organized with high winds. As temperature differences decrease so do the wind speeds, and the streams begin to slowly meander until they may become quite chaotic. Winds less than 60 kt are not considered to be jet streams. At present (as shown in Fig 8b, there are virtually NO jet streams at all in the Northern Hemisphere, and the winds that do exist are completely chaotic — a highly unusual situation. This leaves major heat domes and cold patches basically motionless, facilitating the buildup of record temperatures.

See: Nature Climate Change, Lenton (2011) Early warning of climate tipping points.

Continental effects

Fig. 11. The taiga is found throughout the high northern latitudes, between the tundra and the temperate forest, from about 50°N to 70°N, but with considerable regional variation. (Wikipedia).

Fig. 12. By the end of June Canadian wildfires mainly in boreal forests have burned more area before the fire season is half over than in the previous record for a full year in 1989. Phys Org (30 June 2023). As at 6 July 8.782,952 have burned (Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre).

Intensity of observation

Atmospheric monitoring

**Fig. 13**. This chart maps the type and location of 92,702 separate observations used on 6 July 2023 between 3:00 and 9:00 PM for 6 hourly data coverage used by the ECMWF data assimilation system (4DVAR). Each plot shows the available data for a family of observations. The current day’s chart can be downloaded here. **SYNOP** refers to encoded information collected and transmitted every 6 hours by more than 7600 manned and unmanned meteorological stations and more than 2500 mobile stations around the world and is used for weather forecasting and climatic statistics. SHIP **METAR** is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by aircraft pilots, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting.

Oceanographic monitoring

Argo

**Fig. 14.** For the latest data see Ocean Ops dashboard

Almost all of the data collected from the range of sensors is freely accessible via the public World Wide Web.

Satellite remote sensing systems

Major heat engine domains of the Earth System

Geosphere

The geosphere comprises Planet Earth’s, solid (‘rocky’) components. The geosphere’s heat engine is based on the geologically slow process of plate tectonics that drives continental drift.

Fig. 16. Geological heat engine at work. Mantle convection may be the main driver behind plate tectonics. Image via University of Sydney.

Hydrosphere

Fig. 17. A summary of the path of the thermohaline circulation. Blue paths represent deep-water currents, while red paths represent surface currents. This map shows the pattern of thermohaline circulation also known as “meridional overturning circulation”. This collection of currents is responsible for the large-scale exchange of water masses in the ocean, including providing oxygen to the deep ocean. The entire circulation pattern takes ~2000 year. Wikipedia

Atmosphere

Fig. 18. (top) Plan and (bottom) cross-section schematic view representations of the general circulation of the atmosphere. Three main circulations exist between the equator and poles due to solar heating and Earth’s rotation: 1) Hadley cell – Low-latitude air moves toward the equator. Due to solar heating, air near the equator rises vertically and moves poleward in the upper atmosphere. 2) Ferrel cell – A midlatitude mean atmospheric circulation cell. In this cell, the air flows poleward and eastward near the surface and equatorward and westward at higher levels. 3) Polar cell – Air rises, diverges, and travels toward the poles. Once over the poles, the air sinks, forming the polar highs. At the surface, air diverges outward from the polar highs. Surface winds in the polar cell are easterly (polar easterlies). A high pressure band is located at about 30° N/S latitude, leading to dry/hot weather due to descending air motion (subtropical dry zones are indicated in orange in the schematic views). Expanding tropics (indicted by orange arrows) are associated with a poleward shift of the subtropical dry zones. A low pressure band is found at 50°–60° N/S, with rainy and stormy weather in relation to the polar jet stream bands of strong westerly wind in the upper levels of the atmosphere. From Wikipedia Hadley Cell.

Biosphere

The “Engine of Life” is predominantly driven by the complexly catalyzed formation of high energy chemical bonds from the capture of solar radiant or activation energy from redox reactions to combine oxygen and carbon to produce high energy carbohydrates used or ‘burned’ to fuel all kinds of metabolic activities and processes in living things. Living components of the Earth System have and depend for their continued survival and reproduction on their capacity to catalyze all kinds of energy transformations within and between the other Earth Systems. Over time the Engine of Life has profoundly affected the other planetary spheres.

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.

Political revolution has begun in Australia!

William P. Hall on April 10, 2023

The climate emergency needs a revolution: from governments supporting dogmas and special interests to supporting citizens.

Vote Climate One is working to inform Australians of the scientific facts relating to the ever growing climate emergency and what can be done politically to ensure that our governments actively join the battle to solve the emergency. We hope this will help drive a political revolution enabling this to happen.

Due to humans’ alteration of Earth’s atmosphere, the physical world we live in is generating a climate emergency

Scientific evidence shows this is the case

Black Summer fire illustrates need for political revolution in Australia — This image of a burning home in Lake Conjola in New South Wales, Australia, was taken in the middle of the day on New Year’s Eve. Credit…Matthew Abbott for The New York Times. Our Black Summer Bushfires should be more than enough to convince every Australian that we are facing a very real and very dangerous climate emergency.

Where scientifically validated facts are concerned, two weeks ago on the 20th of March the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) controlled by 195 nations of the world forming the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published their dire forecast for our future climate. This report’s Summary for Policy Makers was signed off by the delegated representatives of every one of the WMO member nations. This summary report crossing many different scientific disciplines concludes some 6 years of some of the most stringently peer-reviewed scientific research ever published. In other words, the forecast is based on a vast array of solid and tested evidence, not just anecdotes and beliefs.

For a more detailed presentation of the IPCC’s research and writing process see Politics vs physical dangers and real death and Some fundamental issues relating to the science underlying climate policy: The IPCC and COP26 couldn’t help but get it wrong. The second article explains why the IPCC cannot avoid downplaying the extent and magnitude of the consequences from continuing global warming.

In other words, where the IPCC says our future is dire if we don’t stop global warming, the actual reality is likely to be even worse, i.e., involving social collapse and even possible/likely human extinction within a century or two. Hence, our warning on Vote Climate One’s cover page:

“We need to treat the climate emergency as a global war we are on track to lose unless we can focus our efforts on the only task that matters — reversing global warming. If we fail here no other tasks matter — our species will soon end up extinct no matter how we arrange the deck chairs on the burning ship.”

The reality we face

Humans triggered the climate emergency over a little more than 100 years. In this geological instant of time we burned prodigious quantities of safely sequestered fossil carbon accumulated over millions of years to produce and release the greenhouse gas CO₂ and, even more potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This was done more-or-less accidentally with the invention of primitive, Victorian era-based steam- technologies. However, even the low tech used and applied by billions of people significantly changed the composition of an entire planet’s worth of atmosphere so it traps more solar energy to significantly warm the whole planet. Today, we are continuing to dump still more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, heating the planet even more.

Given that humans only took a century to accidentally create the climate emergency using steampunk technology, surely, by working together and using our most up to date science and technologies, we should be able to solve the emergency. Unfortunately dogma and selfish greed promoted by special interests controlling the planet’s resources are working against stopping greenhouse gas emitting activities. This, unavoidably, becomes fraught with politics: internationally, nationally, state, and even at local council levels. Political revolutions will be required at all levels to favor climate action.

Before we can work together to solve the climate emergency in the physical world, we must revolutionize our current political world working to protect special interests by keeping us divided

Puppet governments

Where politics is concerned, for several decades at least, Australian Governments (federal, state, and even many local councils) have governed primarily to serve entrenched party-political dogmas and vested special interests. Parliamentary parties have worked to impose their dogmas on the nation’s citizens rather than listening to them. Special interests influencing the governments include multinational companies in the resource and fossil fuel industries, super-wealthy individuals, land-developers and religious groupings. Parties (and party discipline) tends to support the interests who support their campaigns and provide them with favorable media. Our Climate Sentinel News article provides a case study of Liberal government in NSW: Is Premier Perrottet a far-right puppet, or the puppet master?

Unfortunately, the uncoordinated actions of people alone, no matter how well motivated, cannot possibly organize, marshal, and control all the resources and technologies needed for effective action on the climate emergency. This requires the tools of and coordination by government. Effective action to stop global warming requires stopping industrial carbon emissions. This just isn’t going to happen as long as puppet governments guided by fossil fuel industries continue subsidizing their puppet masters and jailing protesters campaigning to stop emissions. Several Climate Sentinel News posts document such cases under the search term “puppet master“.

Revolutionary political change is the solution

Vote Climate One concludes that the critical first steps in mobilizing effective climate action must be to: (1) inform citizens of the genuine reality of the climate crisis (i.e., via Climate Sentinel News); and (2) provide knowledge and tools to influence or replace parliamentary puppets of the special interests with MPs who will place citizens’ interests first (i.e., “Traffic Light Voting” and “Voting Guides“).

In other words, we aim to facilitate fundamental political revolutions in Australian parliaments: From ‘democracies’ guided by the greed of large special interests for profits and power; To a genuine democracies representing their citizens and being concerned with their health and well being.

In Australia’s political environment we think the best governments will be Labor in a minority (with labor more progressive than the usual opposition parties) where Greens and a diversity of greenish community independents hold the balance of power to prevent Labor from catering to vested interests.

This revolution has begun! Current state of the political revolution in Australia

Australian Parliament

In last year’s Federal election, the COALition majority government was decimated: replaced by a Labor government with a razor thin margin and a large cross bench with 14 green-light candidates.

House of Representatives Elections

COALition

Aust. Labor Party

Centre Alliance

Katter’s Australian

Australian Greens

Ind (Teal)

Ind (other)

2022

2019

-18

+11

(Sharkie)

(Katter)

(Gee + Dai Le)

(Majority ≥ 75): Labor 77 + Aston = 78; Red lights 61 – Aston = 60; Green lights = 15

Green lights include (Greens: 1 carryover and 3 new ones – replacing Libs in metro Brisbane) plus a swag of greenish community independents from 4 other states; Labor controls the lower house in majority but with a narrow margin. Several seats could easily go to independents in by elections.

In the 1 April (April Fool’s day!) by-election in Aston (Ferntree Gully – Rowville in eastern Melbourne), in a 6.44% swing, Labor gained another ex-safe Liberal seat. This is the first time since 1920(!) that any party in power has won a seat in a Federal by-election anywhere in Australia. Only 3 out of 32 booths in the once safely Liberal Aston had a majority of Liberal votes.

Liberals are left holding only 2 of 23 seats in Inner Metro Melbourne (Deakin and Menzies), 3 of 7 Outer Metro (Casey, LaTrobe and Flinders), and 0 of 3 Regional Metro areas (Bendigo, Ballarat, and Geelong).

Senate Elections

COALition

Aust. Labor Party

Greens

Pauline Hanson’s

Jacqui Lambie

United Australia

David Pocock

Lidia Thorpe

2022 Election

Total Senate 2022

Majority > 38: Labor 26; Red lights 36; Green lights 13 — (Labor + green lights) = 39

Where Labor has only 26 seats compared to 36 seats for the red lights, the green lights clearly hold the balance of power in the Senate. David Pocock (community independent) and Lidia Thorpe (elected as a Green) must be included along with the Greens party to give Labor a majority. David Pocock’s vote is critical in decisions where the red lights are unanimously against.

In our analysis of the results, Vote Climate One’s Traffic Light Election Guide was accessed hundreds of thousands of times during the pre poll and election day voting period – which might have helped some candidates over the line to either second place (allowing preferences to be distributed to them) to pass the 50% two party preferred winning position. In the ACT Vote Climate One funded distribution of paper versions of the Guide in a few of the suburbs — where Pocock did statistically better than in suburbs we didn’t cover. This may have been a significant component in the winning margin.

Since the Federal Election we have had state elections in Victoria and NSW.

Victorian State Parliament

The Victorian Parliament has more resistant to revolutionary change because of the many barriers to Greens, minor parties and independents crafted into the electoral laws designed to favor the major parties. Victoria allows ‘group voting tickets’ for election to the Legislative Council and secretive backroom ‘preference trading’ among the mobs. Combined with this, Victoria’s heavyweight restrictions on campaign contributions and funding gravely hamper independents and minor parties’ abilities to campaign compared to major parties’ major funding.

Legislative Assembly

The Assembly (lower house) ended up with Labor holding 56 seats, Liberals with 19, Nationals 9 (red lights = 38), and Greens 4; where a majority is < 45. None of the 120 independents or candidates from 16 minor parties won a single seat. Labor’s 11 seat majority in the lower house combined with party discipline does little to hinder autocratic government from the Labor side.

On the other hand voting for the Legislative Council turned out well for green-light candidates. MLCs serve for 4 year terms, with all seats contested in each state election.

Legislative Council

For Legislative Council Elections in Victoria, the state is divided into 8 geographically defined electoral regions, with 5 members representing each region, for a total of 40 members. Elections are determined by ‘optional preferential voting‘. Voters have a ‘single transferable vote‘, which may be used either

‘above the line’, to vote one party’s group voting ticket listing all candidates for the region in the party’s preferred order, or
‘below the line’, where you must number at least 5 candidates in your preferred order, and may number all candidates for the region in your preferred order. If you number less than 5 or give more than one candidate the same number this invalidates your ballot.

The use of group voting tickets enables upper house elections allows voters’ intentions to be rorted in many ways as described by Glen Druery, the ‘Preference Whisperer’. However, despite all of this, after the 2022 election, green-light MLC’s on the cross-bench with 7 votes hold the balance of power.

Victorian Legislative Council Elections

Labor

COALition

Greens

Animal Justice

Derryn Hinch’s

Fiona Patten’s

Labor DLP

Legalize Cannabis

Liberal Democrats

Pauline Hanson’s

Shooters, Fishers, F…

Sustainable Aust.

Transport Matters

2022

2018

change

-3

-1

Labor 15, Greens 4, Cannabis 2, Animal Justice 1 (22); vs red-lights: Libs 8, Nat 6, Lab DLP 1, Lib Dem 1, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation 1, Shooters & Fishers 1 (18). With 21 needed for a majority in the upper house, Greens are clearly in the balance of power.

Way ahead for Victorian voters

Given that Labor is already relatively progressive on climate action, a green light majority on the cross bench may be in a position to block favorable treatment of Labor’s fossil fuel special interests, and to encourage strong action to shut down fossil fuel emissions. Victorians need to keep a close watch on their representatives and make sure via letter bombing, phone calls, and personal visits to electorate offices that they stay on the job to stop global warming!

New South Wales State Parliament

The NSW State election was held a week ago (1 April), but like Victoria the NSW’s election laws work against minor parties and independents. However, Vote Climate One may have had a bit more influence here. Liberal/Nationals were soundly defeated and Labor is in, but with a definite minority government. Labor is two short of a majority pending possible recounts. (The Liberals held the seat of Ryde by only 50 votes when the last of the postal votes were counted on 8 May).

NSW State Legislative Assembly Election

On the Labor/green-light side, Labor 45; Greens 3 (Ballina – thanks to the repeated extreme flooding events, plus Sydney electorates of Balmain & Newtown); and 3 green-light independents – one of them backed by Climate200, for a total of 51; where 47 votes are required to pass legislation.

There are also 2 orange-light incumbent independents with significant green credentials.

Note, for the count here I have reclassified Michael Regan (Wakehurst), listed orange light before the election. Due to time constraints our analysis missed his strong record of climate actions as Mayor of Northern Beaches Council and the fact that he was supported by Federal teal MPs, Zali Steggall (Warringah) and Sophie Scamps (Mackellar).

On the Lib/Nat red-light side there are 25 Libs; 11 Nationals and 4 independents (1 ex Lib and 3 ex shooters/fishers/farmers) for a total of 40.

This leaves NSW with a Labor minority government with Greens + green-light independents with a strong hold in the balance of power.

NSW State Legislative Council Election

The NSW Legislative Council has 42 members, elected by proportional representation in which the whole state is a single electorate. Members serve eight-year terms, which are staggered, with half the Council (21) being elected every four years. 22 votes are required for a majority.

From ABC News’s Legislative Council Preview – NSW Election 2023:

All registered parties are listed ‘above the line’ on the ballot paper. All candidates running in the election for a party (as listed above the line) are listed for that party in preference order below the line. Unaffiliated independent candidates are only listed below the line.

A single ‘1’ above the line is formal and counts for the chosen party but has no preferences for other parties. If they wish, a voter may show a second, third and so on preference for other parties above the line. These preferences are implied to be preferences for candidate of each group as printed on the ballot paper.

If a voter wants to re-order a party’s candidates, pick candidates from different parties, or vote for candidates in any group without a voting square above the line, they must vote ‘below the line’ by numbering boxes for candidates. Electors must complete 15 preferences below the line for a formal vote. DO NOT number a sequences that crosses the ballot paper line.

NSW Legislative Council Election

Coalition

Labor

Greens

Pauline Hanson’s

Shooters, Fishers, +

Animal Justice

Cannabis

Lib Democrats

2023 election

Total Council 2023

In the Legislative Council 22 votes form a majority, and there are now 15 Labor, 6 green lights (4 Greens, 1 AJP, 1 Cannabis), totaling 21 votes, versus 21 red light votes (Coalition 15, Pauline Hansons’s 3, SFF 2, Lib Dems 1).

Note: According to the ABC on 9/04/2023, as this is being written:

There are still some uncertainties in the count. Four seats are still not finalized, but are likely to be filled by a seventh Liberal member and one each representing Legalise Cannabis, the Liberal Democrats and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers. These are included in the above table.
“The Legislative Council consists of 42 members. Traditionally one of the government’s members is elected President. The President only has a casting vote meaning votes are determined by the 41 members on the floor with a government needing 21 members to pass legislation. After appointing the President, Labor will have only 14 members, which means the new government will need votes from seven of the 12 crossbench members to pass legislation.”

Based on trends in the present count, only 6 on the cross bench will be green lights. In other words, Vested interests working through normally cooperative red lights in the upper house, may still have some ability to block important legislation on climate action.

Way ahead for NSW voters

Noting that the Liberal Democrats and Shooters, Fishers are farther to the right and dogmatic on energy policy and climate action than the Liberal Party, we must hope that the Liberals in the upper house will follow the lead of green lights in the lower house on climate legislation.

Voters concerned to see serious action on climate need to stay alert to what their representatives in both houses are saying and doing. Make sure they know via letter bombing, phone calls, and personal visits to electorate offices that they must stay on the job to stop global warming!

What will Vote Climate One do to help?

Insofar as our limited resources allow, we will endeavor to keep Australian voters up to date with the latest news on the still growing climate emergency (i.e., why we need action) and what our governments are doing to solve it. Towards this end, we will be establishing an email service you can subscribe to, and publish contact details for all federal and state parliamentarians so you can send them hearts and flowers or brick bats depending on how well they are addressing needs for climate action.

Is this all worth the effort?

We have to turn away from the the Apocalypse on the road to hothouse hell, and we won’t do this by continuing with business as usual!

It seems to have taken the clear thinking of Greta Thunberg, then a 16 year-old school girl, who concluded school was pointless as long as humans continued their blind ‘business as usual’ rush towards extinction.

greta-act-as-if-the-house-was-on-fire — Listen to Greta’s speech live at the World Economic forum in Davos 2019. Except for her reliance on the IPCC’s overoptimistic emissions budget, everything she says is spot on what even she, as a child, can understand the alternatives and what has to happen.

In other words, wake up! smell the smoke! see the grimly frightful reality, and fight the fire that is burning up our only planet so we can give our offspring a hopeful future. This is truly the only issue that matters. Even the IPCC’s hyperconservative Sixth Assessment Report that makes it clear we are headed for an existential climate catastrophe if we don’t stop the warming process.

In Greta’s words, “even a small child can understand [this]”.

People hope for their children’s futures. She doesn’t want your hopium. She wants you to rationally panic enough to wake up, pay attention to reality, and fight the fire…. so all of our offspring can have some hope for their future.

In our present situation where most governments still support and even fund fossil fuel production and use, the most effective actions we can take as individuals is to revolutionize our governments to prioritize action on climate change above all other things. Nothing else matters if we have no future….

If we can get climate savvy governments in power soon enough, we may be able to mobilize enough action to survive our accidental disruption of Earth’s Climate System so our kids and grandkids inherit a world they can live in…

This is who we are working for! Think of your families’ futures.

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.

Politics vs physical dangers and real death

William P. Hall on March 22, 2023

IPCC warns we have only a few years left when climate action can reverse human caused global warming to avoid a crescendo of climate catastrophes

Unfortunately, we are living in a world where the greedy self-interests of billionaires and multi-national corporations tend to control media and politics. These special interests are threatened by things that must be done to slow and stop global warming. They use their power over the media and politicians to deny the need for and to prevent critically important climate action. However, the real-world understanding reported in the concluding summary of the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report on Climate Change (published this week) documents and explains the very real dangers and even mass deaths society faces if global warming is not stopped by 2030. We genuinely face a climate emergency that threatens human survival. To have any hope of organizing and implementing the kinds of statewide and national actions needed to stop the warming process citizens have to replace the parliamentary puppets of special interests with MPs who will genuinely work for the citizens who elected them. In New South Wales, how you vote this week is a life-and-death matter!

The IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change formed by the World Meterological Organization and the United Nations in 1988 to study and advise world governments on climate change. The IPCC’s Summary for Policy Makers published this week was unanimously agreed to and signed off by the politically appointed representatives of all 195(!) member governments of the United Nations that form the World Meteorological Organization (normally only 170-180 governments participate in IPCC reviews). This unusual approval process required for IPCCs “summary reports” is intended to ensure that governments accept its findings as authoritative advice on which to base their actions (a 1:30 minute IPCC video explains).

I have explained that this approval process is highly conservative and cannot avoid downplaying the extent and dangers of climate change. In reality, the actual dangers to humanity are likely to be a lot worse than described by the IPCC. New South Wales residents who are currently voting on their state government (polls close on 25 March) should note that all the modeling and predictions discussed in the Report are based on weather and climate data collected only up to 2020. The models and predictions do not include evidence on or predict how extreme climate events have actually been: e.g.,Black Summer bushfires, more than two years of unprecedented and widespread flooding, extreme heatwaves and drought, etc. If you are living on the land or close to Nature, you will know that the reality you are living with is already significantly worse than anticipated by the IPCC.

At nearly 8,000 pages, the full report is virtually unreadable. Every statement is documented, justified, and qualified. Fortunately, the World Resources Institute has done an admirable job of highlighting critical content in a readable way:

Cover Image by: Anirut Thailand/Shutterstock (from the article)

by Sophie Boehm and Clea Schumer, 20/03/2024 in World Resources Institute – Insights

10 Big Findings from the 2023 IPCC Report on Climate Change

Today marks the release of the final installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), an eight-year long undertaking from the world’s most authoritative scientific body on climate change. Drawing on the findings of 234 scientists on the physical science of climate change, 270 scientists on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change, and 278 scientists on climate change mitigation, this IPCC synthesis report provides the most comprehensive, best available scientific assessment of climate change.

It also makes for grim reading. Across nearly 8,000 pages, the AR6 details the devastating consequences of rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions around the world — the destruction of homes, the loss of livelihoods and the fragmentation of communities, for example — as well as the increasingly dangerous and irreversible risks should we fail to change course.

But the IPCC also offers hope, highlighting pathways to avoid these intensifying risks. It identifies readily available, and in some cases, highly cost-effective actions that can be undertaken now to reduce GHG emissions, scale up carbon removal and build resilience. While the window to address the climate crisis is rapidly closing, the IPCC affirms that we can still secure a safe, livable future.

…

Looking Ahead

The IPCC’s AR6 makes clear that risks of inaction on climate are immense and the way ahead requires change at a scale not seen before. However, this report also serves as a reminder that we have never had more information about the gravity of the climate emergency and its cascading impacts — or about what needs to be done to reduce intensifying risks.

Limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) is still possible, but only if we act immediately. As the IPCC makes clear, the world needs to peak GHG emissions before 2025 at the very latest, nearly halve GHG emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero CO2 emissions around mid-century, while also ensuring a just and equitable transition. We’ll also need an all-hands-on-deck approach to guarantee that communities experiencing increasingly harmful impacts of the climate crisis have the resources they need to adapt to this new world. Governments, the private sector, civil society and individuals must all step up to keep the future we desire in sight. A narrow window of opportunity is still open, but there’s not one second to waste. [my emphasis]
Read the complete article….

Think about what this means!

As reported extensively in all Australian media today (21 May) the agreed IPCC summary says that near-term (i.e., ASAP!) climate action is urgent because the window is closing for us to secure a livable and sustainable future, and that: “The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years”. These and many other critically important points are clearly summarized in the Headline Statements, which are the overarching conclusions of the approved Summary for Policymakers. Taken together these provide a concise narrative as to why effective action on the climate emergency is so urgent.

If you care for your future and the future of your family and society, you need to take the IPCC’s cautions and warnings seriously. And consider what this means in a world where your political representatives are likely to be more concerned to satisfy the wants of their big donors and special interests rather than you or other citizens of their electorates. These big donors are developers, fossil fuel industries, miners, etc., who are more concerned about immediate profit rather than future survival.

Think: if you are a “rusted-on” voter who can be counted on to vote for the incumbent or party you have always voted for, especially in a ‘safe’ seat, your ‘representative’ has no reason to consider your future in any way, and can work full time for the special interests.

However, in Australia, we still live in a democracy where your considered vote can actually work to throw the bastards out, by electing someone you can reasonably trust to work for the community of those who vote rather than those who pay…. Given the nature and reality of the climate emergency, you should consider Vote Climate One’s motto:

We need to treat the climate emergency as a global war we are on track to lose unless we can focus our efforts on the only task that matters — reversing global warming. If we fail here no other tasks matter — our species will soon end up extinct no matter how we arrange the deck chairs on the burning ship.

How Vote Climate One can help

Science and politics

If you need more evidence that we need to change our governments, there is plenty on our Climate Sentinel News blog covering both science and politics.

How to vote

We don’t tell you how to vote. We work to help you achieve the results you want when you vote.

In Australia, Vote Climate One works to assess and rank how we think every party and independent candidate on the ballot in Federal and all State elections will respond to the climate crisis. Thanks to modern computer technology this is actually do-able. How we rank candidates is explained in our Climate Lens Traffic Light Assessment process. Sometimes, we’ll even get on the phone to find out more. The undeniable task of the climate lens is to prioritise the protection of everything we hold dear. The hubris of our species needs a dose of the reduction perspective tranquilizer encapsulated in this painting by Peter Trusler.

Peter Trusler – from his book, Thrice Told

Our conclusions are presented via downloadable and printer-friendly voting guides for each and every electorate in NSW. You can find the guide for your electorate here (in this case, Lismore). The electorate screen tells you how we can help. Parties and candidates we think will work for climate action are designated with green lights. Those who we think won’t or who haven’t given us much to go on, are designated with red lights, Those we think are better than the worst, but not fully trustworthy are designated orange.

If you are concerned to see action on climate change, number all the green-light independents and parties first. Thus, even if your number [1] selection doesn’t win, you still maximize the chances that someone else with good climate credentials will be elected. If you want detail to help you decide how to rank green-light candidates, the Research Tools provide links to candidate websites and other information about them.

As Rob and his grandchildren explain in the video, the printable voting guides make it easy for you to transfer your preferences to the ballot paper in the voting booth:

Remember, we are voting in hopes of leaving a happy future for our families and society.

About the featured image: Figure SPM.6 from Summary for Policymakers, AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023

There is a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. There are a multitude of political choices that need to be made during this window. If we make good ones we can go on living in a world with a sustainable future. Bad choices will rapidly constrain our future to pathways that are likely to lead to societal collapse and eventual human extinction in a still rapidly warming world.

Figure caption: The illustrative development pathways (red to green) and associated outcomes (right panel) show that there is a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. Climate resilient development is the process of implementing greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation measures to support sustainable development. Diverging pathways illustrate that interacting choices and actions made by diverse government, private sector and civil society actors can advance climate resilient development, shift pathways towards sustainability, and enable lower emissions and adaptation. Diverse knowledge and values include cultural values, Indigenous Knowledge, local knowledge, and scientific knowledge. Climatic and non-climatic events, such as droughts, floods or pandemics, pose more severe shocks to pathways with lower climate resilient development (red to yellow) than to pathways with higher climate resilient development (green). There are limits to adaptation and adaptive capacity for some human and natural systems at global warming of 1.5°C, and with every increment of warming, losses and damages will increase. The development pathways taken by countries at all stages of economic development impact GHG emissions and mitigation challenges and opportunities, which vary across countries and regions. Pathways and opportunities for action are shaped by previous actions (or inactions and opportunities missed; dashed pathway) and enabling and constraining conditions (left panel), and take place in the context of climate risks, adaptation limits and development gaps. The longer emissions reductions are delayed, the fewer effective adaptation options.

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.

NSW: Finally, a district court judge rules out Perrottet government’s “fascist” anti-protest sentence

William P. Hall on March 19, 2023

Reason, truth, and proportionality have triumphed over the Perrottet government’s fascist desires to stop climate protests and the police’s compliant fake evidence.

As I discuss further below, the judge’s finding in the Violet CoCo case raises the hope that people are beginning to realize how undemocratically oppressive New South Wales governments have become — because voters have allowed them to remain in office.

My featured article from the Saturday Paper reports the results of serial protester Violet CoCo’s District Court appeal against her brutally totalitarian jail sentence (15 months, 8 months minimum) under the new anti-protest law for protesting government inaction on climate change. Her crime was blocking a one-lane on-ramp to the Sydney Harbour Bridge for less than a half hour to raise public awareness of the climate crisis that threatens all of humanity with mass extinction from global warming due to fossil fuel emissions.

In 2022, the law was rammed through Parliament in less than a week with with Labor’s support, despite calls from a coalition of almost 40 civil society organizations to scrap it. Premier Perrottet and Labor’s leader, Chris Minns, (both members of their parties’ religious right wing factions) both expressed to the press how pleased they were with the draconian nature of the sentence.

Are these the kind of leaders you want to follow in NSW?

Climate activist Violet CoCo. Credit: Isabella Moore / from the article

by Royce Kurmelovs, 18/02/2023 in The Saturday Paper

Climate activist Violet CoCo and protest laws

In an exclusive interview, climate activist Violet CoCo, who won her appeal against a jail sentence this week, details what she has learnt about the ‘theatre’ of politics:

…District Court judge Mark Williams read his ruling this week on whether or not Violet CoCo would serve a 15-month prison sentence for blocking the Sydney Harbour Bridge during a protest…

Four months earlier, Magistrate Allison Hawkins described CoCo as “childish” and “emotional”. In sentencing her, she relied particularly on submissions by police that alleged CoCo’s protest had blocked an ambulance.

“You have halted an ambulance under light and siren,” Hawkins said. “What about the person in there? What about that person and their family? What do they think of you and your cause?”

Only, the ambulance never existed. New South Wales Police Force had been so eager to make their case, they had embellished their account with what Williams described as a “false fact”. Reviewing the evidence, he said: “How did that find its way in?” [my emphasis]

Footage recorded by Channel Seven of the protest, played for the court by Crown prosecutor Isabella Maxwell-Williams, was set aside. An assertion that CoCo had been motivated more by scorn at the treatment of her partner in a separate protest rather than climate change was also rejected. So, too, was any suggestion the protest was “not peaceful” or that CoCo should be punished harshly based on her “criminal history”.

Williams upheld CoCo’s appeal. Convictions were recorded for blocking the bridge, resisting arrest and using a flare, but no jail time was imposed. CoCo was given a 12-month conditional release order.
Read the complete article….

The red-back spiderweb controlling the NSW Liberal Party

A couple of weeks ago my article, “Is Premier Perrettet a far-right puppet, or the puppet master?“, detailed evidence on the public record showing how Dominic Perrottet’s current “Liberal” government represents the culmination of an infiltration of the NSW Liberal Party started more than 40 years ago by a Slovenian Nazi fascist propagandist by the name of Lyenko Urbanchich (wanted after WWII by Yugoslavia as a war criminal deserving the death sentence).

Lyenko successfully planted, co-opted and mentored helpers in the Ethnic Branch and Young Liberals, including David Clarke (MLC 2003-2019). Together Lyenko and Clarke also established themselves in the State Executive of the Party.

Clarke added hard-right Opus Dei Catholicism (Clarke became a “Co-operator”) to Urbanchich’s fascism. In turn they recruited several of the Perrottet brothers who had been immersed from birth in this sect. Their parents John and Ann were/are both self-acknowledged “supernumerary” members of Opus Dei). Some of the brothers, including Dom were schooled at Redfield College (overseen by Opus Dei pastors); and even through their Law/Commerce degrees at Sydney University the brothers lived in UNSW’s Warrane College, also established by Opus Dei. Dominic is now state Premier and brothers Charles and Jean Claude (at least) came through the Young Liberals are still involved in the nefarious branch stacking and other highly dubious politicking by hard-right Liberals.

Damien Tudehope was first elected to Parliament in 2015 after playing musical chairs in the seats of Baulkham Hills, Ryde, and Epping, sometimes as an apparent placeholder for Perrottet. One of his tasks on being elected for the first time was to Chair the Parliamentary Committee on the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

In 2018 Tudehope surrendered his lower house seat of Epping to Perrottet (because Perrottet wanted to shift there because it was “closer to home”), and was given a safe upper house position in return. In this repetition of musical chairs, David Clarke retired from Parliament to free the winnable space on the upper house ticket for Tudehope).

Alex Hawke is another David Clarke protege (MP from Mitchell, NSW, in the Australian Parliament 2007-present) from a strong Anglican background. Hawke’s presidency of the Young Liberals was one of the things being celebrated at Dominic Perrottet’s infamous 21st birthday party where Perrottet costumed himself as a uniformed Nazi. Hawke defected to Morrison’s Hillsong crowd around 2009 and is now considered to be a traitor by the Opus Dei religiofascists. The resulting Hillsong vs Opus Dei holy war for control of the NSW Liberal Party and government continues until today.

Do you want to be governed by these kinds of people and their ideals?

These masters of the spiderweb are only a dark corner of NSW’s overall political corruption

Today’s Saturday Paper’ also features “A brief history of Liberal Party scandals“. This outlines the incredibly long list of voluntary and forced resignations of Liberal premiers(!) and other politicians driven by ICAC investigations. “By sheer number of resignations, the NSW Coalition government goes to next weekend’s election as one of the most scandal prone in history.”

However, even this isn’t the whole story of Coalition government. The corrupt Liberal/Coalition government followed a scandalous Labor government: and then, there is the extensive “‘Fraud, money laundering’: Inside the Hillsong papers“, where a cache of leaked financial documents appears to document staggering misconduct and outrageous spending by leaders of the ‘church’ backing Scott Morrison’s motley crew.

What is the fundamental problem here, and what do we do about it?

The big issue here is that political parties who impose party discipline on elected members almost unavoidably end up reflecting party dogma and beliefs rather than working towards considered solutions to real-world problems. Where one party has a majority to govern in its own right, this makes it easy for leaders controlling the dogma and belief to become quite authoritarian and autocratic.

In states where unelected party apparatchiks and organizers (‘storm troopers’) beholden to a charismatic leader can gain control over nominations to safe seats (e.g., like in NSW), such thugs can control who can be elected, and continue controlling them after they are elected. Depending on the ‘Leader’s’ motivations and sanity, this control can easily lead to authoritarianism and outright despotism. Given that most charismatic leaders are psychopathic narcissists lusting for power, dictatorship is the common outcome. Basically this is how Adolf Hitler took over Germany, Vladimir Lenin took over the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Putin took over Russia (again) after Perestroika and Glasnost, Xi Jinping is taking over of China from what was a slightly democratic Communist Party; and how Donald Trump has been trying so hard to take over America by outright insurrection and rebellion.

In Australia our democracy is still strong enough to block and remove potentially fascist leaders and their political followers from our governments and political parties. We do this by ensuring that no one party has enough parliamentarians to govern in its own right. Both Liberal and Labor need to be downsized to the point that the balance of power is held by community independents genuinely working to represent the communities that have elected them rather than by sheepish puppets of a major party controlled by a charismatic leader supported by a cadre of thugs.

Where party MPs in ‘Safe seats’ can count on being reelected by ‘rusted on’ members of the Party they have no motivation to do anything for their electorates. Their positions are not risked if they work to force party dogma down everyone’s throats. Only where the seat is genuinely marginal do incumbents pay much attention to what their electorates actually want.

Only if you vote for someone else to actually win the seat (e.g., a community independent) can you count on replacing the party puppet with someone committed to listen to your needs and wants.

In the following election, if you still want to vote for your old party, you are far more likely to be presented with someone who knows that they will have to work for you – rather than the party leader – if they want to be elected, and then stay in office.

How can Vote Climate One help you do this?

Vote Climate One is driven by the ever-increasing flood of solid scientific evidence that humans are totally altering our planet’s atmosphere and ecosystems in ways that is triggering a global emergency that will lead to planet-wide economic and ecological collapses and our possible/probable extinction over the next century or so. Some of the rapidly growing evidence for this is documented in our Climate Sentinel News. Failed states, dying coral reefs, and towns that remain unrepaired following climate disasters show these collapses are already beginning….

For this reason Vote Climate One is working to encourage and help voters replace dud and corrupt parliamentarians (who ignore our daily realities to serve their own greed and the desires of their leaders and special interest puppet masters) by electing others who place the evidence-based needs of their local communities first. These needs may range from working to bring climate change under control, to the often related issues of emergency management, water, transport infrastructure, telecommunications, better health services, or even just integrity in government.

Our Traffic Light Voting System seeks to assess every candidate in every electorate of your state as to how they are likely to respond effectively to the climate emergency — or your local needs…. We have only given our green-light ranking to candidates where we have found good evidence that they can be trusted to work for your community rather than their own or others’ greed and special interests. We provide a lot of detail on many of these candidates so you can make up your own mind how you want to preference them.

Our Convenor, Rob Bakes, explains in his home-made video how easy it will be to use our election guide when it comes time to fill in your ballot papers.

Daggy Grand-Dad explains how easy our voting guide is to use to help give our children and grand children some hope for the future.

Featured Image

“The protest in April 2022 saw an entire citybound lane [actually a one-lane on-ramp] shut down on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the peak rush hour. (9News)” Wow! The evidence from this photo actually shows that traffic on 7 lanes of the Bridge is flowing normally. Perrottet’s implication in justifying the outrageous sentence, that the whole City was in gridlock, was a bare-faced lie – fake news supporting the application of autocratic power.

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.

Is Premier Perrottet a far-right puppet, or the puppet master?

William P. Hall on March 3, 2023

Religious fascism on the far-right of the NSW Liberal Government.

Dominic Perrottet’s responses to Violet Coco’s demonstration against government inaction on the climate emergency were so disproportionate that I had to uncover what stimulated them — a red-back spider’s web of political influence and manipulation. The Slovenian fascist/anticommunist, Lyenko Urbanchich, began to build it by infiltrating the NSW Liberal Party in the mid 1970s via his presidency of the Liberal Ethnic Council, membership in the powerful Liberal Party State Executive (beginning 1977), and his “mentoring” of Opus Dei Catholic convert, David Clarke (also a member of State Executive and MLC 2003-2019). The web was maintained and kept growing as Clarke mentored Alex Hawke (Australian Senator for NSW since 2007) and at least three of ‘supernumerous‘ Perrottet family of Opus Dei^[1] devotees who dominated the Young Liberals and State Executive. Dominic celebrated this at his 21st birthday party in 2002 by wearing a Nazi uniform. The spiderweb now seems to be owned by Dominic (currently state Premier) and two of his brothers (political operatives) with the aid of David Tudehope.

A Redback Spider with [her] latest catch in my garden – DrFacetious

The following article is long, but sorting the major threads in the web of influence and control into a coherent picture was a major and surprisingly informative and important task.

First thread: Why would NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet say it was “pleasing to see” a woman sentenced to a minimum of 8 months jail for delaying motorists to warn that humanity faces extinction from the climate emergency.

Climate activist jailed for blocking Sydney Harbour Bridge granted bail – Violet Coco was part of a protest that disrupted morning peak-hour traffic. / By William Ton, 14/12/2022 in Channel 7 News^[1a]

Is Perrottet’s feeling of pleasure important?

A very serious question for NSW voters is: What is more important to you and everyone else? That you and a few hundred or even a few thousand people might be inconvenienced for half an hour or so, because a one lane on-ramp to a bridge that you use on your way to work is temporarily blocked?

Or that highly qualified scientists who have studied Earth’s climate system for many years agree that the entire human species (including you and all of your family) face increasing misery from a crescendo of climate disasters. And that this crescendo is leading to the possible extinction of all humans in several decades or so from accelerating global warming?^[2]

What do you say to the many thousands of NSW residents who have already been “inconvenienced” as their properties, businesses and lives have already been irrevocably ruined by extreme bushfires, flooding, and drought – almost certainly made worse by global warming that has already occurred over the last few decades?

Contrast Violet Coco’s “offense” with that of the filming of a scene from the upcoming Fall Guy “action film”. This closed the entire Harbor Bridge, and the surrounding city roads for 7 hours, from 3 am to 10 am! Trains continued to run, but footpaths and cycle ways were also closed. For the inconvenience this caused, the Federal Government gave the production company a $30 million grant, that was topped up by a $14.5 million grant from the State Government’s “Made in NSW” fund.

No cars or pedestrians were allowed across the bridge during the movie production. Credit: 7NEWS (from the article)

Watch: The spectacular Ryan Gosling stunt that shut down Sydney Harbour Bridge

Warren Barnsley, 23/01/2023 in 7Life

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet acknowledged the “inconvenience” of the bridge closure “for many people”, but claimed the disruption was justified.

“The positive is that NSW and Sydney have become massive attractions for the film industry,” he said on Sunday.

“The film industry in our great state supports thousands and thousands of jobs.

“I think it’s a great thing and a testament to NSW and our film industry here, that it continues to grow.”
See the video
….

According to Premier Perrottet, this “disruption” and “inconvenience” for “many people” (probably tens of thousands over the 7 hours of closure) was “justified” for the purposes of the film industry distracting us from doing something about a grim future… but the closure of a one-lane on-ramp for around half an hour for the purposes of warning all people of the catastrophic dangers we face from uncontrolled global warming is a heinous crime deserving 15 months in prison.

Left-wing activists slam Ryan Gosling’s movie The Fall Guy for closing down Sydney Harbour Bridge – after climate protester was sent to jail for eight months for blocking the expressway

Caleb Taylor for Daily Mail, Australia, 22/01/2023

‘Sydney Harbour Bridge closed this morning for filming. All lanes closed both directions to cars, bikes, pedestrians. What prison sentence will they get? Oh wait…It’s for money making purposes not for reducing emissions to save the climate,’
Read the complete article….

Violet Coco’s crime was protesting against the the fossil fuel industry’s continuing rape of our Mother Earth that is literally threatening survival of our families and our species in a global mass extinction event triggered by the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. Even the highly conservative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that cannot bring itself to discuss “extinction”^[3] accepts and advertises the fact that our entire civilization is threatened with global catastrophe from global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions (see Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability)^[4].

For this Coco was sentenced to 15 months jail, with a minimum of 8 months. Compare this with the Fall Guy’s $44.5 million reward for totally blocking the main connection between the northern and southern halves of Sydney for 7 hours.^[5]

That the extent of Coco’s sentence is so pleasing to Liberal Party Premier, Dominic Perrottet, seems to show that he considers Coco’s protest worse than most criminal offenses except rape and murder. In fact, “the majority of offenders are not sentenced to prison”^[6] at all. She is now out on bail^[7] until March, when her appeal against the sentence will be heard:

https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2022/12/climate-activist-violet-coco-freed-as-campaign-to-repeal-anti-protest-laws-grows/

But the question remains: Why was Coco’s sentence so harsh and is this justified?

Any attempt to find an answer says a lot about Perrottet’s character a human being.

05/12/2022 – The Guardian: NSW premier describes jailing of climate activist Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco as ‘pleasing to see’^[7a]

Asked about the jail term …, Perrottet said the sentence was “not excessive” and warned others against taking part in protests that “inconvenience people”. [To Perrottet the crime is protesting, not inconveniencing — as he soon proved.]

“If protesters want to put our way of life at risk, then they should have the book thrown at them and that’s pleasing to see,” Perrottet said. [What about the fossil fuel polluters whose impacts on global warming are putting the life our entire civilization and species at risk of collapse and extinction? Why is he pleased to reward them with project approvals and government grants?]

“We want people to be able to protest but do it in a way that doesn’t inconvenience people right across NSW.” [More than a bit of hyperbole — a one lane on-ramp to the Sydney Harbor bridge was blocked for around half an hour.]

He said the sentencing should serve as a “clear lesson” to people who wanted to protest. [See first para above]

“My view is that those protests literally started to grind our city to a halt,” he said. [Putting this view in context, what about the inconvenience climate catastrophes have already caused people in (e.g., in Lismore), many of them who still have no habitable homes after global warming-related flooding or incineration?]

“The clear message here, and it is a clear lesson – everyone has the right to protest, but do so in a way that doesn’t inconvenience people.” [i.e., that doesn’t inconvenience people in the fossil fuel industry.]
Read the complete article….

Is it important what these circumstances say about the ‘leader’ and Liberal Party in power in NSW?

Perrottet’s callous expression of pleasure over and support for punishment of people protesting^[8] to bring attention to the fact that many people are suffering greatly and even dying as a consequence of government supported greenhouse gas emissions reminds me of the actions of government autocracies like Stalinist/Putinist Russia and Nazi Germany.

I suspect that this is a fundamental character flaw of many privileged, privately educated and ‘born to rule’ males who entered politics in their teens as Young Liberals. These have been well represented on the hard right of the of the Liberal Party in NSW.

Hints of fascism

Dominic Perrottet, born in 1982, was President of the NSW Young Liberals in 2003 by the age of 22. He served on the NSW Liberal Party executive between 2008 and his appointment in 2011 to the Legislative Assembly for Castle Hill at 28. Then, he was fast-tracked through two more electorates to be NSW’s youngest Premier ever^[8a] in 2001 soon after his 39th birthday.

Choosing to wear a Nazi uniform at his 21st birthday party do^{[9],[9a],[10],[11]}, as quoted here from an anonymous source by the Daily Telegraph, would certainly seem to fit the ‘born to rule’ mold.

15/01/2023 – Daily Mail Australia: Party attendee recalls Dominic Perrottet offered to REMOVE Nazi uniform to a Jewish friend during his 21st birthday as speculation about his future as premier grows^[11]

‘It was the year after we had taken over the Young Liberals,’ [when Clarke protege Alex Hawke was elected president] the source told the Daily Telegraph.

‘We’d taken over a lot of the branches … We were feeling on top of the world….

‘I don’t remember too much – we were young and there was some drinking … so it is a bit of a blur.

‘But I do remember Dom in his Nazi uniform, which he offered to take off that night.’

Sources at the party say another guest was also wearing a similar Nazi uniform.

The party took place in the lower level garage and driveway of Mr Perrottet’s split-level family home in Sydney’s northwestern suburbs.

It was well attended, with sources recalling seeing from 50 to 100 people.

Among the guests were Mr Perrottet’s close-knit group of friends, ex-students from Redfield College in Dural [an Opus Dei boy’s school], where he had attended high school, students from Sydney University where he was studying law, and Warrane College, the Opus Dei residential college attached to the University of NSW.

One guest, an unnamed sitting NSW MP, attended in a Osama bin Laden costume.

No photos have yet been released of Mr Perrottet’s costume, though sources suggest his father walked around with a camera at the event.
Read the complete article….

A more comprehensive summary of the circumstances surrounding Perrottet’s 21st birthday party is provided in an article by Oscar Grenfell on the World Socialist Web Site^[12]. To me the article seems well researched (see below). The Nazi connections with the NSW Liberal Party’s far-right extremists known as the “Uglies” were via the infamous Liberal strongman Lyenko Urbanchich/Ljenko Urbancic;^[13]

17/01/2023 – World Socialist Web Site: Australian Labor Party saves right-wing NSW premier after admission he wore Nazi uniform^[12]

Perrottet and the “Uglies” faction

In the 1970s, Ljenko Urbancic, a Slovenian migrant, came to prominence in NSW Liberal circles, becoming president of the Liberal Ethnic Council in 1977. Urbancic was an unrepentant Nazi and a war criminal.

As documented in Mark Aarons’ book War Criminals Welcome: Australia, a Sanctuary for Fugitive War Criminals Since 1945, Urbancic was “a close confidant of President Rupnik,” head of Slovenia’s Nazi-aligned government.

Aarons wrote: “Urbancic earned his title of ‘little Goebbels’ from the Yugoslav War Crimes Commission precisely because he was one of the most proficient and fanatical propagandists in German-occupied Europe.” Urbancic legitimised the Holocaust, as it was underway, with foul anti-Semitic tirades, and was complicit in the mass murder of European Jewry.

After his record was exposed, Urbancic’s colleagues in the NSW Liberals prevented his expulsion. The war criminal had assembled an informal faction, dubbed the Uglies, that would continue, in all but name, for several decades [seemingly up to 2023!].

A 2016 article in the Australian Financial Review [seen in the original] noted: “Despite official moves to expel him from the party, Urbanchich survived and worked hard with David Clarke, a conservative Catholic solicitor, and a Liberal member of the NSW Upper House, to recruit new members to the Uglies faction.”

In 2004, the Sydney Morning Herald [also seen] reported that NSW Liberal “moderates are claiming that right-wing Catholics, including members of the secretive Opus Dei organisation, have helped stack branches, taking control of the Young Liberals from the moderates for the first time in decades.

“A significant number of the 125 male students at Warrane College, affiliated with the University of NSW—where Opus Dei is entrusted with pastoral care—have been signed up to the Randwick-Coogee Young Liberal branch, according to a membership list seen by the Herald.”

The article cited NSW Young Liberal President Alex Hawke who “refused to comment on allegations of branch stacking,” but declared: “We had large membership growth and I’m very proud of that.” Hawke was then a staffer for Clarke and was described in the press as his “protege.”

Among those from Warrane College, who entered the Liberal Party at this time, was none other than Mr Perrottet.

As the Daily Telegraph [also seen] reported last week, in discussing Perrottet’s birthday party: “The guests included Mr Perrottet’s close-knit group of friends, ex-students from Redfield College in Dural, where he had attended high school, Sydney University where he was studying law, and Warrane College, the Opus Dei residential college attached to the University of NSW where he resided.” [see also]

The Telegraph continued: “Guests recalled other predominantly right-wing members of the Young Liberals being in attendance, including federal MP Alex Hawke, who told media on Friday night he had attended events with Mr Perrottet but did not recall being at his 21st.

“The source remembered the mood on the night to be particularly jovial given the faction had just taken control of the organisation from the moderates. ‘It was the year after we had taken over the Young Liberals,’ the source recalled. ‘(Upper House MP) Nat Smith was trying to take over Ryde. Alex Hawke was Young Liberal president. We were feeling on top of the world.’”

Clarke’s son-in-law Kyle Kutasi was president of the University of Sydney Liberal Club for the two years before the position was handed to Perrottet. After he became premier, a 2021 Sydney Morning Herald [also seen] profile of Perrottet noted that one of his first positions within the Liberal Party had been to work “as a staffer for David Clarke.”

In other words, Perrottet’s party not only marked his 21st birthday. It was a celebration of the factional triumph of the Uglies.

Given its origins in Urbancic’s activities, some may see Perrottet’s decision to wear a Nazi uniform in a different light to those presented by explanations of historical ignorance. Was it, they may ask, at the very best, an “ironic” nod to the forces who had set the ambitious young politician’s career in motion?
Read the complete article….

Following Urbanchich’s death in March 2006, the Sydney Morning Herald reviewed Urbanchich’s involvement with the Liberal Party.^[14]

I will now review these fascist / Opus Dei connections on and through Dominic and the Perrottet family on and through the radical right-wing of the NSW Liberal Party in more detail because they seem to be still alive and functioning up to the present state election.

As a Young Liberal, Dom Perrottet was immersed in Catholic fervor and fascism within the far right of the Liberal Party

Arguably, the fascist undertones in Dom Perrottet’s youthful character (as demonstrated in the scandal of his wearing of the Nazi uniform for his 21’s birthday party) were molded by his strong family, educational and social connections (1) to the right-wing Catholic organization, Opus Dei^[15]; and (2) to NSW Liberal MLC, David Clarke^[^16], his Nazi and Opus Dei influenced mentor, political sponsor and power broker on the extreme right of the NSW Liberal Party.

These influences may have colored Dominic’s desires both to crush protest and his pleasurable response to harshness of Violet Coco’s sentencing. They may also have a more general (and what I would consider to be a malign) influence on his actions today as state Premier looking for reelection; and continued leadership of the NSW Liberal Party.

Paul Grigoire in his recent article, “Jesus the Agitator and the Perrottet Anti-Protest Regime” explores some ideas about what happens when a religion originally reflecting people’s needs and desires becomes enshrined as an autocratic theocracy^[17]. These ideas are particularly relevant here, and will be explored again in my conclusion to this essay.

Because Dominic Perrottet was continuously and profoundly surrounded by religio-fascist^[17a] influences in his family, at school, through his university days, and even beyond his election to Parliament, these influences need to be explored in more detail in the next sections. Not only have they probably affected Perrottet himself, but also for what is revealed more generally about the diabolical nature of far right-wing factions (Labor Party included!) in the NSW Parliament.

Opus Dei’s influence Dominic’s family and school environments

As far as his family influence is concerned, Dom’s parents, John and Ann, were Opus Dei “supernumeraries”^[18]. Dom Perrottet’s father, John, testified in the Opus Dei newsletter of 16/02/2004^[19] that he and his wife Anne closely followed St. Josemaría Escrivá’s^[20] teachings. St. Escriviá^[21], born in Spain 9/01/1902, died in Rome 23/06/1975, canonized in the Vatican by Pope John Paul II on 06/10/2002), founded Opus Dei in 1928. Tony Jones, in a 2006 episode of ABC’s Lateline^[22]. explores the nature of Opus Dei and its involvement with Redfield College soon after Dom’s graduation from that environment. ABC’s Four Corners 2023 episode, “Purity”^[23], describes how Escriviá’s version of Catholicism still permeates the schools and study centers he founded today, including Redfield College^[24].

Dom, his father John, and several if not all of his 6 brothers attended Redfield. Several other NSW politicians are also affiliated with Redfield, including: Liberal MLA Nathaniel Smith – Government Whip^[25], MLC Damien Tudehope — Finance Minister^[26]; and Labor MLC Greg Donnelly^[26]. Beginning at time 36.40m, “Purity” discusses Redfield College’s involvement educating boys^[23], including a snippet from a July 2000 ABC Compass program (that I have been unable to source) where Dom’s parents John and Anne clearly say they are supernumerary members of Opus Dei and what this means to them.

Unavoidably, Dom Perrottet’s schooling would have been heavily imbued by Opus Dei’s teachings. Redfield College, where he was one of the top students and school captain, was supervised by Opus Dei “chaplains”. Dom was active in student politics as a Young Liberal while studying commerce and law at the University of Sydney.

While studying at Sydney Uni and working the Young Liberals, he lived in Warrane College^[27] at University of NSW (that also strongly influenced his father^[19]). Warrane was also established by Opus Dei members^[28],[29] where “The ethos of the College was to be closely associated with the principles and values of Catholic doctrine;” as continues today^[30] (see also Opus Dei’s current point of view^[31] on Warrane). Dom Perrottet in his own words describes (some of) his Warrane experiences^{32]. His father, John^[19], and at least five of his seven brothers^[33], John, Gabriel, Alex, Charles, and Oliver^[34], were also residents at Warrane during their university days. Alex, is currently Dean of the College, and was previously an associate dean there^[35]. According to his father, at least one of Dominic’s brothers (probably Alex) is an Opus Dei “member” (a celibate “numerary“?^[36]).

NSW’s Liberal Party fascist connections to Dominic Perrottet via Lyenko Urbanchich and David Clarke

The Fascist influence (plus yet another another Opus Dei thread in Dom Perrottet’s background) is likely via David Clarke (b. 1947), a rabid anti-communist and beginning in 2002, a Young Liberal promoter of the religious right/’fascist’ “Uglies” faction^[37] in the Liberal Party. Clarke’s suspected fascism was probably enhanced by his close association with (and probably mentoring by) the notorious Nazi collaborator/sympathizer Lyenko Urbanchich. From the mid 1960’s through his death in 2006, Urbanchich was a major power broker and branch stacker on the extreme right of the NSW Liberal party^[37]. Both Clarke and Urbanchich worked together as members of the State Executive of the Liberal Party.

Guided by or working closely with Urbanchich, Clarke quickly became an accomplished branch stacker for the religious right^[38], and was elected to the NSW parliament in 2003, where he remained until 2019.^[16] While not a member, David Clarke is a co-operator^[39] of the Opus Dei “personal prelature”^[40] of the Roman Catholic Church (see also, Clarke’s own description of his involvement with Opus Dei^[41],^[41a]). Brought up as an Anglican, Clarke was drawn to Opus Dei’s version of Catholicism by his wife, a member of Opus Dei.^[42]

A 2007 article by Mike Steketee in the Australian^[43] summarizes Urbanchich and Clarke’s creation of the Uglies’ faction and their involvement in shaping the Liberal Party’s far right around the time Perrottet was beginning his close involvement with the Young Liberals:

04/10/2007 – The Australian: Liberal loss may lead party into arid zealotry^[43]

An insight into the group that controls the NSW party comes in historian Ian Hancock’s new book The Liberals – the NSW division 1945-2000 (The Federation Press). Informed by access to Liberal Party records as well as ASIO files, it is a story of passionate personalities fighting for the party’s soul against more sober-minded pragmatists. One of the former is David Clarke, now a NSW Legislative Council MP and right-wing leader instrumental in his faction’s recent successes. Little known outside the party, a parliamentary career and public profile always have run a long second to Clarke’s dedication to moulding the Liberals to his own image of a true conservative party .

Hancock writes that in 1970 an ASIO informant saw Clarke and Lyenko Urbanchich, who was to become one of the NSW party’s most controversial members, at a meeting of the Australia-Rhodesia Association addressed by the anti-Semitic Eric Butler of the Australian League of Rights.

Clarke was a vice-president of the association, as well as of the Australia-Chile Society. Clarke’s obsession at the time was with fighting communism and he was prepared to overlook the shortcomings of white minority governments in Africa, as well as what became the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, in pursuit of his cause.

…

Urbanchich was the first president of the Liberal Ethnic Council in 1978 and Clarke became one of its executive members. The following year, the party conducted an inquiry into allegations against Urbanchich and found that articles he had written as a Slovene nationalist in the 1940s contained “virulently anti-Semitic propaganda”. The party’s state executive recommended his expulsion but the vote at state council fell [just] short of the 60 per cent majority required.

During the controversy, Clarke proposed a public rally in support of Urbanchich, which he predicted would be attended by between 5000 and 7000 people, including 3500 Croatians. Hancock observes: “This perhaps was the first occasion in the party’s history where an office bearer thought it appropriate to utilise ethnic warriors for a political battle.”

…

The point of this history is that it captures Clarke as an ideologue whose zeal tends to lead him towards extreme positions. With the communist dragon slain, he and his followers have turned their attention to a moral crusade. One of [Clarke’s] disciples is Alex Hawke, whose election as Young Liberal president in NSW in 2002 [-2005, succeeded by Dominic Perrottet in 2006, who then served on the Liberal Party State Executive from 2008 to 2011] ended two decades of control by the moderates. [Hawke] went on to Clarke’s staff before toppling sitting federal Liberal MP Alan Cadman to gain preselection for the safe Sydney seat of Mitchell for the coming election….
Read the complete article….

Besides the above excerpt from the Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald from 2005 provides more early detail on Clarke’s relationship with Urbanchich:

10/10/2005 – Sydney Morning Herald: A right wing and a prayer^[44]

Whatever the truth about David John Clarke, … the upper house MP is not only the leader of the most powerful factional force inside the NSW Liberal Party but … this role is the culmination of a deliberate, unswerving political and recruitment strategy which began four decades ago – and has now come to a triumphant fruition.

“The far right have never had such dominance. They control more than 70 per cent of the executive, the Women’s Council, the Young Liberals and now, they – and David Clarke – control the leader,” says a senior Liberal Party official.

To really get a sense of who Clarke is – and what shaped his political beliefs – it is necessary to wind back to the mid-1960s. Clarke, then a conservative and politically active law student, joined a group called the Fifty Club, whose main aim was to provide a forum for anti-communist campaigners.

The club was headed by Ljenko Urbancic, who had migrated to Australia in 1950 and became active around the Liberals’ migrant advisory council, then a driving force in the recruitment of anti-communists, particularly from central and eastern Europe. Many had collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, according to the historian Mark Aarons.

Urbancic, who was later exposed as a former Nazi propagandist, was a charismatic figure and, with a handful of others, worked meticulously to create an active, far-right bloc within the Liberal Party. The first evidence of their activities emerged in 1966 when they launched a vicious campaign against the Sydney lawyer Ted St John, a candidate in the Warringah by-election. He was pilloried by the faction as a “white traitor”, his “crime” the support of black political prisoners under apartheid in South Africa.

Clarke was then also an office bearer of the Australia Rhodesia Association, a role he would retain until the late 1970s. The faction had also launched its first major foray to seize strong representation on the party’s 800-strong state council, using the recruitment strategies born in the ’50s of targeting recently arrived migrants, particularly those fleeing communist regimes, to stack branches and increase its control.

By this time, the old migrant advisory council had evolved into an autonomous party division, known as the Liberal Ethnic Council, becoming the body which provided Urbancic, Clarke and others with a formal vehicle to harness Sydney’s migrant communities.
Read the complete article….

Early relations between Urbanchich and Clarke are further discussed in Saleam’s University of Sydney PhD thesis covering the years 1975-1995^[45] [search independently within the document for “Urbanchich” or “Clarke”]. Urbanchich’s direct influences on the NSW Liberal Party prior to 2000 are detailed in debates recorded in NSW and Federal Hansards. Urbanchich’s Nazi connections are considered in most detail in the Australian Senate Hansard Adjournment Debates of 04/09/1980^[46] [search in the document for “Urbanchich”]. Some of this history also involving Clarke is discussed in the NSW Legislative Council Hansard (24/09/1997) by the Hon. P. T. PRIMROSE in his contribution to the Governors Speech: Address in Reply^[47] [search in the document for “Urbanchich” or “Clarke”].

March 2003 to March 2019:^[16] David Clarke the Political Manipulator: Member of NSW Legislative Council

Reports of Dominic Perrottet’s early formal relationships with David Clarke are possibly confused by the fact that his brother, Charles Perrottet, was Clarke’s Chief of Staff at least up to early November 2009, and was heavily involved in Young Liberal political skullduggery.^[48] As the following history will show, Clarke’s association with at least two more of Dominic’s brothers and other religious extremists on the far-right of the state (and the federal Liberal Party in NSW), including Dominic, was close and strong up to and probably including the lead up to the 2019 state election.

Other than the Perrottets, several other players on the far right of the NSW Liberals have also been closely associated or worked with Clarke.

Kyle Kutasi (Clarke’s son-in-law) heavily involved in Young Liberal branch stacking exercises and other dubious acts. His roles will be discussed below
Damien Tudehope (NSW MLC, until last week Finance Minister, and father of) Thomas Tudehope (son) were others who will also be discussed below closely involved with Clarke.
Federal MP, Alex Hawke^[49] (raised Anglican, now Hillsong Pentecostalist) was closely associated with Clarke into Clarke’s first term in the Legislative Council. Probably with Clarke’s help, Hawke was President of the NSW Young Liberals from 2002 to 2005^[49a], Federal President in 2005 and 2006^[50], and elected to the Australian Parliament for Mitchel, NSW in 2007 to the present. (Dominic Perrottet was only 22 years old when he replaced Hawke as NSW Young Liberals President in 2006^[49a]). Hawke also served on Clarke’s staff and helped with controversial mass recruitments (i.e., branch stacking) in north-west Sydney before the previous state elections^[51].

From here on in this essay I will use media clippings to tell the story in their words, not mine.

An ABC Stateline program exposed some of Hawke’s activities, apparently for Clarke.

02/09/2005 – ABC Stateline: Extremists^[51a]

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: … The apparent suicide attempt of John Brogden on Tuesday night – the day after his resignation as leader of the Opposition and State Parliamentary Liberal Party – has raised serious questions about the use of dirt files – or adverse information reflecting on character – in John Brogden’s political destruction and personal despair. … David Penberthy, editor of the ‘Daily Telegraph’, under attack this week, has said that his paper’s stories about Mr Brogden’s behaviour, quote: “Wouldn’t be appearing, if there weren’t people inside the Liberal Party who were trying to get them out,” unquote. Who were these people inside the Liberal Party? Journalists protect their sources, so we’ll probably never know for sure. Just who’s behind the political destruction of John Brogden and the extent to which journalists have allowed themselves to be used in that process – they’re the main issues to emerge from this dramatic week. And tonight a serving Liberal Party MP, Patricia Forsythe, MLC, says extremists and zealots of the religious right are taking over the party.

…

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Faced with damning headlines arising from his public admission of inappropriate behaviour and a racist remark at a social function on July 29, on Monday at 11am opposition and Liberal leader John Brogden resigned.

JOHN BROGDEN: The majority of my colleagues have urged me to stay and their loyalty this morning has been absolutely outstanding. That’s exactly why I am resigning. Their loyalty to me must be returned by my loyalty to the Liberal Party.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: It was a humiliating end to the 36-year-old’s leadership. But through his oft-repeated and abject apologies about his behaviour, which had occurred one month before, Mr John Brogden’s suspicions about Liberal Party back room machinations emerged in this context.

REPORTER: Are you prepared to say now that there was no-one in the Liberal Party working against you on this story?

JOHN BROGDEN: I think that’s pretty clear that that was the case.

REPORTER: That no-one in the Liberal Party…

JOHN BROGDEN: No, that they were.

REPORTER: That they were spreading?

JOHN BROGDEN: I think that’s pretty clear. One of them has been named in today’s media – the Federal President of the Young Liberal Movement, Alex Hawke – has been named as pushing it. He needs to take a long hard look at himself.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: In a statement that day, Alexander Hawke, Federal President of the Young Liberal Movement of Australia, issued a blanket denial of any involvement the media reports that led to the exposure of John Brogden’s behaviour.

STATEMENT BY ALEXANDER HAWKE, 29 AUGUST 2005: The allegations that I in any way pushed this or assisted this affair are false. I have not spoken to a single journalist, on or off the record about this matter.”

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Alex Hawke works for Liberal Party Upper House member David Clarke. Former State, now Federal Liberal Bruce Baird has confirmed now-widespread reporting that Mr Clarke and Mr Hawke have been organising for an emerging right faction within the parliamentary and organisational wings of the State Liberal Party. In May, the faction won a narrow majority on the party’s 20-member state executive. Events this week have confirmed that the power of the moderate parliamentary faction known as “The Group” has now been eclipsed. Both Mr Hawke and Mr Clarke have declined Stateline’s request for interviews. Like Mr Hawke, Mr Clarke has denied any involvement in the exposure of Mr Brogden’s behaviour. David Clarke entered the Upper House on the Liberal ticket at the 2003 State election. In his maiden speech he declared himself to be a strong Christian, a conservative, a constitutional monarchist, opposed to institutionalising homosexual concepts, such as same-sex marriage, and unchangeable opposition to the culture of abortion and human embryo stem cell research and compulsory student unionism. David Clarke, 58, a devotee of the Catholic Church’s Opus Dei order has been a life-long member of the Liberal Party. It’s not the first time he’s been involved in controversy. In the late 1970s, he was on the Liberal’s ethnic council and was pictured in a 1989 book which covered the political activism of Lyenko Urbanchich and his organisational work to develop an extreme right-wing network in Australia.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: When you say extremists and zealots, are you prepared to name the extremists and zealots?

PATRICIA FORSYTHE: Look, I’m prepared to say that within the parliamentary party I am very fearful of the power of David Clarke.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Why?

PATRICIA FORSYTHE: Because he has around him a significant group of people who are absolutely fixated on their agenda, and a very narrow agenda. When I talk of extremism and I talk of zealots, I’m talking about a group of people who in my view seem to lack a focus on normal human decency of tolerance, and the sort of compassion that most of us see is at the heart of the liberalism. It’s the basis upon which we operate, as individuals standing up for the rights of individuals – that’s not what these people are about. They’re trying to shift the agenda of the Liberal Party. I’ve been in the Liberal Party all my adult life. I believe my policies are grounded in good liberal principles. And I don’t see that in many of these people.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: It’s a hard right agenda. It usually goes to social issues like abortion, same sex marriage, euthanasia, homosexuality, things like that. It’s the religious right. Is that what you’re talking about?

PATRICIA FORSYTHE: Yes, at the heart of it is a religious right, but it seems to be an extreme religious right, because people are invoking religion and yet my understanding of religion is also one of tolerance and compassion. What is lacking in this agenda is any sense of tolerance and compassion. You are either with them on all of those policies or they want to take you out. …
Read the complete article….

2006: In the run-up to 2006, Clarke’s agents are working to take over branches to control the Liberal Party

Janine Cohen’s 2006 report for ABC Four Corners explores how genuinely democratic branches were infiltrated and turned into puppets of the religofaschistic extreme right of the Liberal Party, beginning with the Petersham-Lewisham branch in the western suburbs of Sydney that had been nurtured by the Mihic family for more than 50 years^[52]:

17/07/2006 – ABC FOUR CORNERS: The Right Stuff^[52]

JANINE COHEN: Betty Mihic and her family ran the Petersham-Lewisham branch in the western suburbs of Sydney for more than 50 years. In 2004 the Prime Minister presented the 78 year old and her sister Anne with a meritorious award for their services to the party. How much have you loved your local branch of the Liberal Party?

BETTY MIHIC: Oh, it’s been the main part of my life really, and my sister. We just loved it.

JANINE COHEN: Then one day a young stranger named Kyle Kutasi started attending the Petersham-Lewisham branch meetings. He was asked if he knew any factional players in New South Wales, and he said he didn’t. On the day of the 2005 Petersham-Lewisham branch annual general meeting, Betty Mihic had baked cakes and made tea.

KEN HENDERSON, NSW LIBERAL STATE EXECUTIVE (1995-2000): At 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon about 20 people congregated on the footpath, had a little meeting, marched down the hallway.

ELLEN LIAUW, LIBERAL PARTY BRANCH MEMBER: Pretty much after we sat down, Kyle Kutasi, his entourage arrived and it was also Alex Hawke and Kyle’s parents and a few other people that I obviously didn’t know.

KEN HENDERSON, NSW LIBERAL STATE EXECUTIVE (1995-2000): A Young Liberal stood at the end of a dining room table with his arms folded in an aggressive sort of manner and challenged every step of the way the right of people to vote.

ELLEN LIAUW, LIBERAL PARTY BRANCH MEMBER: It just turned icy. You could tell that there was some sort of a confrontation.

KEN HENDERSON, NSW LIBERAL STATE EXECUTIVE (1995-2000): It was the most distasteful things I’ve ever seen in all my time in politics.

ELLEN LIAUW, LIBERAL PARTY BRANCH MEMBER: They just snapped people, they wouldn’t allow people to finish talking. If somebody made a point or tried to say something, they were pretty much talked down.

JANINE COHEN: Kyle Kutasi and his supporters took over all the positions in the branch. Kutasi took over from Bette Mihic as president.

KEN HENDERSON, NSW LIBERAL STATE EXECUTIVE (1995-2000): When it was all over they grabbed the papers, they marched out the door and you had these little old ladies and gentlemen sitting there with the afternoon tea ready on the side table just absolutely in shock and horrified at what had gone on.

ELLEN LIAUW, LIBERAL PARTY BRANCH MEMBER: She was in shock. I do remember another lady was crying. Her husband, Betty’s husband, was sort of slumped over the side of a cupboard.

JANINE COHEN: According to some of those at Betty Mihic’s branch that day similar takeovers are happening all over New South Wales. They say that Kutasi was a sleeper, working on behalf of the party’s right-wing faction, that far from not knowing factional leaders he is close to – and was following a strategy devised – by this man, David Clarke.

ELLEN LIAUW, LIBERAL PARTY BRANCH MEMBER: It’s very difficult to protect a branch from someone like Kyle, especially if they slowly muscle in and then bring other friends in with them. How do you protect a branch?

JANINE COHEN: For the last few years an obscure backbencher has been the subject of speculation by New South Wales political observers. Three years ago David Clarke was elected to the State’s Upper House. He’s a moral conservative and a devotee of Opus Dei.

…

MICHAEL OSBORNE, NSW LIBERAL STATE PRESIDENT (1996-1999): Well, my experience with David Clarke and at the time was that he had views which were, in my opinion, intolerant towards religion, views which were not compatible with the modern role of women as the broader community sees it, and views on abortion that are not compatible with the broader community’s views.

JANINE COHEN: Few dispute Clarke’s right to hold hardline opinions within a broad conservative movement. What his opponents are concerned about is his apparently determined campaign to capture the party’s organisation and shift the New South Wales Liberal Party to what was once its right-wing fringe. Clarke’s faction this year gained absolute control of the all-powerful State Executive of the Liberal Party. Clarke says he has no religious agenda for the party. His critics disagree.

…

JANINE COHEN: Clarke first surfaced in the ’70s as a member of the right-wing liberal group called by their enemies the ‘Uglies’. The Uglies were led by Lyenko Urbanchich, a migrant who had fled Slovenia after World War II.

IAN HANCOCK, LIBERAL PARTY MEMBER AND ANU HISTORIAN: He stood for the preservation of the things that he thought were essential to Australian democracy, namely the monarchy, the family, old values. I mean, he would be opposed to anything, as all the right wing were, to homosexual law reform, to drug reform, to feminism, to removal of censorship to pornography, the whole range of those things which were identified as Liberal trendyism.

JANINE COHEN: Urbanchich and his supporters started branch stacking in the Liberal Party.

IAN HANCOCK, LIBERAL PARTY MEMBER AND ANU HISTORIAN: I think there is evidence in the Liberal Party files of the Uglies engaging in forming and stacking branches and there is also evidence of senior Liberals within those branches feeling as if they no longer belonged. I think what you do have direct evidence of them engaging in, is intimidation. And there were plenty of examples of that.

…

CHRISTOPHER PUPLICK, FORMER LIBERAL SENATOR, NSW: The Uglies were the beginning of an attempt by people to penetrate the Liberal Party, which led to a reaction. Now, they were well organised. They were, in fact, a faction that didn’t have the Liberal Party’s best interests at heart.

RECORDING: Are there Nazis in Australia? Are there Nazis in Australia?

JANINE COHEN: The hatred between the Uglies and The Group intensified in 1979, after an ABC documentary exposed Urbanchich as a Nazi propagandist, who’d written a series of anti-Semitic articles in Slovenia during World War II. Urbanchich claimed the articles had been doctored by the Nazis. His friend and supporter, lawyer David Clarke, gave him legal advice.

JOHN DOWD, NSW LIBERAL LEADER (1981-83): David Clarke was not a high-profile person at that stage. He did not express views. He was not seen up front. He was perceived as a lieutenant who carried out the views of Urbanchich and co in their branch stacking and endeavouring to take control of a large measure of the party.

JANINE COHEN: A move within the Liberal Party’s State Executive to expel Urbanchich failed by a handful of votes to get the 60% majority needed. David Clarke reportedly organised the numbers to stop Urbanchich’s expulsion for writing the articles.

IAN HANCOCK, LIBERAL PARTY MEMBER AND ANU HISTORIAN: But there did seem to me, I must say, looking at the evidence that’s available on the Liberal Party records, that there’s a fair case for saying that he wrote a series of anti-Semitic – quite ferociously anti-Semitic – articles around 1944.

JANINE COHEN: In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Lyenko Urbanchich and David Clarke’s power base waned. The Group, known today as the moderates, controlled the Liberal Party in New South Wales for many years. They dominated the State Executive and ran the party, controlling many preselections.

IAN HANCOCK, LIBERAL PARTY MEMBER AND ANU HISTORIAN: They played a zero sum game of politics. It didn’t allow for broad church didn’t allow for any right-winger to go on the ticket, despite Nick Greiner’s pleas that they should. I would say that one of the problems The Group has got since then came from that moment when they behaved exclusively, instead of inclusively.

JANINE COHEN: Then in 2003, David Clarke launched his public political career, winning a seat in the New South Wales Upper House. But Clarke had already shown a keen interest in the party membership most crucial to the future – its young people.

JOHN HYDE PAGE, FORMER YOUNG LIBERAL: In about the year 2000, we started seeing David Clarke coming along to Young Liberal meetings, just sort of maintaining this baleful silence somewhere in the background. But as the power of the right wing within the organisation grew, and their numbers grew, obviously his involvement in the decisions of the organisation became much more prominent.

MICHAEL OSBORNE, NSW LIBERAL STATE PRESIDENT (1996-1999): If the group controlled by David Clarke are promoting people within the Liberal Party, within the Young Liberals, it’s almost inevitable that they will seek to promote the same views that Clarke and his colleagues espouse.

JANINE COHEN: In 2003, one of Clarke’s proteges and a personal staffer, Alex Hawke, won for the second consecutive year the presidency of the New South Wales Young Liberals. Traditionally progressive, NSW Young Liberals under Hawke did a backflip on social policy. Clarke’s critics say it’s the strongest evidence yet of his views starting to effect policy agenda.

JOHN HYDE PAGE, FORMER YOUNG LIBERAL: Everything about it’s changed, the whole outlook of the organisation. A few years ago, an organisation that was pro-republic, pro-gay rights, sort of very sympathetic to the concerns of minorities and women, now an organisation that’s rabidly conservative.

…

JANINE COHEN: Young Liberals are used by both the right faction and the moderates as the foot soldiers in factional warfare in which control goes to the faction which has the most branches. John Hyde Page used to stack branches in the wealthy harbourside suburbs of Sydney. He says he did it for the moderate faction, which responded to the right with its own power play. He’s written a book about his experiences, soon to be released. What is branch stacking? …

[JOHN HYDE PAGE gives a detailed explanation of what branch stacking is, how it works, and its results from his own extensive personal experience doing it for the moderate “Group” and from his observations of it being done by the religiofascists, and especially Kyle Kutasi, on the extreme right.]

…

JANINE COHEN: Last year, three people were suspended by the Liberal Party for paying for the renewal of other people’s memberships. The most extreme of those cases involved Kyle Kutasi, the man who turned up at Betty Mihic’s branch. In breach of party rules, he renewed multiple memberships using one credit card. It’s unclear whose credit card he was using.

JOHN HYDE PAGE, FORMER YOUNG LIBERAL: He was suspended from the Liberal Party for membership rorts which were so profound and blatant that even the right wing had to support an expulsion motion to get him out of the party for at least a year.

JANINE COHEN: Kyle Kutasi is reportedly engaged to David Clarke’s daughter, Anne Marie, and has been a major branch stacker for the right wing. Four Corners has statement and statutory declarations from people who have complained that Kutasi has been abusive and intimidating to fellow Liberals. Kutasi claims that Four Corners has been misled by his political rivals. …

…

JANINE COHEN: And it was in 2005, after taking over many other branches, that Kyle Kutasi and the right turn their sights on the Petersham-Lewisham branch. Betty Mihic complained in a letter to the party that her branch had been targeted for take-over by David Clarke “As part of the extreme right wing fundamentalist push “to take over the Liberal Party.” She said the tactics used were frightening, intimidating and members were treated aggressively. Betty Mihic said the tactics were similar to those she observed the last time David Clarke and Lyenko Urbanchich attempted to take over the New South Wales Party in the 1970s. The letter was leaked to Four Corners but Betty Mihic refused to discuss it. Betty, in her letter, actually says they have an extreme-right agenda, or religious agenda. Is that your view?

KEN HENDERSON, NSW LIBERAL STATE EXECUTIVE (1995-2000): I would take that view as well. From my experience, yes.

JANINE COHEN: Ken Henderson knows Betty Mihic well. He was regional Liberal Party president for five years, and Betty Mihic’s branch was under his supervision. He’s a conservative Liberal and a former member of Clarke’s inner circle. Is this happening in other branches across New South Wales?

KEN HENDERSON, NSW LIBERAL STATE EXECUTIVE (1995-2000): I believe so. I believe it’s becoming quite common now.

…

[After a long discussion of branch stacking in the lead up to 2006, the transcript concludes as follows:]

…

JANINE COHEN: Don’t you think ordinary supporters of the Liberal Party would be shocked about all this? Don’t you think they think that people who belong to the State Council would be voting themselves?

MICHAEL DARBY, LIBERAL PARTY FEDERAL COUNCIL: What planet are you from? People really expect political parties to function like political parties.

DR JOHN HEWSON, FEDERAL LIBERAL LEADER (1990-1994): If it’s a well-founded accusation, there should be an inquiry. And I think the Liberal Party ought to be pretty concerned about any of those claims.

JANINE COHEN: In this year’s State Executive election, the right faction won an even greater majority – an unprecedented 80% of the vote. This means it now has the power to suspend sections of the party’s constitution. How do you think the right gained such a huge majority on the State Executive?

FRAN QUINN, NSW LIBERAL STATE EXECUTIVE (1997-2002) Through branch stacking.

JANINE COHEN: And blank ballots?

FRAN QUINN, NSW LIBERAL STATE EXECUTIVE (1997-2002) And blank ballots. Yes.

JANINE COHEN: Did you think it would ever come to this?

FRAN QUINN, NSW LIBERAL STATE EXECUTIVE (1997-2002) No. Not to this extent anyway.

JANINE COHEN: Four Corners spoke to more than 100 Liberals during the making of this program. Some party figures portray the situation as normal political jousting. State leader Peter Debnam and senior party officials declined to be interviewed. The concern for many Liberals is that the NSW party is at risk of no longer being a broad church.

DR JOHN HEWSON, FEDERAL LIBERAL LEADER (1990-1994): It’s the hardline right religious element that you should worry about, in my view, ’cause they have no concept of the broader realities in the electorate.

JANINE COHEN: Furthermore, they fear that branch stacking, vote rigging and factional control of preselections is eroding the integrity of the party. What’s at stake, they say, is democracy within the party.

MICHAEL OSBORNE, NSW LIBERAL STATE PRESIDENT (1996-1999): It requires a coalition to be formed between the parliamentary leadership and the organisational leadership to stop it, to make sure the influx of hundreds of new members into a branch, the obvious targeting of areas is stopped and that the people who are responsible for it are, in one way or another, prevented from doing that – that’s what’s required.

ELLEN LIAUW, LIBERAL PARTY BRANCH MEMBER: I guess I’m afraid for the future of the Liberal Party because we find it very difficult now to get people to turn up on election days. What’s going to happen if we disenfranchise people like Betty? Nobody will be turning up. You might was well stick a ‘how to vote Liberal’ card on the side of a door and leave it at that, and hope for the best.
Read the complete transcript….

The above extract leaves a lot out – the whole story of how ‘undemocratic’ the preselection process can be if the only people toeing the religiofascistic hard line can be preselected for election. And in 2023 this kind of denial of democracy is still plaguing this month’s state election….

2009: Young Liberals in action during the Clarke/Hawke split

Some exchanges in the July 21 runup to the Sydney University Liberal Club AGM give some idea of how far right Young Liberals thought about democracy worked to fix elections.

22/07/2009 – VEX NEWS: Faction Fight : NSW Liberal Right torn apart by feud^[53]

The split in the NSW Liberal Right continues to develop in new and mysterious ways.

Forces aligned with upper house MP David Clarke and a younger brigade associated with Alex Hawke MP continue to fight for dominance. Some see it as an inevitable generational divide taking form, others see it as an epic struggle between small government libertarian types and more socially conservative Christian true believers.

VEXNEWS received an email that touched on some recent events in NSW which gives you an indication of the depth of feeling between the two camps. …

Read the complete discussion…. Search text for “Urbachich”, “Clarke”, “Hawke”, “Perrottet” (Charles / Dominic), Kutas”

July 27 – Young Liberal correspondence gives an “after action review” of the battle for the presidency of the Sydney University Liberal Club.

28/07/2009 – VEX NEWS: Return of the Uglies^[54]

THE RETURN OF THE UGLIES: NSW Liberal Hard Right MPs invade Sydney Uni Liberal Club and fail

Thinking of the Warrane College set Blog published by Landeryou (Vex news – Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet. Associated with former factional leader David Clarke, Perrottet attended the Opus Dei-run Redfield College — where one of the men behind the “Children’s Future” flyer teaches. Perrottet has also advocated for cuts to pensions to stop the state “acting as a substitute for the family“.)
Read the complete discussion…. Search text for “Opus Dei”, “Clarke”, “Hawke”, “Perrottet” (Charles/Charlie, Dominic/Dom

An overview of the larger and continuing civil war in 2009 between the recently split Clarke and Hawke factions on the far right of Liberal Party is provided by the Sydney Morning Herald.

07/11/2009 – Sydney Morning Herald: Down and Dirty in the Liberal Party^[55]

The war between David Clarke and his one-time protege, Alex Hawke, for political control in north-west Sydney has taken a surreal turn:

… The target was Alex Hawke, a 32-year-old federal backbencher whose footsoldiers are battling for control of Liberal branches in Sydney’s north-west, where Hawke’s seat of Mitchell is centred. Their rivals are the forces of state upper house member David Clarke, a leader of the ultra-conservative Catholic wing of the party and Hawke’s former employer and mentor.

… The YouTube posting [illustrates] this. … It manipulates the 2004 German film Downfall and portrays an enraged and bunkered Hitler ranting at cowed lieutenants. Captions purport to translate the exchange as an attack by Hawke (as Hitler) on his deputies for failing to wipe out the Clarke forces. [Note: The video is no longer available] …

The YouTube posting … manipulates the 2004 German film Downfall and portrays an enraged and bunkered Hitler ranting at cowed lieutenants. Captions purport to translate the exchange as an attack by Hawke (as Hitler) on his deputies for failing to wipe out the Clarke forces. An email chain seen by the Herald seems to link the clip to a junior Turnbull staffer, Thomas Tudehope, and a key Clarke staffer, Charles Perrottet, though both have denied it. The Herald does not suggest involvement or knowledge by Turnbull or Clarke, and Hawke slammed the video as an ”anonymous smear”.”

…

A Hawke ally says: ”The problem is that there is a perception in the community that there is an extreme group of Catholic fundamentalists trying to take control of the party.”

…

[Additionally, on September 30, 40-odd Clarke supporters turned up to a Baulkham Hills Young Liberals meeting at Hawke’s electorate office. Hawke ordered staff to call police, saying the new arrivals intended to cause trouble. Abrams, who arrived after the initial confrontation, told supporters Hawke blatantly tried to exclude new members who might have challenged Hawke’s control of the branch. But a Hawke supporter says Clarke forces were trying to secure Clarke ally, Damien Tudehope (father of Turnbull staffer Thomas [Tudehope]), into the state seat of Baulkham Hills.

… [The stacking and dirty tricks go on!… and on!]
Read the complete article….

The Hitler parody video led to the resignations of two operatives from their Liberal Party staff positions: Charles Perrottet (Dominic’s most involved brother working for Clarke) and Thomas Tudehope (Damien Tudehope’s son and online media advisor to Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull). The fallout also appears to have led to the cancellation of a ‘peace treaty meeting’ between the party’s state president, Nick Campbell, Hawke, Clarke, and prominent right-winger, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.^[56]

2010: Clarke successfully continues his controlling influence on the religiofascist right wing

In the battle to control the right wing of the Liberal Party, Alex Hawke’s forces failed to take preselection away from David Clarke in the Legislative Council’s North West Province, giving him another 8 years to influence and shape the Liberal Party’s religiofascistic extreme right wing.

20/02/2010: Sydney Morning Herald – Religious right chief defeats challenger^[57]

THE Liberal Party powerbroker David Clarke – known as the leader of the ”religious right” – survived a challenge for his upper house seat last night led by his former lieutenant Alex Hawke, which will ensure he can serve in the Legislative Council for another eight years.”
Read the complete article….

Beyond protecting his own incumbency, Clarke worked to extend his ‘influence’ by ensuring that his collaborators were preselected in as many districts as possible. For example, Dominic Perrottet, was preselected in Castle Hill over the wealthy Ashley Pittard, Vice Chairman of the Liberal Party Finance Committee and has donated more than $360,000 to the Liberal Party since 2007,^[58] seemingly demonstrating that Perrottet’s allegiance to Clarke’s dogmas was more important than funding election campaigns.

An ABC News report documents some of Clarke’s other successes and failures in his war with Hawke in the run-up to the 2011 election.

15/11/2010 – ABC NEWS: The Liberals’ preselection battles have not derailed their campaign^[59]

… [T]he Liberal Party’s head office [has used] new powers to override the branches – the first time it has ever done so.

“It is only in rare circumstances that State Executive would intervene and overrule the local branch members. We believe in this instance, such action is warranted,” said Liberal State President Natasha Maclaren-Jones.

Factional unrest in the seat of Baulkham Hills led one candidate, Damien Tudehope [a Clarke operative elected to Parliament in 2019], to take action in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Mr Tudehope tried unsuccessfully to delay the preselection contest over a dispute about the eligibility of some branch members to vote.

In the neighbouring seat of Castle Hill a dirt sheet on the candidate Ashley Pittard was circulated to some journalists. Mr Pittard ultimately lost to Dominic Perrottet.

There were also dummy spits by two losing candidates in the Vaucluse preselection.

It is not surprising there has been fierce competition for seats in the state Liberal Party – with the Coalition apparently on track for victory in March 2011.

It shows high-quality people are willing to stand for the party because they want to be part of a Coalition Government.

Labor on the other hand has struggled to attract high quality candidates – something the ALP strategist Bruce Hawker conceded last week.

“It has been a long time since we have really gone out of our way to find people who can bring really highly skilled and finely tuned skills to the political process in New South Wales,” Mr Hawker told 702 ABC Sydney.

“We haven’t had a QC [Queen’s Counsel] for example drawn into the ranks of the party since the late Jeff Shaw was recruited into the Upper House by Bob Carr in the mid-1990s.”

Yesterday the Liberal Party was able to achieve what Mr Hawker complained the Labor Party has been unable to do.

In the seat of Cronulla the Liberal Party preselected the barrister Mark Speakman SC (Senior Counsel – equivalent to a QC).

While factional fighting over preselections has boiled over in some seats it has not derailed the Liberals, or led to World War Three as some warned.

The disputes did lead to (limited) negative media coverage, but the good news for the Liberal Party is the messy work is now done well ahead of polling day.
Read the complete article….

2011: Clarke’s religiofascist influence ensures that Dominic Perrottet was preselected to and won the lower house seat of Castle Hill^[60]

26/03/2011 – Crikey: NSW State Election 2011: Castle Hill

Castle Hill is a narrow south-to-north electorate located 25 kilometres north-west of the Sydney city centre, extending from Carlingford north to Castle Hill itself. It is the successor to the electorate of The Hills which was abolished at the redistribution before the 2007 election. The Hills was created at the 1962 election when it was won by Max Ruddock, father of Philip, who held the seat until 1976. Michael Richardson became member at a 1993 by-election after his predecessor Tony Packard was convicted of using surveillance devices on customers at his car yard. After surviving repeated preselection challenges over the years, most recently before the 2007 election by Australian Family Association spokesman Damien Tudehope (who more recently sought preselection in Baulkham Hills), Richardson announced he would not seek another term in mid-2010. [Tudehope was finally elected to the Legislative Assembly for Epping in 2015].

The ensuing preselection developed as yet another turf war between the David Clarke and Alex Hawke forces of the Right. The former favoured Dominic Perrottet, political staffer and factional operative, who was said to be organising for a move against Richardson before his retirement announcement. The Hawke camp’s candidate was Ashley Pittard, fund manager to Frank Lowy. The faction was reportedly deeply concerned at the prospect of having a Clarke man working turf covered by Hawke’s electorate of Mitchell, and sought a deal with the moderates in exchange for backing of their candidate Matthew Kean in Hornsby. Perrottet nonetheless prevailed and Pittard quit the party, which reportedly came as a blow in light of his fundraising record.
https://www.crikey.com.au/nsw2011-castlehill/

2012

Even before a Tudehope managed to be elected to high office, the evidence suggests that this conservative Catholic family were propagating David Clarke’s factional influences behind the scenes in the Liberal governments. Frances Jones’ Catholic Connection blog focusing on the roles Damien Tudehope and his brother, Anthony, played in association with the prosecution of Catholic priest Father Finian Egan, charged with the sexual abuse of four children in two parishes near Sydney during a 15-year period in the 1970s and ’80s.

08/07/2012 – SMH: Charged priest’s political link^[61]

The NSW Attorney-General, Greg Smith, is under fire for letting a senior staff member with links to Father Finian Egan block the release of government documents relating to the alleged paedophile priest.

Damien Tudehope, Mr Smith’s chief of staff, refused access to the documents despite once having worked as Father Egan’s solicitor. The priest was arrested in May and charged with multiple sex offences against boys and girls stretching back decades.

Mr Tudehope’s brother Anthony Tudehope, a barrister, attended the police station with the Catholic priest when he was charged.

Mr Smith used to attend Father Egan’s church in Carlingford and thanked him in his inaugural speech to Parliament for his ”Irish wit and pastoral devotion to his flock”. …
Read the complete article….

2014

Mike Baird appointed PM. In the Cabinet, David Clarke remains Parliamentary Secretary for Justice; Dominic Perrottet, a Clarke protege, is appointed Finance Minister.

26/04/2014 – SMH: Onward Christian soldier- a premier’s faith^[62]

As Mike Baird moved into the Premier’s office this week so did a significant influence: Jesus Christ.

Mr Baird is a proud and committed Christian who once considered becoming an Anglican minister. His rise to the top has seen a concentration of powerful religious conviction among the upper echelons of the new government.

…

New finance minister Dominic Perrottet – a former protege of one-time ”religious right” faction leader David Clarke – attended Redfield College in Dural, a school run by the conservative Catholic order Opus Dei.

Mr Clarke … remains parliamentary secretary for justice.

Throw into the mix the deputy Premier and Nationals leader Andrew Stoner – who attends the evangelical C3 church – and the Baird/Stoner government is shaping as the most devout in living memory.
Read the complete article….

The hard right faction forces David Clarke into the background to allow them to increase their power over the Liberal Party as a whole

13/10/2014 – SMH: Liberal hard right faction dumps leader and regroups after ICAC^[63]

The hard right faction of the NSW Liberal Party has formally dumped long-time leader David Clarke and regrouped in a bid to reinvent itself after hearings of the Independent Commission Against Corruption devastated its parliamentary ranks.

In what is being seen as a major realignment, cabinet ministers Jai Rowell and Matthew Mason-Cox have rejoined the faction they split from two years ago to significantly boost its influence within the party structure.

The pair have emerged as leaders of a newly strengthened hard right faction along with former NSW Liberal deputy director Richard Shields and party state executive member Peter Poulos. Mr Rowell and Energy Minister Anthony Roberts form the new parliamentary leadership, with Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet also influential.

The new grouping claims seven of the 20 members of the party’s state executive.
Read the complete article….

Hard right Opus Dei ally Damien Tudehope ran against the Liberal party in 1999 as the Australian Family Alliance candidate for the NSW Legislative Council. After that he nominated successively for the safe Liberal seats of Baulkham Hills, Ryde and Epping, but withdrew each time for factional reasons before the preselection stage. However, in the lead-up to the 2015 election, Tudehope was successfully preselected for the ultra-safe seat of Epping after defeating Nathaniel Smith, son of the incumbent right-wing Catholic Greg Smith.

28/10/2014 – Daily Telegraph: Damien Tudehope, 61, wins Liberal preselection for the blue ribbon seat of Epping^[64]

…

The 61-year-old [Tudehope] smashed his closest rival Nathaniel Smith, son of incumbent Greg Smith, 103 to 27 at the preselection battle held at the Epping Club on Thursday night.

It is understood there was a reluctance to impose a family dynasty on the electorate and that Mr Tudehope was favoured for his experience in politics, having served as Mr Smith Snr’s chief of staff when he was attorney general.

His profession also worked to his advantage, with Mr Smith Snr and his predecessor Andrew Tink both working as lawyers before serving in the safe-as-houses seat, which the Liberals hold on a 27.5 per cent margin.

…

Lawyer Noel McCoy, who was seen as a favourite, pulled out of the contest at the last minute — it is understood he urged voters to back Mr Tudehope when it emerged he had slightly more support.
Read the complete article….

2015

The following article highlights Damien Tudehope’s powers to influence government in his previous role as Chief of Staff to the then Attorney-General as noted above in 2012:

18/03/2015 – Daily Telegraph: Candidate to deliver tough lesson to his former boss^[65]

FORMER attorney-general Greg Smith was advised against changes to the bail laws by then chief-of-staff Damien Tudehope, who looks set to take his old boss’s Epping seat at the state election.

The 61-year-old Mr Tudehope said he opposed the changes to the bail laws enacted by Greg Smith and revealed the two had numerous “vigorous debates” about the issue: “(The law change) didn’t take into account that magistrates would take a very lenient approach

“If I had been in that position I probably would have been more cautious. I would have been careful to consider the victim before going to the legislature.”

Mr Smith’s bail laws removed a presumption against bail for serious offences, replacing it with the legal test of assessing if an offender posed an “unacceptable risk”.

Mr Tudehope is a former lawyer and chief-of-staff to Mr Smith and has revealed ministerial ambitions.

The devout Catholic and father-of-nine said greater attention should be placed on the prison system and he would like to see the Justice Department split, with him taking on a new portfolio as Minister for Corrective Services.

…

Mr Tudehope is a member of the controversial Roman Catholic Opus Dei movement [and at least two of his sons are associated with Opus Dei colleges (Redfield and Warrane)^{[66],[67],[68]}].
Read the complete article….

2016

According to Crikey, the religiofascists Damien Tudehope and Dominic Perrottet (who was Baird’s Finance Minister) on the Liberal’s hard right probably controlled Mike Baird even though he was elected because he didn’t share their views.

05/10/2016 – Crikey: Will the right wing turn Teflon Mike into Turncoat Turnbull?^[69]

Mike Baird is electorally popular at least in part because he does not share the extreme right-wing views of the radicals in his party. But they own him anyway.

…

Elected in 2015, the current Liberal member for Epping Damien Tudehope once ran against the Liberals as a candidate for the Australian Family Association and served as the spokesperson for the same organisation, funded by B.A. Santamaria (of National Civic Council fame). A staffer to former attorney-general Greg Smith (himself a past president of Right to Life), Tudehope has added petitioning against Safe Schools to his list of morality issues, which include adoption and abortion.

Also against equal marriage is Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet. Associated with former factional leader David Clarke, Perrottet attended the Opus Dei-run Redfield College — where one of the men behind the “Children’s Future” flyer teaches. Perrottet has also advocated for cuts to pensions to stop the state “acting as a substitute for the family“.

…

As the SMH noted in 2014, the Baird/Stoner government was then shaping up as the most devout in the country. Baird seemed to be able to balance the retrograde obsessions of his own party members and maintain his popularity through steering a conservative economic, rather than social, course. After several missteps within his own Coalition — the Nationals’ revolt over greyhounds being the most recent — Baird now presents the same vulnerable position as Malcolm Turnbull to a resurgent right currently riding the hobby horse of equal marriage. Meanwhile, the favours required to pass electricity privatisation from Fred Nile are yet to be called in, in an upper house where no one holds the numbers and two Bills relating to abortion are foreshadowed.

All this comes at a time when fringe religious groups are working to cement their ties with the Liberal Party. Dominic Perrottet remains a spokesman for Marriage Alliance despite that organisation copping a public scolding for using an internal Liberal Party email list. The organisation itself is run by Sophie York, a Liberal Party candidate and councillor of the Catholic Lawyers Guild. …
Read the complete article….

2018 Perrottet and Tudehope play musical chairs in preselections to keep their hands on the levers of power

When Premier Mike Baird retired from politics in January 2017 and was replaced by Gladys Berejiklian, Perrettet was promoted from the Finance Ministry to Treasurer and Deputy Premier, plus several other ministries. Infighting over safe seats in the run-up to the 2019 election threatened both Perrottet and Tudehope.

24/09/2018 – THE NEWDAILY: Berejiklian’s deputy backs down in last-minute peace deal^[70]

Treasurer [and Deputy Premier] Dominic Perrottet has backed down on his bid to unseat Castle Hill MP Ray Williams, in a last-minute deal to settle instability in the New South Wales government.

ABC reports Mr Williams will stay put and Mr Perrottet will instead move to Epping, in an agreement struck just minutes before Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s 6pm deadline. [Note: the ABC link, including 3 related articles gives substantially more detail on how the religofascists fight over the spoils of safe seats in their heartland. [Note the ABC link provides access to four additional articles providing much more detail on how the spoils came to be divvied up.]

The New Daily was only able to confirm a deal was reached and that Mr Williams would not be moving.

Epping MP Damien Tudehope will reportedly move to the upper house, replacing the retiring David Clarke. …
Read the complete article….

2019

Shortly after the liberals led by Gladys Berejiklian were returned to power in the 2019 NSW State Election the factional warfare resumed between Alex Hawke’s “moderates” and those on the far right now including the Perrottets and Tudehope carrying on with Clarke’s aim force “family values” on the state.

06/08/2019 – SMH: ‘Absolute pain’: Internal division exposed in Liberal feud^[71]

Members of the Liberal Party’s hard-right faction are attempting to erode the support of factional rivals in Sydney by organising religious freedom meetings that double as branch stacking events.

…

The politicians targeted in the stacking exercise include federal MPs Julian Leeser (Berowra) and Alex Hawke (Mitchell), as well as state representative Ray Williams (Castle Hill) [is the targeting of Williams pay-back because he resisted Dominic’s attempt to take over his seat?]

…

NSW Finance Minister Damien Tudehope, a senior member of the party’s hard-right, spoke at at least one of the meetings, as did one of his staffers, who was allegedly critical of Mr Leeser.

Christian Ellis, who had worked for Mr Tudehope since the March state election moved on to new opportunities in July, according to the minister’s office.

…

Text messages obtained by The Herald also suggest Jean Claude Perrottet, the brother of NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and employee of Mr Tudehope, was also working to sign up members to Liberal branches in the Sydney Hills district. [Following in the footsteps of his elder brothers Dominic and Charles in the previous decade?]

The texts appear to show Jean Claude Perrottet working to sign Liberal members up to branches between February and May, including photographs of the membership sheets. In one exchange he says “we must be discrete [sic]”.

Richard Whitington’s thoughts on the crazyness of the religiofascist infighting on the Liberal Party far right that continued even after Glady’s Berejiklian managed to win a third term in power for the Liberal Party.

21/08/2019 – Richard Whitington/Politics: Aborting at 5 months? Are Libs about to terminate another leader?^[72]

Happy snap with one Tudehope in London, while another Tudehope was in Sydney, with others, having a brain snap.

…

[Thomas] Tudehope is an adept practitioner of social media, one of the pioneers of its use in political campaigning. Back when Malcolm Turnbull was Leader of the Opposition (before he was deposed by Tony Abbott), Thomas was Malcolm’s social media manager. He left the role in 2009 amid allegations, denied and never proven, that in supporting Turnbull’s moderate faction of the Liberal Party, he’d engineered a tasteless post against a far-right factional enemy, Alex Hawke, portraying Hawke as Hitler.

On becoming PM in 2015 (after he’d deposed Abbott) Turnbull re-hired Thomas Tudehope as social media manager.

Meantime, Alex Hawke deserted the radical right of the Liberals, did a deal with the moderates, served as an assistant Minister under Turnbull (after Turnbull deposed Abbott as PM), and is now a Minister in the Morrison Government (after Morrison deposed Turnbull; well, OK, Turnbull “deposed” himself).

Hawke is being credited with helping to strategise Morrison’s “feint” manoeuvre – momentarily shifting a few votes to Peter Dutton, just long enough to frighten people into voting, instead, for Morrison, at the next ballot.

Another alleged accomplice in the anti-Hawke post back in 2009 was Charles Perrottet, brother of the NSW Treasurer, Dominic. Charles worked for a time for another arch-conservative Liberal MP, David Clarke. Charles also made one of those “I don’t recall” appearances at the ICAC hearings into corrupt political donations which claimed the careers of then-Premier Barry O’Farrell, and several others.

Charles is not to be confused with Treasurer Perrottet’s other brother, Jean Claude, who in 2017 faced but was found not guilty of rape charges.

Alex Hawke, like Charles Perrottet, had also been a David Clarke staffer.

Clarke has now left the NSW Parliament but his remaining factional allies on the conservative right are playing merry hell over the way Premier Berejiklian has tried to rush through a bill to “decriminalise” abortion in NSW. She’s caved to them and deferred a vote on the issue for another month.
Read the complete article….

2020

Alex Mitchell, a former Sydney Sun-Herald State Political Editor whose commentary appears every Friday, gives his view of the hard right’s increasing powers to direct Liberal politics in NSW:

24/04/2020 – Pearls and Irritations: ALEX MITCHELL: Changing of the guard in NSW^[73]

Damien Tudehope, ultra-conservative Minister for Finance and Small Business, is the new Leader of the Government in the NSW Upper House. He replaces former Arts Minister Don Harwin who quit in disgrace. The Liberal Party’s right-wing faction is now calling the shots.

When NSW Legislative Council MLC Damien Tudehope was appointed Government Leader of the House in mid-April, his salary shot up to $345,152. The promotion came with a limousine and chauffeur, luxury offices in Parliament House, a personal staff and a full bar and fridge (exclusively for guests).

Premier Gladys Berejiklian approved Tudehope’s grand new job but Parliament House is swirling with rumours that in fact Deputy Liberal Leader, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, made the call. If so, Premier Berejiklian appears to have ceded control of her Government to the Liberal Party’s right-wing faction and its two leading powerbrokers, Perrottet and Tudehope.

Both are Catholics, close friends, political allies and uncomfortably ambitious. Working closely with the NSW division’s John Howard, Tony Abbott and Alex Hawke, their aim is not to defeat Labor but to defeat Liberal “wets” who are secret “socialists” like Malcolm Turnbull.

Talking about the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party in Canberra, former Prime Minister Turnbull told Leigh Sales this week: “The right-wing operates in the Liberal Party … the way they operate is to basically bully and intimidate people. And what they do … is to create enough mayhem, enough damage, that people in the middle say, ‘It has got to come to an end, how can I stop this terrible horror?’”

Warming to his theme, Turnbull let fly at the “sea of paranoia” in Canberra: “Power for power’s sake is what drives far too many people in politics. I would say most people in politics frankly and a huge number of people in the media. It is just power for power’s sake. It turns them on. It is an aphrodisiac. A drug, whatever you want to call it.

…

The Tudehope-Perrottet alliance on Sydney’s North Shore goes back a long way. In 2010, Tudehope, then a spokesman for the grandly titled Australian Family Association, a rabidly anti-gay and anti-abortion lobby group, failed in a bid to become Liberal candidate for the safe seat of Baulkham Hills. Tudehope, a father of nine children and reputedly a member of the Opus Dei sect, the strong arm of orthodoxy at the Vatican, rose to attention campaigning against PM John Howard’s ban on same-sex marriage in 2004.

He ran for the Lower House seat of Epping and won. He was gifted the seat by former NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith, another reported supporter of Opus Dei, who employed Tudehope as his chief of staff. Tudehope held Epping from 2015 to 2019.He relinquished the seat in a deal with Dominic Perrottet who wanted to shift from marginal Hawkesbury to safe-as-houses Epping. In exchange, Tudehope sought pre-selection on the Liberal ticket for the Upper House and duly became an MLC in March 2019. One month later he walked straight into Berejiklian’s Government as Minister for Finance and Small Business.

…

Tudehope’s mercurial rise in the Parliamentary Liberal Party is nothing short of astonishing. Elected to the Legislative Council one year ago, Tudehope has climbed from backbencher ($169,192 per year), to committee chairman ($190,342), to junior Minister ($309,621), to Government Leader of the Upper House ($345,152). That’s a whopping pay rise of $175,960 or 100%. All in a mere 12 months.

He is now concentrated on pet projects: stopping any reform of euthanasia laws, reversing Parliament’s legislation supporting gay marriage and decriminalising abortion (he opposed both law changes) and recruiting new members to Parliament’s prayer breakfasts.
Read the complete article….

2021 Dominic Perrottet becomes Premier:

When Gladys Berejiklian’s unfortunate secret love affair with former NSW MP and allegedly corrupt political operator Daryl McGuire was outed in the ICAC hearings she was left with little choice but to resign from Parliament,^[74] Dominic Perrottet rose to the top of the heap as the new Premier and leader of the NSW Labor Party. He now had his hands on all the public reins of power – as well his influences on increasingly entrenched family and co-religious zealots.

05/10/2021 – SMH: Dominic Perrottet: From big family to the Premier for families^[75]

Dominic Perrottet speaking after being elected leader of the NSW Liberal Party and PremierCredit:Dominic Lorrimer

… “Until now, all of our Liberal premiers have been infrastructure premiers, building roads, rail, schools and hospitals for communities right across our state, and that will not change with me,” Mr Perrottet said in his first public statement after Tuesday’s leadership ballot. “But I will also be a family Premier, focusing on how we can make life better for working families, living the Liberal values of opportunity, aspiration and hard work.”

…

Mr Perrottet has enjoyed a political rocket ride since being elected to NSW Parliament as the member for Castle Hill in 2011, aged 28 (he has since shifted to the seats of Hawkesbury and then Epping).

He was promoted to the front bench just three years later when he became minister for finance and services in the Baird government. When Gladys Berejiklian became premier in January 2017, he was elected deputy leader of the Liberal Party and took on the Treasury portfolio.

Mr Perrottet, who turned 39 last month, will be the youngest person ever to become Premier, a post established in 1856 while New South Wales was still a British colony.

But it has not all been plain sailing – Mr Perrottet’s political career was almost derailed in 2020 over revelations of financial mismanagement and the underpayment of injured workers by the public insurer icare, which was set up when he was finance minister.

…

Mr Perrottet is popular with business – one lobby group said he had been “a great advocate for the business community” throughout the pandemic and lockdowns – but others are cautious about how his personal religious values could influence broader policy choices as Premier. A devout Catholic, Mr Perrottet voted against removing abortion from the state’s criminal code in 2019.

During his political career, Mr Perrottet has styled himself as a reformer and during his first press conference as Premier he identified John Howard and Paul Keating as leadership role models.

Soon after becoming Treasurer in 2017, Mr Perrottet told the Herald: “You don’t get into politics to stay still. You get into politics to reform.”

…

A leading member of the Liberal party’s right faction, he has been involved in politics since he joined the Young Liberals. He worked as a staffer for David Clarke, then a leader of the Liberal Party’s conservative right.
Read the complete article….

The last paragraph above may be inaccurate. Dominic was undoubtedly nurtured and mentored by David Clarke, but I have found no other statements that he actually worked directly for Clarke. The author may be confused by the fact that brother Charles Perrottet was an important staffer and acknowledged operative for Clarke for some time.

Two of his brothers have clearly been heavily involved in ‘works’ to shape NSW Liberal politics towards the hard right. Charles Perrottet’s activities have been highlighted in several of the media clips extracted above.

Dominic Perrottet’s youngest brother, Jean Claude, is also beginning to make waves as he comes of age. His history in the press started on a bad note when he was around 20.

10/08/2017 – SMH: Jean Claude Perrottet found not guilty of St John’s College sexual assault^[76]

… Jean Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, was at the ball as a guest of a college resident, and spent the evening drinking, dancing, and having a political argument with “a leftie”.

A 19-year-old woman got ready with friends, drank champagne, and was spotted running into the crowd and dancing like “crazy” at the end of the night.

Mr Perrottet and the woman met and kissed on the dance floor at the after-party, then moved to a canopy of trees near an area called the Lemon Grove.

What happened next, in the early hours of October 18, 2015, changed everything.

The woman remembered being raped, repeatedly telling Mr Perrottet to stop and get off her. Mr Perrottet remembered some consensual sex acts, before the woman sat up, said she did not want to continue, and they stopped.

In the NSW District Court on Thursday, a jury of seven women and five men took less than two hours to find Mr Perrottet not guilty of three counts of sexual assault.

…

The defence case was a textbook example of the principles of “beyond reasonable doubt” and the burden of proof.

…

Mr Perrottet, who comes from a large family belonging to the conservative Catholic order Opus Dei, later told police there was no way they had sexual intercourse [and where have we heard that before? “It’s against my religion,” he said.
Read the complete article….

Some of the gory details in Jean Claude’s own words from the court case as presented in the Murdoch Press:

03/08/2017 – Daily Telegraph: Jean Claude Perrottet sex assault trial: I was a ‘drunken mess’^[77]

THE morning after Jean Claude Perrottet allegedly raped a woman at a university party he admitted he had been drunken “mess”, a NSW jury has heard.

Perrottet, 20, is on trial at the Downing Centre District Court after pleading not guilty to three counts of sexual intercourse without consent after a University of Sydney end-of-year formal in October 2015.

“OK, so as I remember more of last night I’m really sorry for being a complete mess,” Perrottet said in a message to a friend read out in court today.

“I need to stop getting next level f***ed-up every time I go out,” he said in another message.

“Was I completely embarrassing myself?”

“F*** like I am trying to remember things but the only thing I can remember is having an argument about politics with a leftie,” he said in the series of messages also read out to the court.

…
Read the complete article…. and two others that are linked.

The bottom line here, is that this young sprout of what is supposed to be a quite godly family has clearly demonstrated and admitted to a significant lacks of sobriety, self-control, and ethics – saved from what might have been a conviction by a smart lawyer.

However this may be, by 2021 young Jean Claude Perrottet is Secretary of the NSW Young Liberals.^[78] He also began to make waves there.

14/08/2021 – News.com.au: NSW Treasurer’s younger brother rebels by opposing mandatory coronavirus vaccination ^[79]

The NSW Treasurer’s younger brother has rebelled against his sibling by co-signing a Young Liberal motion to oppose the state government’s mandatory vaccination policy for hotspot workers.

Jean Claude Perrottet, 24, seconded a motion at the youth wing’s Thursday meeting to oppose “calls for the introduction of mandatory or coerced vaccination”.

It was a rebuke of the position backed by his older brother and state Treasurer Dominic Perrottet to require that tradies from Sydney coronavirus hotspots get vaccinated before returning to work.

A youth wing source said the younger Perrottet, the secretary of the NSW Young Liberals, advocated strongly for the motion, which also included calls to oppose so-called “vaccine passports”.

…
Read the complete article….

2022 Redfield ‘old boys’ / ex fascist Young Libs with Dominic Perrottet in the lead still calling the shots

The Guardian article here, shows that as 2022 begins, the religiofascist far right is still alive and well in its preparations for the 2023 election.

23/01/2022 – The Guardian: The Right stuff: why shellshocked NSW Liberal moderates are fearing factional fights^[80]

Last week, a prominent member of the Liberals’ right faction, Tim James, snared the safe New South Wales state seat of Willoughby replacing the former Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian, a leading moderate, in the lower north shore Sydney seat.

…

[I]n NSW, at least on the surface, there appeared to be peace within the warring factions, of which there are three: the moderates, the hard right and the smaller centre right. The hard right is dominated by conservative Catholics with the premier, Dominic Perrottet, its poster boy.

The centre right, controlled by the federal immigration minister, Alex Hawke, is more closely aligned with Pentecostal and Protestant churches and boasts Scott Morrison as its high-profile member.

…

[A] decade in the wilderness a desperate Barry O’Farrell convinced the factions they should declare a detente in the interests of winning government.

The peace was cemented under Berejiklian. Hard-right leaders like Perrottet, who has been a central player in the factions since he was in the Young Liberals, and Damien Tudehope, who commands influence in the north-west of Sydney, prospered, becoming treasurer and finance minister. David Elliott, a leading figure of the centre right, has risen too. So did the leading moderates such as Kean.

At least in cabinet, the factions had checked their weapons at the door.

But there was always the question of who would succeed Berejiklian.

…

[H]as the deal emboldened the right and diminished the moderates?

“It’s been the best infiltration I have seen in my life,” says one disillusioned moderate. “Rather than beat us up, they got us to do what they want.”

How much Perrottet’s rise has strengthened the right is debated within the party – there have so far been no attempts to push a conservative social agenda.

“Perrottet is not offensive to most moderates – he mainly sticks to economic issues and he’s endorsed net zero by 2050,” says a senior moderate.

…

[T]he new rules for preselecting candidates have provided an avenue for increased influence and there are signs right operatives are active.

…

The NSW Liberal party said: “There were three outstanding candidates contesting the preselection, with Tim James selected by members to represent the party at the upcoming election, based on his vision for the community.”

James had a bloc of 11 Young Liberals from the right who were eligible to vote under party rules that allow Young Liberals to attend branches where they live or adjoining branches. They included Thomas Ryan, who is married to Francesca Perrottet , the premier’s sister; Anthony Swales, an electorate staffer for state minister Anthony Roberts; Pierre Okosdinossian, a graduate of Redfield College, the conservative Catholic school attended by Perrottet; and Benedict Kang,

In 2018 Kang wrote in the conservative Spectator: “At the heart of the political process is grassroots action … Something is astir in the air, and the winds of change, of reform, are blowing. This article may very well be prophetic, and I sincerely hope that it is. Join a party, be the conservative voice, change the tide of battle. Believe me, there has never been a better time to be young, restless, and right-wing.”

There is clear evidence elsewhere that conservatives have heeded the call and signed up to branches in anticipation of the Warringah rules.

Branches that had just five or 10 members have seen numbers swell to the 30s in the past two and half years.
Read the complete article….

2023(!)

Jean Claude Perrottet was “missing” when supposed to appear before a NSW Parliament upper house inquiry run by Greens and Labor on alleged links between NSW Liberal councilors on Hills Shire Council with a developer where senior members of his party had been “paid significant funds in order to arrange to put new councillors on The Hills Shire Council”; and branch stacking, where it was alleged that Jean Claude and former Liberal Party State Executive member, Christian Ellis, approached a Liberal Party member, Frits Mare to get $50,000 to fund a branch stacking operation to unseat Alex Hawke from his federal electorate.

As reported in the articles below, the Parlimentary inquiry initially focused on Hills Shire Council, that involved brother Charles, who mentioned several times above as one of David Clarke’s branch stacking operatives.

ABC News Sydney (Calderwood, K., Daniel, S., 11/02/2023). Dominic Perrottet’s brothers Charles and Jean-Claude ordered to appear before Hills Shire Council investigation. ABC News
The Sydney Morning Herald (Cormack, L., (15/02/2023). Perrottet’s brother and associate sought $50,000 for branch-stacking scheme, inquiry told. Sydney Morning Herald/Politics/NSW/State Parliament)
news.com.au, (Wang, J., 01/0315/02/2023). Jean-Claude Perrottet, Christian Ellis asked for $50k to unseat Alex Hawke, inquiry told. News.com.au/National/NSW & ACT/Politics
Canberra Times, (Loomes, P., 34/02/2023). Hills Shire inquiry a ‘circus’: NSW premier’s brother. Canberra Times/News/Latest News

Dom Perrottet was queried about this at a press conference, where he replied:

22/02/2023 – News.com.au: Search for Premier’s brother, other missing witnesses spans multiple days^[81]

“Leave my family out of it…. Leave my family out of it…. I’m serious… No… I’m serious…. Leave my family out of it… I’m here elected to represent the people of NSW, these are unsubstantiated allegations. They are made in an inquiry established by the Labor Party a month out from an election…. I think the public can see exactly right through it.
3:47 PM, 16/02/2023 Sky News Live

Contrast this with his words when first elected to Parliament^[82] (NSW Legislative Assembly Hansard and Papers Tuesday 31 May 2011): “I would like to particularly single out my brother Charles, who has worked alongside me in politics. We have been a team from the start and will be a team to the finish. … I would also like to thank the following people for their friendship, guidance and advice: … Kyle Kutasi, … Thomas Tudehope, Damien Tudehope, … Phillip Elias…“. All of these have been clearly identified in the excerpts above as operatives nurtured by David Clarke, and he is clearly adopting them here as his own.

And today as I try to finish off my unraveling of the spiders’ web, there is still more on the context of alleged/suggested involvement of Liberal Party members and the two Perrottet brothers in this shady affair:

The Guardian (McGowan, M., 01/03/2023). Meet the Nassifs: the Sydney property developer, a Lamborghini and a daughter on bail. The Guadian/NSW. (Follow the links in this article for yet more information on the murky branches to yet more Liberal functionaries in this part of the web).
Crikey (Nilsson, A., 02/03/2023). Anonymous documents, private eyes and a rushed report: the inside story of NSW’s weirdest inquiry. Crikey/News/Politics. Jeff Egan was a member of the state executive of the NSW Liberal Party and now heads up Toplace, the subject of a parliamentary inquiry.
Crikey (Saville, M., 02/03/2023). Ex-NSW Liberal councillor is CEO of property developer raided in fraud investigation. Crikey/News/Politics. Chasing Premier Dominic Perrottet’s brothers with private investigators is just one of the ‘odd’ elements of a inquiry due to finish today.

Is Dominic Perrottet the right stuff to be Premier?

As the election looms, people may be questioning whether they really want the kind potentially absolutistic religiofascist government envisaged by the Urbanchich/Clarke/and Opus Dei nurtured cadres of Young Liberal storm troops and their followers. Dominic Perrottet’s teflon sheen seems to be tarnishing, as various issues of his high-handedness and ethical blindness begin bubbling to the surface at the same time.

In a Sydney Morning Herald story mainly focused on the current factional turbulence around gambling issues, and the fact that David Elliot failed to be preselected for any lower house seat or offered a winnable place on the upper house ticket in the forthcoming election because none of Perrottet’s faction backed it. Also, Elliot, a strong supporter of the gambling industry Perrottet is trying to regulate is also the person who warned Dominic Perrottet of the talk in his hard right faction about the ‘uniform fiasco’ at his 21st birthday party was likely to become public soon.

14/01/2023 – SMH: The fancy dress party that came back to haunt the premier^[83]

In the West Pennant Hills garage of the Perrottet family home, the third-oldest child Dominic celebrated his 21st birthday. It was 2003 and the future premier was marking his coming of age, surrounded by family, school and university friends and allies from the Young Liberals, which he would go on to lead two years later.

…

Among those at the party were right-wing warrior, now government whip and Member for Wollondilly Nathaniel Smith as well as federal MP Alex Hawke. But it was the birthday boy’s decision to wear a rented black, imitation Nazi uniform that would be the most memorable aspect of the night.

It would be 20 years before that detail re-emerged, when Perrottet was the most senior politician in NSW. He was also at war with his own faction and locked in battle with one of his senior ministers.

That minister is David Elliott, who is more than happy to be called the government’s resident bomb thrower. Elliott is retiring from Macquarie Street after he could not convince Perrottet’s conservative faction to back his preselection. Even hopes that Elliott could be added to the upper house ticket were dashed, ensuring his long – and colourful– political career will end in March.

Those close to Elliott acknowledged that the “born politician” is not ready to leave politics and is bitterly disappointed that he could not be thrown a lifeline. He often recounted the story of Perrottet begging him to stay in state parliament, and is undoubtedly angry that he was cut adrift.
Read the complete article….

Will voters’ memories Perrottet’s meddling in cemeteries return to haunt him?

07/10/2021 – Crikey: Breaking ground: Perrottet’s first big test pits church v state over Catholic cemeteries^[84]

The NSW government is accused of breaching ICAC rules over ‘repeated, exclusive dealings’ with the Sydney archdiocese over burial grounds.

The newly installed NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is moving quickly to rebadge himself as a man of the centre, but there remains the unexplained — and as yet unresolved — saga over how he, as state treasurer, has handled the demands of the Catholic Church.

The issue is Sydney’s cemeteries and who controls their management. It is also a story of power, influence and how the church fights for its interests.

The sharp end of the story is a claim that Perrottet as treasurer pushed the merits of proposals backed by the Catholic archdiocese of Sydney — despite an assessment by senior bureaucrats from two separate departments that the church’s business case did not measure up.

…

There is a parallel claim that Perottet and others in the government may have run close to breaching ICAC rules on direct dealing — rules which dictate how the government should deal with a prospective supplier of services to avoid corruption.

Yet another fishy thread in the web surrounding Perrottet involves graves… According to Callum Foote in Michael West Media, “key Catholic members of Parliament moved to hand control of the state’s cemeteries to the Catholic Church despite clear warnings from independent and government bodies that the move would see $5bn of excess capital controlled by the Catholic Archdiocese“. This would give the Church control of all NSW cemeteries for 200 years!^[85]

22/10/2021 – Michael West Media: The “Catholic Cabinet”: Perrottet’s $5bn cemeteries bid dwarfs Gladys’ gun club frolic^[86]

…

MWM has been told that initial expert analysis expects the new development would cost the state approximately $500 million, which would have to be spent immediately if the new cemetery space would be ready in time.

As a result, Option 6 would turn what could be a net financial benefit for NSW into a half-billion-dollar liability overnight. Over the next 50-years, Option 6 would hand control of more than $5 billion in excess capital to the Catholic Church.

Investment NSW provided advice on Friday, September 28, that Option 6 did not meet the NSW ICAC’s Direct Dealings Guidelines. The guidelines, instituted in 2018, are for “public sector agencies involved in direct negotiations with external parties to manage corruption risks, but recommends they avoid the practice if possible due to the high level of those risks.”

Then treasurer Dominic Perrottet was warned multiple times by ICAC that his meeting with senior Catholic lobbyists in 2017 also did not meet with the guidelines.

Since 2017, senior Catholic lobbyists have met Coalition ministers dozens of times to try to avoid amalgamation and ensure the church remains involved in the cemeteries sector, having previously tried to lease the whole sector for $1 billion in 2017 after forming a consortium.

When the ministers met on Monday, September 27, they were presented with the original five options developed by the public service along with the rushed-in Option 6.

Out of the lot, only Option 1 was supported by all government agencies and was in accordance with the ICAC Direct Dealing Guidelines.

Cabinet voted that Option 1 and the rushed Option 6 be referred to the Expenditure Review Committee for further consideration.

…

The ERC is now made up of Treasurer Matt Kean as chair, with Premier Perrottet, Finance Minister Tudehope, Nationals Leader Paul Toole and Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello as members.

All five are avowed Catholics. The Expenditure Review Committee is expected to review Option 1 and Option 6 on November 11.

The similarities between Tudehope’s interference with the cemetery decision and Daryl Maguire’s interference with the $5.5 million shooting club grant are striking.
Read the complete article….

Then there are issues involved in Perrottet’s approval (as NSW Treasurer) of the gun club grant leading to Berejiklian’s resignation as Premier was illegal:

13/07/2022 – The Klaxon: EXCLUSIVE: Perrottet’s $5.5m gun club grant illegal^[87]

The $5.5 million grant NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet awarded to a regional NSW gun club was illegal, with the project failing to meet any of the funding requirements under the legislation, investigations reveal.

The grant to the Australian Clay Target Association (ACTA) in Wagga Wagga is at the heart of the scandal that saw Gladys Berejiklian resign as NSW Premier and is the focus of an ongoing probe by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The Klaxon previously exclusively revealed it was Perrottet – as NSW Treasurer – who personally approved the highly controversial $5.5m grant, which has been the central focus of the ICAC’s public hearings.

It can now be exclusively revealed that Perrottet approved the grant despite the gun club development failing to meet legal requirements.

Perrottet made the grant, for ACTA to build a new club house and function centre, from the Restart NSW Fund.

That was after earlier plans to have the funding come from the NSW Office of Sport were rejected by that department.

The Restart NSW Fund was created in 2011 to house funds from the NSW Government’s sale of “poles and wires” electricity infrastructure.

It is governed by the Restart NSW Fund Act 2011, which expressly stipulates the types of infrastructure projects that fund money can legally be used for.

Allowable projects include transport and roads infrastructure, health and public services infrastructure, infrastructure in areas “affected by mining operations” and infrastructure “required for the economic competitiveness of the State”.

The Australian Clay Targets Association’s “large clubhouse/ conference facility” development on the outskirts of Wagga Wagga NSW meets none of them.

Perrottet has not denied the $5.5m grant was illegal.

He has pointed The Klaxon to Infrastructure NSW for “recommending” he approve the grant.

Yet the law shows it was entirely Perrottet’s responsibility, as NSW Treasurer, for ensuring legislative requirements were met and that the grant was for a legally allowed purpose.

…
Read the complete article….

Berejiklian resigned in part because her secret lover, Daryl McGuire ‘organized’ this grant.

Did Dominic Perrottet resign? No, Dom was too busy trying to do the cemetery deal mentioned above for his Catholic brethren as he was inheriting the Premiership….

And there are still more sticky issues in Perrottet’s messy spiderweb.

02/02/2023 – SMH Opinion: Can this ‘Teflon premier’ reclaim power, or has too much stuck to his team?^[88]

In less than a month, the premier has had to issue an impassioned apology for wearing a Nazi uniform to his 21st birthday, and he was name-checked in an ABC Four Corners report on schools linked to the ultraconservative Catholic order Opus Dei. Former students alleged that the schools, including Perrottet’s alma mater Redfield College, where he was captain, attempted to recruit teenagers to Opus Dei. They also claimed its sister girls’ school, Tangara, discouraged students from getting the HPV cervical cancer vaccine. The program made for very uncomfortable viewing.

…

Perrottet had a charmed run in his early political career, as he rose to finance minister and then treasurer, until a political near-death experience gave him an almighty jolt for a young minister who was not lacking in self-belief. Revelations emerged of financial mismanagement and the underpayment of injured workers at the public insurer icare. The insurer was Perrottet’s baby – established when he was finance minister – and the problems plaguing icare made it all the way to his office. Perrottet’s trusted and long-term chief of staff was forced to resign and the minister confided to allies that he thought he would also need to quit.

…

After ricocheting from one crisis to the next as a new premier (Omicron, floods, risky byelections, a jobs-for-the-boys scandal and more floods), Perrottet finally had some clear air at the start of this year and gained momentum to prosecute his case for overhauling poker machines in NSW. That appeared to be at risk of ending as the focus turned to Perrottet and became personal.

And yet, he has weathered the storms. Rather than end him, they have humanised him. Politics is a popularity contest and Perrottet has managed to lift his profile and shake some preconceived views. A Labor strategist worried this week that Perrottet might “do a Lionel Messi” – Argentina’s World Cup hero – and drag his team over the line.

But Perrottet’s government is ageing, his team ill-disciplined. Little may have stuck to the Teflon premier, but the greater test for voters on March 25 may be how much has stuck to the team.
Read the complete article….

All of the above has not given me the time to explore the Perrottet Government’s record on climate action. On the surface it doesn’t look too bad. But the activities in the spiderweb cast a completely different picture of the Perrottet Liberal Government.

For example: Increased coal mining in NSW has a high potential to add still more greenhouse gas emissions to drive global temperatures higher yet:

28/02/2023 – The Guardian: Eight coal projects to be considered by NSW forecast to add 1.5bn tonnes to global emissions^[89]

Eight coal projects the New South Wales government will consider in 2023 would add at least 1.5bn tonnes to global greenhouse gas emissions if they all proceeded, according to analysis by Lock the Gate.

The anti-mining group said it was the largest proposed expansion of coalmining in the state since the Paris agreement on climate change was signed and showed a need for changes to planning laws to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

The analysis considered eight proposed expansions of existing mines that could be assessed and determined in NSW in 2023.

…

Lock the Gate’s NSW coordinator, Nic Clyde, said the Perrottet government’s policy of allowing coal projects to continue was undermining its stated climate goals to cut emissions by 70% by 2035 and to reach net zero by 2050.

“Dangerous climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels like coal has led to devastating extreme weather events all over NSW,” he said.

“[The planning minister] Anthony Roberts should have amended planning laws to put a safe climate before coal and gas mining, but he has failed to do so.

“Due to his failure to act, NSW is now staring down the barrel of the biggest climate bomb from coalmine expansions since the Paris agreement – putting our future at risk.”
Read the complete article….

But Perrottet is telling the coal industry that he most certainly has their back!

22/02/2023 – The Guardian: NSW could invest in coalmines if companies can’t raise the cash, Dominic Perrottet told gathering^[90]

The New South Wales government was open to investing in coalmines if companies couldn’t raise adequate capital themselves, the premier, Dominic Perrottet, told a gathering on Sydney’s southern outskirts late last year.

The comments, contained in a recording provided to Guardian Australia, raise questions about how far the government would go to support fossil fuels if re-elected, according to Labor, the Greens and teal independent candidate Jacqui Scruby.

Addressing a question about rising electricity prices at an “afternoon tea meeting” on 3 November at the Engadine Bowling Club, Perrottet said higher bills hurt individuals and small businesses, with “a substantive impact on employment” as increases get passed on.

…

“[The government] is working very closely with the private sector in relation to securing the operations of coalmines because what we see is a substantive issue where private capital is not being invested in coal,” Perrottet said. “They don’t have the financial capacity to do it.

“Now we’re going to work very closely with them on that. We’re talking about what is absolutely … needed to secure society, being energy.

“There’s not just a profit obligation, there’s a moral obligation, a social obligation to the states. I’m engaged in those discussions. No doubt it’s a big challenge going ahead, but it’s not just the short term – it’s long-term thinking as well, because this problem is not going away.”

…

Scruby, who is running for the seat of Pittwater at next month’s state election, said Perrottet’s consideration of investing in coalmines amounted to “gaslighting the Australian public by saying they’re leading on climate while promising taxpayer funds to the coal industry”.
Read the complete article….

Crikey has the last word on Perrottet (and by extension) on the religiofascist right wing dominated Liberal Party in power

The NSW premier has managed to shift perceptions of his core beliefs during his rise. On the eve of an election, will this pirouetting help him cling to power?

24/02/2023 – Crikey: Reinvented Perrottet’s many conversions on the road to Macquarie Street power^[91]

Dominic Perrottet has done quite a job of reinventing himself since becoming NSW premier 18 months ago, with his wife and seven young children in tow.

Perrottet has been forced to perform several pirouettes in a bid to cling to power at the coming election. The moves have meant jettisoning the closest of old friends and even his own core beliefs.

Crikey has counted the ways in which new Dom has taken shape. It all raises the question: what does he really stand for?

No more Nazi

New Dom was contrite when it was revealed last month that he had kitted himself out as a Nazi at his 21st birthday. (Phew, no photo yet.)

He could cite the ignorance of youth for his lack of judgment back then, but what about his late career adoration of Donald Trump?

Dumping Trump

Old Dom was all over Donald Trump when Trump won power at the end of 2016. Perrottet hailed Trump’s presidential win as a victory for those who have been taken for granted by the elites in the political establishment.

“There is a silent majority, a forgotten people, who feel like the values they hold dear are no longer being represented by the political class,” he posted to social media. “In fact these values and the people who hold them are looked upon with contempt.”

…

Dumping Tudehope

When finance minister Damien Tudehope resigned last week over undeclared shareholdings, Perrottet lost more than just a parliamentary colleague. In politics, ideology and values, Tudehope and Perrottet had been brothers to the end.

…

At the age of 66, Tudehope made way for the younger Perrottet to shift into his seat of Epping in Sydney’s north-west Bible belt. (The seat is the de facto property of conservative CatholIc politicians.) In return, Tudehope took a position in the NSW upper house. The family friendships also crept into public office, with Tudehope’s daughter Monica being employed as Perrottet’s chief of staff.

Conversion on gay conversion

The question of banning gay conversion therapy has been a tough one for Perrottet.

After days of media pressure he came to the party late last week with a promise to introduce legislation (joining several other states) if reelected. But he has already flagged religious exemptions.

“There is no place for harmful practices in our state. Since this issue was raised, people have raised with me examples of food deprivation, electroshock therapy. Well, those practices are wrong, and we will move to outlaw them,” the premier said at a multi-faith forum on Wednesday night, reported by the Nine mastheads.

“At the same time, we will not ban prayer, we will not ban preaching. That is fundamental to freedom of religion in this state and in this country. We can do both. We can ban harmful practices and we can protect freedom of religion in our state.”

… [But, conversion therapy is good as long as Hillsong Church does it!] …

Perrottet has also put distance between himself and the Catholic Church over laws enabling voluntary assisted dying (passed in NSW last year). He further antagonised the church by failing to attend the funeral of Cardinal George Pell.

Perrottet has at least bent to the secular will in important ways. The question for the Liberal Party must surely be: when will it secularise itself?
Read the complete article….

The messy redback spiderweb of fascist, religious, family and personal connections presented on my crime wall depicted herein, and wrapping up in Hardaker’s concluding comments above, raise my final question: ‘What is driving Dominic Perrottet’s desire to be state Premier and control the Liberal Party?

I found very little evidence that Perrottet is a genuine democrat working to govern in a way that best represents people’s needs and wants in his attitudes towards people with different priorities to his own (e.g., Perrottet’s callous and vindictive comments about Violet Coco and others risking jail to bring people’s attention to the existential dangers of global warming). The choices seem to be between a desire to mold the way people live and act according to the dogmas and doctrines of the Opus Dei version of Catholicism he has been immersed in for more than half of his life, or ultimately, his attraction to the kind fascist power represented by Nazi uniforms and control of a spider’s web of family, collaborators, agents and puppets. Hardaker’s demonstration of Perrottet’s willingness to apply political thuggery and sacrifice his catechistic doctrines to enhance/protect his control nx power points strongly to (a possibly subconscious) desire to work towards gaining Hitlerian/Trumpist/Putinist/Xi-ist fascism (defined as follows from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

Fascism

: a political philosophy, movement, or regime … that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

Voting

If you are intending to vote for major parties on the basis of leaders’ character. Chris Minns, Labor’s opposition leader shows Perrottet’s lack of compassion and support for the civil liberties of those using protest as a wat to bring attention to the dangers of climate change and other threats to society.^[92] Consider these quotes from Chris Minns, NSW Labor’s opposition leader^[93], also a right-wing Catholic^[94]. who seems to be a Perrottet supporter, as sourced from the World Socialist Web Site^[12]:

“Almost as soon as Perrottet had concluded his Thursday press conference admission [that he’d worn the Nazi uniform], his nominal opponent in the state election, NSW Labor leader Chris Minns, hailed the premier’s ‘sincere and heartfelt apology’.”
Both Minns and Albanese, together with the media, have accepted Perrottet’s explanation. Despite being the president of the Young Liberals at the University of Sydney in 2003, Perrottet has claimed that he was so historically ignorant as to have no idea whatsoever of the significance of identifying himself with the Nazis. It was all a youthful mistake.
“Minns outlined the bipartisanship on COVID and every other plank of ruling class policy. ‘From my first day as opposition leader, I have not hesitated to back good ideas from the NSW Liberal government,’ Minns wrote. ‘Whether it was dealing with COVID, or the national energy package, when they got it right, I backed them in. That’s the way I practice politics, and it’s the right thing to do’.”

We need to elect governments who focus on real-world issues, such as the realities of global warming, climate change, and the impacts of increasing numbers, extent and ferocity of climate disasters — not those simply looking for political power and perks for their own sakes. This can be best achieved by ensuring that no political power can govern as a majority in its own right (i.e., by replacing the fascists seeking power and their time-serving puppets with community independents (teal and other independents genuinely representing their electorates) and Greens (specifically focused on real-world issues). Parties can still lead, but if we are to have governments that can function in the face of climate catastrophes they fascist tendencies must be subject to veto and their fanciful ideas must be tested in debate with realists.

Those of us in Vote Climate One, looking at your electorates from a basis of accepting the scientific realities of climate and environmental change will do our best to assess which candidates can be trusted to base their voting on realities rather than faith in political and religious dogmas and or pure personal averice.

The concluding picture is a snippet of reality….

A kangaroo in floodwaters in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Photograph: Andrea Myers/AAP (From the Guardian, 5 January 2023 in Darling River at Menindee set to break 1976 flood level

Notes and references:

[1] Any discussion of Opus Dei is bound to be controversial. This is made very clear in the Wikipedia articles: Opus Dei plus Talk: Opus Dei; Opus Dei in society; and Opus Dei in politics plus Talk: Opus Dei in politics.

[1a], Ton, W. (13/12/2002), Climate activist jailed for blocking Sydney Harbour Bridge granted bail – Violet Coco was part of a protest that disrupted morning peak-hour traffic. 7 News.com.au.

[2] See Climate Sentinel News’s items on scientific discussions of the risk of human extinction.

[3] Hall, W.P. (2002). Some fundamental issues relating to the science underlying climate policy: The IPCC and COP26 couldn’t help but get it wrong. Research Gate DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36761.54888.

[4] IPCC Working Group II, (2022), Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. doi:10.1017/9781009325844.

[5] Taylor, C. (22/01/2023), Left-wing activists slam Ryan Gosling’s movie The Fall Guy for closing down Sydney Harbour Bridge – after climate protester was sent to jail for eight months for blocking the expressway. Daily Mail Australia.

[6] Bucci, N. (09/12/2022). How does the 15-month jail term for environmental protester Violet Coco compare to other sentences? The Guardian.

[7] Huitson, J. (13/12/2022). Sydney Harbour Bridge climate protester Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco granted bail after being sentenced to eight months in jail. Sky News Live.

[7a] Rose, T., McGowan, M. (05/12/2022). NSW premier describes jailing of climate activist Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco as ‘pleasing to see’. The Guardian.

[8] McGowan, M., Rose, T. (06/12/2022). Documents reveal ‘scramble’ to rubber-stamp NSW bill targeting climate protests, The Guardian.

[8a] Turnbull, T., (05/10/2021). Dominic Perrottet sworn in as the youngest ever NSW premier after meteoric rise through the ranks. 7news / Politics.

[9] McGowan, M., Rose, T. (14/01/23023). Knives out: a raucous party, a Nazi uniform and a Liberal party mystery. The Guardian.

[9a] Hussain, D., 15/01/2023. Party attendee recalls Dominic Perrottet offered to REMOVE Nazi uniform to a Jewish friend during his 21st birthday as speculation about his future as premier grows. Daily Mail Australia/News.

[10] Smith, A., Cormack, L. (14/01/2023). The fancy dress party that came back to haunt the premier. The Sydney Morning Herald.

[11] Hussain, D. (15/01/2023). Party attendee recalls Dominic Perrottet offered to REMOVE Nazi uniform to a Jewish friend during his 21st birthday as speculation about his future as premier grows. Daily Mail Australia. [referencing an article in the Daily Telegraph as the Telegraph itself is behind a paywall].

[12] Grenfell, O. (17/101/2023) Australian Labor Party saves right-wing NSW premier after admission he wore Nazi uniform. World Socialist Web Site.

[13] Wikipedia, (05/02/2023) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyenko_Urbanchich.

[14] Aarons, M. (03/04/2006). Ardent Nazi took Liberal to extremes. The Sydney Morning Herald.

[15] (05/15/2023) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei_and_politics; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei_in_society. all in Wikipedia

[16] (05/02/2023) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Clarke_(Australian_politician)

[17] Grigoire, P. (05/01/2023 Jesus the Agitator and the Perrottet Anti-Protest Regime: An Interview With Historian Diane Fieldes. Sydney Criminal Lawyers.

[17a]. I don’t want to confuse what seems to be happening here (religiofascism) with fundamentalism, although the religiofascism may well include fundamentalist beliefs. What I define as religiofascism is fascism combined with a framework of dogma held by faith and faith alone. The dogma may be sourced from any religion or political ‘ism. When dogma is combined with the belief that the dogma should enforced by “centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy”, etc. it becomes religiofascism.

[18] Vigo, S., Bastidas, D,. (10/07/2022) Supernumeraries: In the Bloodstream of Society. Opus Dei / Christian Life. [As a biologist, I cannot help but thinking of the many kinds of parasites that live in human bloodstreams. “The supernumeraries should exemplify in a special way the mission of being salt and leaven that dissolves in the world so that, being the same thing as the dough, without being different from it in any way, they give flavor and consistency to it. Saint Josemaría saw Opus Dei as an ‘intravenous injection in the bloodstream of society.’ Thus, being the very blood of the world, their mission is to imbue social structures with the spirit of the Gospel, making this world a better place, each one from their own small or important position.” i.e. as a blood dwelling parasite that controls the mind to benefit the parasite rather than the person who is infected with it.)

[19] Perrottet, John. (02/16/2004), A big family is a lot of work, but it can be a lot of fun. Opus Dei / News / In first person. [Google translation from the Spanish original].

[20] Wikipedia (05/02/2023), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josemaría_Escrivá.

[21] Anonymous, (undated). St. Josemaria Escriva, Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).

[22] Smith, S. (28/11/2005). An inside look at Opus Dei. ABC TV Lateline Transcript.

[23] ABC Four Corners. (31/01/2023). Purity: An education in Opus Dei. [The Pared Foundation’s full responses to questions from Four Corners can be read here. Opus Dei Australia provided Four Corners with this statement]

[24] (05/02/2023). About Redfield [see About, Philosophy of Education, The mentoring system; see also Spirituality].

[25] NSW Government Parliament, (04/06/2020). (Uncorrected) Community recognition statements: Lenny Hayes – 4/6/2020 Legislative assembly. [“Mr Nathaniel Smith (Wollondilly) — I would like to recognize and congratulate an old school friend of mine from Redfield College, Dural …”]. See also https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/member-details.aspx?pk=2241.

[26] Smith, A., Carroll, L. (28/01/2023). War of words erupts between Opus Dei schools and the ABC.

[27] Wikipedia, (06/02/2023). Warrane College

[28] Warrane College – University of New South Wales. Prehistory.

[29] Cerda, J.M. (2010). Like a bridge over troubled water in Sydney: Warrane College and the student protests of the 1970s. Studia et Documenta 4, pp. 147-181 [published by the St. Josemaria Escriva Historical Institute (Rome)] .

[30] (06/02/2023). Warrane College: Spiritual Aspects.

[31] Perrottet, A. (01/07/2021) Warrane College celebrates 50 years. Opus Dei / News [Note that the author is Alex Perrottet, one of Dominic’s brothers who is currently Dean of the College].

[32] (07/02/2023). NSW Finance Minister talks about his time as a Warrane resident. Warrane College web site.

[33] (07/11/2021) Brown, N., Dominic Perrottet: Who are his parents, wife and children? News.com.au / Finance. See also Maiden, S., (05/11/2021). Dominic Perrottet’s controversial past comments revealed as he becomes new NSW premier. News.com.au / Finance.

[34] (21/01/2017). Congratulations to Gabriel Vaughan Perrottet -former tutor and brother of old boy. Warrane College Facebook post.

[35] (07/02/2023). Warrane Dean says fairwell. Warrane College.

[36] Wikipedia, (07/02/2023). Types of membership of Opus Dei.

[37] Aarons, M. (04/03/2006). Ardent Nazi took Liberal to extremes. Sydney Morning Herald / National; ABC Sunday Profile, (18/09/2005). David Clarke. Transcript 16/09/2005.

[38] Nicholls, S., (01/07/2006). Party animals. Sydney Morning Herald / National.

[39] Opus Dei (27/05/2013). What are the cooperators of Opus Dei. Opus Dei / Cooperators of Opus Dei.

[40] Wikipedia, (08/02/2023). Personal prelature.

[41] ABC RN, (12/05/2004) Opus Dei in Australian Politics. Radio National / Religion Report.

[41a] Crittenden, S., 12/05/2004. 1. Who puts the “R” in Catholic? Who puts the “C” in Liberal-Arts? “WE DO!”. 2. Opus Dei in Australian politics. ABC Radio National/The Religion Report/Transcript.

[42] Patty, A. (06/04/2012). MPs moved by heaven and earth. Sydney Morning Herald / National.

[43] Steketee, M., (04/10/2007). Liberal loss may lead party into arid zealotry. The Australian.

[44] Anon. (10/09/2010). A right wing and a prayer. Sydney Morning Herald / National.

[45] Saleam, J. (1999). The other radicalism: an inquiry into contemporary Australian extreme right ideology, politics and organization 1975-1995. PhD Thesis, Department Of Government And Public Administration. pp. 511

[46] NSW Legislative Council Hansard, (24/09/1997). GOVERNOR’S SPEECH: ADDRESS-IN-REPLY – Second Day’s Debate. Hansard and Papers, Legislative Council, 24/09/1997.

[47] Parliament of Australia Senate Hansard, 04/03/1980 Adjournment: Allegations Against Senator- Privilege- Mr Lyenko Urbanchich. Tuesday, 4 March 1980. p. 531.

[48] Tobin, M.,(09/11/2009. Libs Hitler spoof claims second scalp. ABC News.

[49] Koziol, M., (19/02/2022). Alex Hawke: The political animal who became Morrison’s machine man. Sydney Morning Herald/Politics/Federal/Leadership

[49a] Young Liberals – NSW Division, Young Liberals, NSW Division, 17/02/2023. Past Presidents of the NSW Young Liberals. nswyoungliberals.org/About.

[50] Young Liberals, (17/02/2023). Former Office Bearers. www.youngliberal.org.au/history.

[51] Clennell, A. (02/20/2010). Religious right chief defeats challenger. Sydney Morning Herald/National.

[51a] Dempster, Q., (02/09/2005). Extremists. ABC Stateline.

[52] Cohen, J., (17/07/2006). The Right Stuff. ABC Four Corners. Transcript.

[53] VEXNEWS, (22/07/2009). Faction Fight: NSW Liberal right torn apart by feud. VEXNEWS (Archive).

[54] VEXNEWS, (28/07/2009). THE RETURN OF THE UGLIES: NSW Liberal Hard Right MPs invade Sydney Uni Liberal Club and fail. VEXNEWS (Archive).

[55] Snow, D., Christensen, N. (7/11/2009). Down and dirty in the Liberal Party. Sydney Morning Herald/National.

[56] Snow, D., (9/11/2009). Second Liberal figure quits over Hitler YouTube clip. Brisbane Times/Technology.

[57] Clennell, A., (20/02/2010). Religious right chief defeats challenger. Sydney Morning Herald/National.

[58] Nicholls, S., (05/11/2010). Castle Hill Liberals man the ramparts in preselection stoush over wealthy donor. Sydney Morning Herald/National/NSW.

[59] Tobin M., (15/11/2010). The Liberals’ preselection battles have not derailed their campaign. ABC News,

[60] Jordan, B., (06/11/2010). Perrottet wins Liberal race for Castle Hill. (News.com.au) Hills Shire Times/News/Government; The Poll Bludger, (26/03/2011). NSW State Election 2011: Castle Hill. Crikey/New South Wales State Election 2011;

[61] Aston, H., (08/05/2012). Charged priest’s political link. Sydney Morning Herald/National/NSW.

[62] Nicholls, S., (26/04/2014). [63]Onward Christian soldier: a premiers faith. Sydney Morning Herald/National/NSW.

[63] Nichols, S., (13/10/2014). Liberal hard right faction dumps leader and regroups after ICAC. Sydney Morning Herald/National/NSW.

[64] Bastians, K., (28/10/2014). Damien Tudehope, 61, wins Liberal preselection for the blue ribbon seat of Epping. Daily Telegraph/Northern District Times.

[65] Auerbach, T., 18/03/2015). Candidate to deliver tough lesson to his former boss. Daily Telegraph/News?NSW State Election 2015.

[66] Jones, F., (08/07/2012). Frances Jones: The Catholic connection. Frances Jones’ Blog.

[67] Tudehope, T., (26/02/2023), Thomas Tudehope, LinkedIn

[68] Tudehope, J., (26/02/2023). John Tudehope, LinkedIn.

[69] Pullen, C., (05/10/2016). Will the right wing turn Teflon Mike into Turncoat Turnbull?. Crikey/New South Wales.

[70] Eddie, R., (24/09/2018). Berejiklian’s deputy backs down in last-minute peace deal. NEWDAILY.

[71] Rabe, T., (06/08/2019). ‘Absolute pain’: Internal division exposed in Liberal feud. Sydney Morning Herald/National/NSW/State Parliament.

[72] Whitington, R., (21/08/2019). Aborting at 5 months? Are Libs about to terminate another leader?. Richard Whitington / Blog.

[73] Mitchell, A., (24/04/2020). ALEX MITCHELL: Changing of the guard in NSW. Pearls and Irritations – John Menadue’s Public Policy Journal/Politics.

[74] Wikipedia, 27/02/2023. Gladys Berejiklian. Wikipedia/Gladys Berejiklian/Resignation

[75] Wade, M., (05/10/2021). Dominic Perrottet: From big family to the Premier for families. Sydney Morning Herald/Politics/NSW/Political leadership.

[76] Gardiner, S., (10/08/2017). Jean Claude Perrottet found not guilty of St John’s College sexual assault. Sydney Morning Herald/National/NSW.

[77] Paterson, I., (03/08/2017). Jean Claude Perrottet sex assault trial: I was a ‘drunken mess’. Daily Telegraph/News/NSW.

[78] Young Liberals NSW Division, (18/06/2021). NSW Young Liberal Executive Team. Young Liberals NSW Division/About.

[79] Nilsson, A., (14/08/2021). NSW Treasurer’s younger brother rebels by opposing mandatory coronavirus vaccination. News.com.au/National/NSW & ACT/Politics.

[80] Davies, A., (23/01/2022). The Right stuff: why shellshocked NSW Liberal moderates are fearing factional fights. The Guardian / Liberal Party.

[81] Wang, J., (22/02/2023). Search for Premier’s brother, other missing witnesses spans multiple days. News.com.au/National/NSW & ACT/Politics.

[82] Perrottet, D. 31/04/2011. Inaugural Speeches: Mr Dominic Perrottet. Extract from NSW Legislative Assembly Hansard and Papers Tuesday 31 May 2011.

[83] Cormack, L., Smith, N. (14/01/2023) Perrottet’s leadership rocked by Nazi uniform revelation. Sydney Morning Herald/Politics/NSW/State Parliament; Smith, N., Cormack, L., (14/01/2023). The fancy dress party that came back to haunt the premier.

[84] Hardaker, D., (07/10/2021). Breaking ground: Perrottet’s first big test pits church v state over Catholic cemeteries. Crikey/Politics.

[85] Foote, C., (06/10/2021). Grave concerns: Catholic bid for cemeteries finds champion in new premier Perrottet. Michael West Media/Business;

[86] Foote, C., (22/10/2021). The “Catholic Cabinet”: Perrottet’s $5bn cemeteries bid dwarfs Gladys’ gun club frolic. Michael West Media/Business;

[87] Klan, A. (13/07/2022). EXCLUSIVE: Perrottet’s $5.5m gun club grant illegal. The Klaxon/Governance, News, Politics.

[88] Smith, A., (02/02/2023). Can this ‘Teflon premier’ reclaim power, or has too much stuck to his team? Sydney Morning Herald/National/NSW/NSW votes.

[89] Cox, L., (28/02/2023). Eight coal projects to be considered by NSW forecast to add 1.5bn tonnes to global emissions. The Guardian/New South Wales.

[90] Hannam, P., (22/02/2023). NSW could invest in coalmines if companies can’t raise the cash, Dominic Perrottet told gathering. The Guardian/New South Wales.

[91] Hardaker, D., (24/02/2023). Reinvented Perrottet’s many conversions on the road to Macquarie Street power. Crikey/Opinion/Politics.

[92] Rees, S., (10/12/2022). Labor Leader Minns Fails Principle of Courage on Violet CoCo and Shaoquett Moselmane. The New Bush Telegraph/Climate Change/Featured/Politics.

[93] Grenfell, O., (21/01/2023). Australia: NSW leader Chris Minns typifies Labor’s right-wing, pro-business character. World Socialist Web Site.

[94] Snow. D., (07/10/2021). Labor’s Chris Minns: ‘I still think it’s a big uphill battle for us’. Sydney Morning Herald/Lunch With.

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.

On the down-hill road to extinction

William P. Hall on December 11, 2022

Now the Victorian Election is over, we we must keep our politicians feet to the fire. Strong, early, and competent action against global warming is the only issue in Parliament that really matters if we are concerned for the futures of our families, or indeed, for our species and the majority of life on our planet. If we don’t stop and reverse the still accelerating global warming our world will soon be so hot that humans and many other species will be experiencing major die-offs and collapses of critical ecosystems before the end of this century on our way to extinction.

The featured article here shows how close we already to this precipice of no return — even without considering the added stress of human caused global warming.

Our road to extinction began with killing off megafauna

In his ‘overkill’ hypothesis, Paul S Martin proposed in 1966 that humanity’s expansion out of Africa into Eurasia, and then into Australia and the Americas led to the extinction of most of the very large terrestrial animals (“megafauna”). The large animals were easy to kill because they had no prior experience with two legged hunters. Hunters feasted and multiplied until the easy prey in a local area was all killed off within a generation or two as humans continued to multiply and expand into new territories — until entire species were exterminated. By its very nature the fossil record is sparse and little evidence of an actual killing spree has been found, but in most of the areas humans colonized out of Africa there was a healthy variety of megafauna before there was evidence of human habitation. And once evidence of human habitation appears in the record there is no more evidence for megafauna, suggesting that large animals were hunted into extinction within a few decades of their first encounters with our distant ancestors.

Martin published his seminal paper while I was doing preparatory studies at Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville before starting my PhD in evolutionary biology at Harvard. The debate continued throughout my time at Harvard as evidence accumulated and was discussed. Martin’s North American paper was published in 1973 as I received my degree and began my teaching career. Some scientists still argue today that climate change was responsible for most of the extinctions and not humans. However, accurately dated fossils and evidence for human hunting reviewed in a 2015 research article by Surovell, show a good fit with Martin’s overkill hypothesis rather than close correspondence with the climate changes.

Once humans are present in the landscape and as our evolving technology grows ever more powerful, this presence affects all living things. Our expanding population and exponentially increasing consumption, control, and destruction of biological resources is progressively leading towards total exploitation or extermination of the natural biological resources we depend on for our own survival. Most extinctions – especially of little creatures – has resulted from human obliteration of their habitats through increasingly mechanized and fossil-fuel driven agriculture.

This post’s featured image shows what a few years of plowing did to the plains of SW Colorado during the ‘dust bowl’ droughts in the 1930’s. Simple farming managed to obliterate all life for as far as as the camera could see…. Actually, the tractor is plowing along the contour lines of the slope working to repair some of the damage so at farming could resume when the rains returned again. The Guardian article below did not include the photo I used, but describes the situation:

A replica of cave paintings in Chauvet cave, France, created around 36,000 years a go. More than 178 species of megafauna are estimated to have been driven to extinction betweeen 52,000 and 9,000 BC. Photo: Patrick Aventurier/Getty Images [from the article]

by Phoebe Weston, 25/11/2022 in the Guardian

Humans v nature: our long and destructive journey to the age of extinction

The story of the damage done to the world’s biodiversity is a tale of decline spanning thousands of years. Can the world seize its chance to change the narrative?

The story of the biodiversity crisis starts with a cold-case murder mystery that is tens of thousands of years old. When humans started spreading across the globe they discovered a world full of huge, mythical-sounding mammals called “megafauna”, but by the end of the Pleistocene, one by one, these large animals had disappeared. There is no smoking gun and evidence from ancient crime scenes is – unsurprisingly – patchy. But what investigators have learned suggests a prime suspect: humans.

Take the case of Genyornis, one of the world’s heaviest birds, which was more than 2 metres tall and weighed in excess of 200kg. It lived in Australia until, along with many other megafauna, it went extinct 50,000 years ago. In North America, giant beavers weighing the same as a fridge and an armadillo-like creature called a glyptodon, which was the size of a small car, existed until about 12,000 years ago, when they, too, went extinct. In all, more than 178 species of the world’s largest mammals are estimated to have been driven to extinction between 52,000 and 9,000BC.

For a long time, these extinctions were thought to be linked to natural changes in the environment – until 1966, when palaeontologist Paul S Martin put forward his controversial “overkill hypothesis” that humans were responsible for the extinctions of megafauna, destroying the romantic vision of early humans living in harmony with nature.

…

[T]oday … we are not just killing megafauna but destroying whole landscapes, often in just a few years. Farming is the primary driver of destruction and, of all [surviving] mammals on Earth, 96% are either livestock or humans. The UN estimates as many as one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction.
Read the whole article….

We hit the accelerator on the downhill road to extinction with fossil fuel burning and habitat destruction

I came face-to-face with the catastrophe we humans are speeding towards some than six years ago as I was finishing a 10+ year book project on the coevolution of humans and our increasingly powerful technologies, “Application Holy Wars or a New Reformation“. This combines significant threads from my own life-history (paleontology, evolutionary biology, systems ecology, theory of knowledge, organizational theory, engineering & the exponential growth of computer technology), to explore and explain how our hominin ancestors (close cousins of the ancestors of chimpanzees and bonobos) have become so powerful that we are profoundly impacting our planet’s atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and biosphere.

As I focused on finishing the project by forecasting future trends in this coevolution, it became clear that further effort was largely pointless — because few if any people would be available to actually read the book. We face a population crash and social collapse in the global mass extinction event we are forcing on our only planet. I concluded that what time I had left would be far better spent trying to focus people’s and our leader’s attentions on the crisis that we are rushing towards in hopes of organizing actions to delay and perhaps avoid the oblivion.

Several of my works (plus much of the material I have collected on Climate Sentinel News) map out how the evolutionary road we are on leads to a catastrophe if we are unable to put on the brakes and turn off the road to extinction to find a way back up the hill before it is too late:

2015: Human Origins, Cognitive Technologies, and Futures
2016: The Angst of Anthropogenic Global Warming: Our Species’ Existential Risk [this presentation clearly shows the global impact of human activities].
2017: Is this the start of runaway global warming?
2021: Portents for the Future – 2020 Wildfires on the Siberian Permafrost
2022: Some fundamental issues relating to the science underlying climate policy: The IPCC and COP26 couldn’t help but get it wrong.

… Victor Anderson, a visiting professor in sustainability at Anglia Ruskin University, also argues biodiversity loss has been seen by some as a middle-class, trivial or even rightwing issue….. He says the issue continues to be difficult, not least because every aspect of industry is entwined with nature’s destruction. “I think tracing through the causes of biodiversity loss is a bit frightening, because it does lead you to the whole way in which the world economy operates.”

The story of the biodiversity crisis is a tale of decline spanning thousands of years. From hunting huge mammals to extinction to poisoning birdlife with pesticides, humans have treated nature as an inexhaustible resource for too long. Environmentalists, Indigenous peoples and scientists have been sounding the alarm about the biodiversity crisis for more than half a century, and yet no meaningful action has been taken. Much has already been lost, but there is still lots to play for.
Featured article

Collapsing biodiversity on its own is a shocking indicator that human impacts on the natural world are exterminating a vast array of other species through direct killing and habitat destruction. We are also making the entire planet less friendly to life in general through global warming, increasing the acidity of watercourses, lakes and oceans, and poisoning the environment many other ways.

Inevitably, the circle of biological collapse is folding back on humanity itself. The biosphere provides a vast array of “ecosystem services” (oxygen in the air, drinkable water, pollination of crops, soil renewal, fisheries, etc….) that we and our domesticated plants and animals depend on for life. Beyond that, our continued burning of fossil carbon is raising Earth’s surface temperature to levels that are lethal for many plants and animals. As I write this, much northern Australia faces extreme heatwave conditions in the mid 40s, that are easily lethal to unprotected humans and many other organisms:

Maximum temperatures are expected to be in the low to mid forties over inland NT and in the mid to high thirties across northern parts of the Top End, while overnight temperatures will be in the mid to high twenties. Severe to Extreme heatwave conditions are expected to increase in area and intensity and reach a peak early next week before beginning to ease. (http://www.bom.gov.au/nt/warnings/heatwave.shtml; see also **Extreme heat health alert issued across Northern Territory**). Similar warnings have also been issued for northern WA and QLD.

Such conditions can easily cause local extinctions to many species unable to migrate long distances to recolonize depleted areas. Many other organisms that depended in one way or another on the now extinct species will also go extinct because they are unable to replace that dependency – leading to a cascade of extinctions leading towards the ‘sterilized earth’ situation depicted in the featured image. As more and more extinctions occur along with increasingly frequent and widespread ecosystem collapses, Homo sapiens (our own species) will almost certainly be included in the casualties lost for all time. This conclusion is where ‘business as usual’ is driving towards.

I’m not the only one issuing this warning; Antonio Guterres – UN Chief said: We’re racing down the “highway to climate hell” and pointed to the only realistic way to avoid this end to our history on Earth: “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told the UN COP27 summit. “It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact or a Collective Suicide Pact,” he added.

Avoiding this suicide won’t be easy given the vast sums of money fossil fuel and other self-serving special interests are willing to spend whatever it takes to protect their short-term interests in maximizing their extraction of burnable fossil fuels and minimizing their costs to stay in business. No thought seems to be given to the fact that this path may well doom them and everyone else to extinction within a few more decades of business as usual as our whole biosphere collapses in global mass extinction.

At least Australians and Victorians seem to be moving our governments in the right direction to begin mobilizing effective action to protect what is left of our natural environment and to stop and reverse global warming. In the last few months, we have proved we are able to elect governments that claim to be interested in doing this (even though they also still seem to be working to protect fossil fuel special interests).

What we must do now is to hold our elected parliamentarians feet to the fire to ensure that they actually take the climate emergency seriously and begin mobilizing to fight the fires.

We need to turn away from the the Apocalypse on the road to hothouse hell, and we won’t do this by continuing with business as usual!

In the same way I saw no point in finishing my book, it seems to have taken the clear thinking of Greta Thunberg, a 16 year-old girl who concluded school was pointless as long as humans continued their blind ‘business as usual’ rush towards extinction.

In other words, Wake up! Smell the smoke! See the grimly frightful reality, and fight the fire that is burning up our only planet so we can give our offspring a hopeful future. This is the only issue that matters. Even the IPCC’s hyperconservative Sixth Assessment Report that looks at climate change’s global and regional impacts on ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities makes it clear we are headed for an existential (“i.e., UN Newspeak for “extinction is likely”) climate catastrophe if we don’t stop the warming process.

In Greta’s words, “even a small child can understand [this]”. People hope for their children’s futures. She doesn’t want your hopium. She wants you to rationally panic enough to wake up, pay attention to reality, and fight the fire…. so our offspring can have some hope for their future.

And above all…. make sure that your elected parliamentarians take this situation very seriously indeed!

Let’s hope that we can stop global warming soon enough to leave them with a future where they can survive and flourish.

Featured Image: A farm tractor plows terraces after the contour of the land is determined on the southwestern plains of Colorado, March 25, 1938. Associated Press file photo from an August 1, 2017 Denver Post article by Patrick Traylor | [email protected], PHOTOS: The Dust Bowl in Colorado and the Great Plains, showing what was left of humanity’s work a few decades after trying to occupy the land.

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.

Climate Council warns of wet future for Oz

William P. Hall on November 28, 2022

Climate change, driven by burning fossil fuels, contributing to the Great Deluge, is consigning Australia to escalating climate disasters

Most of Australia’s East Coast from Cape York south to the Victorian border has had over a meter of rain by the end of October — with the rains still continuing. Some of these areas have had more than 2 meters, and a few more than 3 meters! Many rainfall records have been smashed in all of the eastern states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania; leading to almost constant flooding through the whole area that is continuing today. The latest reports from the BOM tell us the rains will continue into summer.

This is clearly a function of global warming. Physical laws dictate that as air temperatures rise, the air can carry more water vapor before it begins to condense as rain. Higher temperatures increase the rate of evaporation of water from soils and standing water – encouraging drought. Seemingly contradictory warmer air can precipitate more water in areas where it is raining. As the water condenses out as rain it also releases its ‘heat of fusion’ — and more heat is available to drive more extreme winds able to carry rain to high elevations before the rain freezes to fall back to Earth in devastating hail storms. Over larger areas there is also more energy available to fuel increasingly powerful cyclones.

Increased water means increased plant growth, increased temperature increases the rate at which soils and vegetation dry out — ensuring ever more catastrophic wildfires.

Ever more floods, fires and tempests cause increasing damage to infrastructure and people’s livelihoods and property until the catastrophes follow one another so closely that there are simply not physical or human resources left to repair the damage from one catastrophe before the next catastrophe causes even more damage. If the warming is not stopped this progression leads inevitably leads to social collapse (as we are already seeing in parts of the world), agricultural collapse (and famines as we are already beginning to see in Africa and the Middle East), ecological collapse (as we are already seeing in marine habitats with coral reef communities, kelp beds, sea grass meadows), and finally, population collapses when the land has literally been swept bare (areas in Africa are already on the edge of the cliff).

With the collapse of society, humans will quickly lose the scientific and engineering capabilities to fight further climate change already dialed into the system, such that there will be little hope of avoiding near-term global mass extinction. Continuing ‘business as usual’ support of the fossil fuel industry more-or-less ensures this grim outcome.

The Climate Council’s report, presented below, presents the facts and explains what they mean here in Australia, and some of the things we can to moderate and mitigate the expected damages. This is a good start, but I would be a silly liar if I said this was all we need to do in order to keep from utterly destroying our future.

The great deluge: Australia’s new era of unnatural disasters

Vote Climate One will continue to do whatever we can do to encourage serious government leadership and action to fight climate change. Please do what you can to pressure your representatives to counteract the self-serving special interests who consume our resources and return little or nothing from the super-profits they take overseas.

If we can help get climate savvy governments on the problems that really matter, they may be able to mobilize enough action so we can survive our accidental disruption of Earth’s Climate System so our kids and grandkids inherit a world they can live in….

Featured Image: Rainfall and Flooding 2022 – Queensland to Tasmania. Current year data from 1 January to 2 November, sourced from Bureau of Meteorology, 2022. Graphic from Chapter 2, The Great Deluge: Climate Extremes in Action, in the featured article.

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.

Group Voting Tickets – made for dodgy dealing

William P. Hall on November 24, 2022

Group Voting Ticket for Group P (Health Australia Party) in the Western Metropolitan Region.

Let Victoria’s Group Voting Tickets (GVTs) show you how they abuse your one vote above the line to elect 4 more people you don’t know to the upper house

The group voting ticket illustrated above (page 31 & 32 in the file on the Victorian Electoral Commission website) is the completed ballot paper for a voter in the Western Metropolitan Region putting a [1] above the line in the [P] column on his/her formal ballot paper to vote for Health Australia. Assume that you are that voter. This one mark will then be your vote to elect FIVE members for the Legislative Council for the Western Metropolitan Region.

By voting [1] above the line for [P] you have given your FIRST PREFERENCE to candidate Isaac Golden, the homeopath who established the Health Australia Party (where minor parties are concerned, only the first preference in the column ever has any chance of being elected). You may have voted for Health Australia because of its apparently strong pro climate policy and/or your support for alternative medicines.

However, according to the GVT for your [P] vote, if Golden fails to win a quota for election from his above the line votes, the SECOND PREFERENCE from your ballot goes to [Q] who happens to be incumbent MLC Bernie Finn for Labor DLP. Finn is one of the most extremely right wing Christian MLCs in the Victorian Parliament: rabidly anti abortion, anti-gay, and anti climate science. In the end he is so extreme that when he was a sitting member for the Liberal Party, in May this year they expelled him from the party. If these added votes do not complete a quota to elect Finn go to Finn’s first preference, Group [U] for the independent, Villagonzalos. The Group U first preference goes back to Finn, adding the number of ballots for Villagonzalos to Finn’s preference count.

Your THIRD PREFERENCE goes to column [M], for the sitting one time Labor member, Kaushaliya Vaghela who recently founded the New Democrats Party after resigning from the Labor Party in March this year because she was left off Labor’s ticket for this election. As a Labor Member she worked to represent the Victorian Indian and south Asian communities across Victoria. Intensively searching the Web, I could not find a single document mentioning the word climate. Vaghela’s first preference goes back to Isaac Golden’s Health Australia. So, if Vaghela fails to reach a quota in that round, her preferences are also added to Finn’s account towards his quota.

Your above the line then gives you the independent Fred Akerman from Taylor’s Lakes in Group [E] for your FOURTH PREFERENCE. Akerman is a member of the Liberal Party’s far right religious faction, but Group E’s preference also is Health Australia’s Isaac Golden.

Your FIFTH PREFERENCE goes to Meg Watkins a member of the Animal Justice Party in Group [N] which also lists Health Australia’s Isaac Golden as their first preference.

All this does my head in, but the GVT tells me that if Golden does not gain a full quota from your [1] vote for Health Australia, Bernie Finn has two chances to add your vote to his count for the quota, and if your vote does not complete Finn’s quota for election, Golden gains votes from three more of his preferences if they are also not elected.

Do you really want to elect these kinds of rat bags into Parliament with this kind of wacky diabolically obtuse voting system?

The bottom line: if you want to control who your vote can elect you must express your preferences below the line on the big Upper House ballot.

Vote climate one’s Traffic Light Voting and Voting Guides – Vic make this about as easy as possible.

They are legal, but Victoria’s Group Voting Tickets are evil and encourage corruption

On Climate Sentinel News I have already reviewed several articles showing how Victoria’s electoral legislation seems to be deliberately designed to encourage dirty political backroom dealing:

Incidentally, I first encountered the idea of group voting in the late 1960’s when I was living in the then notoriously corrupt US State of Massachusetts, where all you had to do is tick which party you were voting for — and that was it, the party would tick all of the other boxes on the ballot the way they wanted to.

Group Voting Tickets for the current Victorian election were published by the Victorian Electoral Commission on the evening of 13/11/2022. Early voting begins on the very next morning, 14/11/2022. Given the bizarrely complex ballot format used to show each party’s tickets, and the difficulties of actually finding the page where they would be/were published on the VEC’s website, it would be completely impossible for the average early voter to vote above the line with any knowledge of how their vote would be used. It is hard to think this is NOT a design feature in the voting system to deliberately hide the fundamentally evil and corrupt harvesting of voters intentions by political insiders to elect the insiders’ own preferred candidates.

Beyond the issue of timing, there are two others major problems relating to voter’s intentions for electing candidates for the Legislative Council (Upper House):

The legislation encourages backroom preference swapping cabals to be established where micro-parties winning less than 1% of first preference votes still have a have a good chance to elect a party representative in at least one of Victoria’s 8 Upper House regions. The members in the cabal (nominally 8) do this by directing the voter’s single above-the-line vote to certain other parties in specified regions (as demonstrated by Health Australia’s GVT ballot above) .

Collectively, if all 8 parties in the deal for a particular region pass all their preferences to a designated “winner”, this will probably be enough to provide a quota to elect their preferred candidate to the 5th seat in that region. With an average of around 24 candidate “groups” in each of the Upper House Regions, three cabals can operate across 8 regions without substantially impeding each other’s operations. Each cabal can organize the 8 members’ preferencing so that all of the cabal members will pass their preferences to the designated party who most wants a seat in that particular region. Each of the participating parties then preference the agreed ‘winner’ for each region. E.g., Isaac Golden’s Health Australia Party clearly seems to be a designated winner for the Western Metropolitan Region.
Victoria’s Group Voting System easily accommodates secretive cabals to win seats for rat bag micro parties that would never be elected if voters had to preference all candidates. The VEC regulations also make it relatively cheap and easy to formally register a party by paying an application fee of $764.50 as at 1 July 2022, and proving that it has 500 members. Because it is easy to do, many ratbags and other kinds of unpopular extremists form parties. This guarantees a super-large and complex ballot that that begs to be gamed and actively discourages voters from voting below the line,

The two major parties have no interest in changing this situation, as in the past the corrupt system has clearly worked to keep many Greens from being elected. The system also provides them with a number of micro parties that can be easily bought by catering to their special interests should it may be necessary to form a minority government.

The Facts

Following here, is my attempt to show the information extracted from some 200 group voting tickets from across the 8 Upper House Regions. The law allows a party to submit TWO GVTs each with different preferences. Some parties have taken advantage to do this. Two tables show the information extracted.

Group Voting 2022 Victoria
(full table here)

The full table covers all 8 Upper House Regions. It is organized specifically to show how each party makes its preferences in relationship to acting on the climate emergency. The Greens preference is highlighted with green. The Greens’ commitment is considered to be the best in terms of its breadth and extent for taking the emergency seriously. Some of the column names are self-explanatory. Letter refers to the label of the [box] and column for the named party on the ballot paper for the region. First non-self is the named party’s first preferenced party. The GREENS column lists the Greens Party’s ranking on the named party’s preference order. Similarly the Labor and LNP (Liberals or Liberals and Nationals joint ticket) columns list those parties’ rankings on the named party’s preference order. 3rd last, 2nd last, and Last indicate the three parties at the bottom of the preference list for the maned party. This gives a fairly clear picture of how serious each of the parties is about climate action. Also, by tracing the chain of first preferences (e.g., first preference of party A is party N; first preference of party N is to party C; first preference of party C is to Greens) it is easy to see if party A is either directing its preferences towards climate action or to potentially anti-climate parties.

I have only looked in detail for specific evidence of preference swapping at the Western Metropolitan Region, and only as far as the first preference. The following sequence shows the alphabetic identifiers for each group/party on the ballot with an arrow pointing to the first non-self preference on that party’s Group Voting Ticket. If the party is not elected in a round its votes are applied to the alphabetic group listed as its first preference. Where a group receives more than one first preference – its name or the name of its leader if that leader is running in the Western Metro region is shown in parentheses. Where the same name appears three times or more, I take this as evidence that the fix is in where that party or person is likely to be elected on preferences, even if that group has received a very low number of voters first preferences. Constructing the sequence requires scanning the full group voting ticket for each party in the Western Metro Region, as can be found on the VEC website:

A → W; B → S; C → M (Vaghela); D → Q (Finn); E → M (Vaghela); F → Q (Finn); G → T; H → R; I → G, J → F; K → P (Golden); L → J, M → P (Golden); N → T; O → Q (Finn); P → Q (Finn); Q → U; R → Q (Finn); S → M (Vaghela); T → G; U → Q (Finn), V → F; W → A; X → G.

Depending on how many above-the-line votes Finn receives, given his long tenure in the region as a member of the Liberal Party he has a chance to win a quota and be elected in his own right. Adding quotas to be received from SIX additional parties’ first preferences added to his own first preferences, there is a good chance that the Labor DLP may also elect its second candidate, Thi Kim-Lien Le, a Vietnamese “small business owner” from Footscray. This has to be a ‘fix’, as there is no way in a practical sense that people voting for six other parties above the line could have any idea that they might be electing the extremist Finn and a total unknown.

Vaghela (New Democrats) and Derryn Hinch’s Justice each will receive first preferences from three other parties besides those they receive in their own right. Golden and the Victorian Socialists and Labor both will receive preferences from two other parties. Here it should be noted that preference trading can go a lot further down the parties’ preference orders, where in some cases it may be necessary to go down the list to even the last places.

A case in the Eastern Metropolitan Region from the 2018 Victorian Election that I presented in Corruption of ‘Above the Line Voting’ for the Victorian Parliament’s upper house, and repeated here demonstrates this.

[In 2018, i]f you voted above the line in the Eastern Metropolitan Region for Labor because you thought it has a better climate policy than the Liberals, Labor preferenced Transport Matters ahead of the Greens and successfully replaced the sitting Green member with the Transport Matters candidate:

EASTERN METROPOLITAN
2014: 3 Liberal, 1 Labor, 1 Green
ABC Calculator: 2 Liberal 2 Labor 1 Transport Matters
Projection: 2 Liberal 2 Labor 1 Transport Matters

Summary: In this count the major parties have two quotas each and Rodney Brian Barton (Transport Matters) appears to snowball from 0.62% of the vote to beat all others including the Greens (9.03%). Although Barton at one point falls to third-last, no threat to his victory has been identified.

Result: The provisional result is, as expected, 2 Liberal 2 Labor 1 Transport Matters.
Update: This result has been declared.

Your vote above the line for Labor because they appeared to have a better climate policy than the Liberals, shifted the balance of votes by two further away from reliable supporters of climate action.

Group Voting by Party Victoria 2022
(full table here)

The full table covers 24 parties/groups standing candidates over all Regions in the State Election. Columns have the same meanings they did in the first table organized by Region. This table is sorted by party and reformatted to show the preference flows for each party over the whole state. In addition to using bright green for the Greens, the additional colors highlight additional information. Grey-green designates parties other than Greens that Vote Climate One has flagged with green lights. Light grey-green is applied to Sustainable Australia because of their exemplary voting record in Parliament but decidedly anti green-light preferencing in the election. Solid orange highlights parties Vote Climate One has flagged with orange lights. Legalize Cannabis is highlighted with orange borders because they have more favorably preferenced green-light and orange-light Labor parties than all other red-light parties, despite having been placed in Vote Climate One’s red-light category for historical record and stated policies.

To conclude: if you want to have any control over who you are electing to the Upper House, VOTE BELOW THE LINE

If you vote above the line you will be supporting genuinely crooked politics! Both major parties actually like it that way. Both parties have some genuine ethical members, but the parties themselves are happy to cater to the needs and desires of their special interest patrons.

Vote Climate One has done everything we’ve had the time and resources to do to make voting below the line as easy as possible while still giving you full freedom to vote for who you want. Rob Bakes little video shows you how to do it. Of course, we want you to vote for responsible climate action, but what Rob demonstrates will help you rank candidates any way you want.

As a final note: treat my numbers with a bit of caution. My brain has difficulties with detailed quantitative stuff like this. I have double checked most stuff, but I haven’t had time to triple check.

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.

VC1 red lights some parties and candidates on ethics

William P. Hall on November 17, 2022

Crooked systems encourage dodgy players

Victoria’s use of politically corrupt group voting tickets for Legislative Council elections fosters unethical parties and practices. In Corruption of ‘Above the Line Voting’ for the Victorian Parliament’s upper house I explained how Victoria’s group voting tickets (GVTs) gives political parties the unbridled power to allocate preferences from every single above-the-line vote they received to whatever other parties or individuals they wanted — irrespective of what the voter might have wished. These allocations were often made with or among minor and micro on the basis of back-room ‘preference deals’ – many of them brokered by Glen Druery, the well known “Preference Whisperer”. See also Malcolm McKerras’s Chapter 6: “The Preference Whisperer” from his unpublished book: UNREPRESENTATIVE SWILL – Australia’s Ugly Senate Voting System, introduced here and here. The following excerpt quoting Druery re the 2019 Federal Election, sourced from Kate Legge’s article from the 16 March 2019 issue of The Weekend Australian Magazine, says it all:

“Voters want disruption and that’s what I’ve given them. I’ve put the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, the sex worker into parliament. . .I won’t say my cross bench, that wouldn’t be appropriate, but the cross benchers that are there, that I had a hand in putting them there, all of them except for Nick Xenophon, in one way or another they had my fingerprints.”
p. 7, Chapter 6: The Preference Whisperer – Read the complete article….

Druery did it for money and power. And he has found many takers wanting to be elected under their micro party logos willing to pay him for advice ….. and much more on getting elected.

Monday’s article in the Guardian by Benita Kolovos describes a beautifully just ‘sting’ by the Animal Justice Party that both gives Mr Druery a very black eye, and demonstrates the fundamental corruptness of Victoria’s election legislation still being supported by the major parties. The sting may also represent a win for pro climate-action in the Victorian Parliament. Please read the article:

Preference whisperer Glenn Druery says the Animal Justice party pulled off the ‘most elaborate sting in minor party history’ ahead of the Victoria state election. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian | from the article

By Benita Kolovos, Mon, 14/11/2022 in The Guardian

‘It was a charade’: preference whisperer Glenn Druery falls for Animal Justice party’s Victorian election sting

Exclusive: Having successfully attracted the support of Druery’s clients, minor party switched its allegiances at last minute

It is, as victim Glenn Druery puts it, the “most elaborate sting in minor party history”. For months the Animal Justice party was “negotiating” with the so-called preference whisper to gain the support of other parties working with him – only to direct its own preferences to others at the last minute.

But for Ben Schultz, the state election manager for the Animal Justice party and its lead candidate in the southern metropolitan region, undermining Druery’s preference arrangements just minutes before group voting ticket registration closed on Sunday was a case of righting what he described as some “wrongs”.

“The Animal Justice party does not agree with the wheelings and dealings of a preference whisperer and the backroom deals of predominantly older, white males. That time has come to an end,” Schultz said.

“It’s time that we move Victoria to full proportional representation and abolish group voting tickets so that we don’t have people like Glenn Druery setting up people.”

Victoria’s Legislative Council is the only jurisdiction in Australia still using a group voting system that allows parties to allocate voters’ preferences [read this linked article too!] when they choose to vote above the line on the ballot paper.
Read the complete article….

In Victoria the politically corrupt major parties have no interest in reforming a system that helps them stay in power. In 2018 despite the Greens polling 9.25% of the Upper House first preferences Greens went from 5 seats to 1, losing all 5 seats they won in 2014 and winning only one new one. By contrast, micro parties won 10 seats, where Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party (where Druery was a paid staffer) won 3 seats with 3.75% of first preferences, Shooters, Fishers & Farmers Vic won 1 on 3.02%, Liberal Democrats won 2 on 2.50%, Animal Justice won 1 on 2.47%, and 3 other parties each won 1 seat with between 1.37% and 0.62%.

By arranging their group voting tickets to ensure that their residual preferences were distributed to a micro party ahead of Greens candidates, Druery’s cabal kept any of the incumbent Greens in the Upper House from being reelected, despite the fact that a fair proportional distribution of preferences would have seen them stay in place.

Many parties will discourage voting below the line, because the law grants each party voted [1] above the line the right to distribute that vote’s preferences as they see fit.

The susceptibility of the legal but politically corrupt voting practice to being gamed by backroom preference swaps gives fundamentally sleazy micro parties a real chance to win the fifth seat in one region in turn for helping backroom swap partners win a seat in another region. Almost any ratbag ego tripper with a burning passion who can con 500 people into signing a nomination petition can enter the race. If enough of ratbags make it to the cross bench in Parliament and hold the balance of power between the major parties, the rabble are then in a very strong position to trade their Parliamentary votes with whichever major party forms government for supporting their respective burning passions.

Although this is all quite legal within the current law, it certainly does not ethically represent the voters’ interests. Major parties have to give out promissory notes to ratbags in order to enact legislation. And, of course, the ratbags have to support whatever other legislation the major party may want to enact irrespective of what their electorate might want — and why should the ratbags care about the electorate? Hardly anyone voted for them in the first place. Any allegiance they owe is to the other ratbag parties in the back room and the preference ‘broker’ they paid and who organized the deal(s) that got them elected.

In our ranking of the minor parties, Vote Climate One does not hold any gains against them that the party may have received from preference swapping. In Victoria, to win you have to play the game. However, this underscores and emphasizes why we warn that if you care about your voting, you must vote below the line!

For the latest information on how the various parties will allocate THEIR “preferences” for distributing YOUR vote in their group voting tickets for the present election, see The Bludger article by William Bowe. Short circuit their dodgy deals by voting below the line!

Who are the ratbags

Vote Climate One has looked at the kind of game the major parties have organized. And, given the nature of the game, it is inevitable that whichever major party is in power will work to maintain the benefits it provides to the leading party. It is now time to look at the parties and candidates sucked into playing the game. Some are basically ethical and some aren’t. But all of them have to play the politically corrupt game if they are serious about getting elected (why else would you run for Parliament?).

I would argue that there are only four fully developed political parties with complete platforms in Victoria: two major parties (Labor, Liberals); and two middle sized parties (Greens – 88 Lower House candidates incl. 3 incumbents and 40 Upper House candidates incl. 1 incumbent; and Nationals – 10 Lower House candidates incl. 4 incumbents and 6 Upper House candidates with no incumbents).

And then, thanks to the possibilities group voting tickets give them for being elected, there are 20 minor and micro parties, including some working to become fully developed, a host of ratbags, and a few ‘community independents’ that cobbled some friends so they could be listed as a party for above-the-line, single choice voting.

Given my background in biology, I cannot help but try to group parties with common features to make them easier to discuss [the color of the bullet in the right hand column indicates Vote Climate One’s Traffic Light assessment of each party]:

Group name	Characteristics	Parties
“Don’t tread on me!”	Anarchic libertarians: anti-government, anti regulation, antivaxers, anti-Dan Andrews	● Angry Victorians Party; ● Restore Democracy Sack Dan Andrews Party
“Follow God!”	“Put the family first”: Hard-line conservative values with tendencies towards theocratic enforcement (e.g., anti abortion, public health mandates/anti science, strong policing, militaristic	● Democratic Labor Party [Catholic]; ● Family First [Protestant]
“Follow the Leader”	Personality cults following the founder’s extremist ‘thinking’, generally with a strong law and order and enforcement component	● Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party; ● [Isaac Golden’s] Health Australia Party; ● Pauline Hanson’s One Nation; ● [Clive Palmer’s] United Australia Party
“Follow Mammon”	Pro development (especially fossil fuels, forestry & environment), remove & prevent public health regulations (support ‘alternative’ medicine’ practices)	● Freedom Party of Victoria; ● Liberal Democratic Party
“Single track mind”	Virtually total focus on a single issue	● Companions and Pets Party [commercial breeding, racing & farming]; ● Legalise Cannabis Victoria [commercialization of cannabis]
“Follow the Community”	Party representing a particular ethnic or economic community	● National Party [rural people and interests]; ● New Democrats [Aspirational Indians & South Asians]; ● Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party; ● Transport Matters;
“Sustaining our Futures”	Party focused on sustaining human welfare into the future — more-or-less in the face of global warming and the climate emergency	● Animal Justice Party; ● Australian Greens; ● Reason Australia; ● Sustainable Australia Party – Stop Overdevelopment / Corruption; ● Victorian Socialists;

Categories of minor parties

The following section summarizes where I think each party (excepting the majors, Labor and Liberal) stands in relation to action on the global climate emergency — the only issue that really matters. These assessments are based on my scientific understanding of the crisis, assessment of the parties’ policies and the parliamentary performances of any elected representatives on climate and environmental issues. Finally, the views expressed here are mine, and do not necessary represent those of other Vote Climate One members.

Comments on all the parties

Green Light

Animal Justice Party: Going along with care and respect for the animals we share a planet with, Animal Justice has a strong policy of care, respect, and protection of our common environment. They also have the best voting record next to the Greens. This is backed up with a very strong policy on the climate emergency.
Victorian Greens. The Greens have strong, considered, and progressive policies on almost everything founded on humanistic and science-based deliberations. This is backed up with significant Parliamentary experience. Well qualified to inform and stimulate actions to deal with the climate emergency.
Sustainable Australia Party – Stop Overdevelopment / Corruption: They have initiated legislation in the Upper House to support and empower local government planning policies, which are often negated or overruled by the State Government, or completely disregarded in VCAT and legislation to insert environmental and native species protection into the planning scheme. Further, they have proposed legislation to force responsible authorities who issue permits for developments, large and small, to take into account mitigation and adaptation to climate change. All of these environmental issues have been resisted so far by the major parties. Finally, they have a strong progressive platform with a practical focus on science, technology, government operations including climate.
Victorian Socialists. The most urgent item on their policy agenda is to recognize the magnitude of the climate emergency and to respond to it in ways that are as fair as possible to those who are directly affected. Overall broad, humanistic, and well thought out policies on climate and many other areas.

Orange Light

Reason Australia. Focus on humanism and feminism. “Reason commits to backing any policy, from any government, of any political persuasion that will improve the health and wellbeing of women in Australia”. Strong policy on the climate emergency but state explicitly that will horse-trade anything for what they really want.

Red Light

Angry Victorians. Spinoff of Australian Values. Ego trip for Chris Burson? Victorians “focused on rebuilding the economic and social foundations of our State responsibly, with strong priorities on Mental Health, Small and Family Businesses and our Veteran Community”. Australian Values has reasonable climate & energy policies, but individual candidates seem to have their own independent agendas – especially in Victoria. Not to be trusted on climate.
Companions and Pets Party. Could equally be placed in the ‘Follow Mammon’ category. I can’t prove it, but it looks like CPP was formed by commercial interests specifically to counter the Animal Justice Party. Mirage News makes this very clear. Not to be trusted on climate.
Democratic Labor Party. Supports “traditional family values”. See policies: “Energy Affordability” – strongly pro fossil fuel generation and denigrates renewable energy; “Restoring Agriculture” – remove all government controls on land use and farming. Strongly anti controlling anything relating to human ‘freedom’, but for the strong enforcement of biblical sexuality well to the right of the Coalition parties. Would probably fight to stop action on the climate emergency.
Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party. Derryn Hinch’s policies to harden policing, courts, imprisonment, and tracking for sexual crimes and family violence. Anti-public health regulations relating to Covid. Not to be trusted on climate.
Family First. Fighting “against the radical anti-family attitudes and policies of modern politics”. Policy supports “family, life and faith” from “radical political correctness”: “Economic freedom for families” strongly and specifically promotes the fossil fuel industry. “Education” – “Centre the curriculum around the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Restore the primacy of Western Civilisation and the Australian achievement”. No mention anywhere of environmental concerns or issues. To Hell with climate science and climate action??
Freedom Party. The movement: “Freedom Party of Victoria is the result of three years of dedication towards building a credible and reliable alternative for Victorians who have suffered enormously under the watch of an incompetent and corrupt government that needs to be changed.” Policy: Energy – deregulate and promote fossil fuel industry; Pandemic Management – repeal all regulations; Timber Industry – protect timber production not the forests; Fire Arms – “gun ownership is a right not a privilege”, “hunting is a divine right” No mention anywhere of environmental concerns or issues. To Hell with climate science and climate action??
Health Australia Party (HAP). I’ve done a lot of research on this party, because they appear to have a good progressive health policy, but they gave us a slightly ambiguous response to our Climate Lens question as to whether they would “support a national declaration of an ecological and climate emergency.” The assessment committee took this to represent a somewhat ‘libertarian’ response, so I investigated further to reveal a real can of worms.
Much more concerning is that HAP has many features of a personality cult around its leader, Isaac Golden: National Secretary, Victorian President of the party, and First Candidate for the Western Metropolitan Region. [Isaac’s daughter Leiah Golden is the second candidate for this Region]. Questions to HAP candidates in other regions and in the districts, seem to end up being answered by Isaac.
According to several of his autobiographical profiles, after “an early career in finance and financial accounting, Isaac changed career paths to natural medicine and has been a practitioner of “Hannemannian homeopathy” since 1984, and teaching it since 1988. The only educational qualification he lists in his Linked-in profile is his “PhD” on “homeopathic immunizations” from 2000-2004 at Swinburne University. To be completely clear, homeopathy has been proven scientifically many times over to be fake or fraudulent medicine.
The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, in its article in its 2006 article, A Brief History of Homeopathy, states: “If there was ever a medical system which cried out for a careful scientific trial it is homeopathy. One of the early trials, carried out in 1835, is astonishing because it was very close to a double-blind, randomized controlled trial, undertaken with great care long before the mid-twentieth century when most of us believed that such randomized trials were first devised and carried out. It showed, incidentally, that homeopathy was ineffective.”
At best, homeopathic medicine is a placebo. Anyone practicing it is either a gullible fool or a total fraud. Isaac Golden has been in this kind of business for a long time and has exploited many different spin-offs (e.g., explore what he is claiming on his Homstudy and other web sites: Isaac Golden Education, Natural Immunization Research, Dr Isaac Golden – World Authority on Homeopathic Vaccination).
I do not think Isaac Golden is a fool. He established the Health Australia Party in 2015 as a vehicle to help deny the science that shows homeopathy to be more than a placebo. See his paper, “A Political Response to Attacks on Homeopathy in Australia” that unequivocally describes his aims for the party.
Beyond Isaac Golden’s practice and promotion of fake medicine, there are a variety of published allegations that Isaac Golden is not a person of good character that that he has not refuted in court. The most telling allegations are in Chris Johnston’s 21/12/1019 article in the Sydney Morning Herald, “Cult member, homeopath, Senate candidate: The bizarre past of Isaac Golden“. Johnston alleged that Golden was a “key member of of a bizarre quasi-religious cult whose leader [Ian Lowe, now deceased] was jailed for sex crimes against the children of cult members”…. “Corporate records show Lowe was a business partner of Dr Golden’s in a Victorian-based natural medicine business called Aurum at the time the child rapes were occurring”. The article provides a lot of additional detail on Lowe and the cult.
Most of HAP’s other candidates I have checked are associated with various alternative medical practices or show some direct association with Golden. The fundamentally narcissistic nature of [Isaac Golden’s] Health Australia Party is also evident in his Official Statement to Party Members of 29/09/2022.
The bottom line is that although Health Australia Party appears to have a good climate policy, nothing they say they will do should be trusted. We recommend that you do not vote for any of their candidates!
Legalise Cannabis Victoria. Other than decriminalizing the sale, possession, and all forms of Cannabis use, the bulk of policy seems to be focused on commercializing all aspects of the plant. The Victorian Party seems to be indifferent to climate issues. We recommend that you do not vote for them
Liberal Democratic Party. Policies to eliminate government restrictions – especially on fossil fuel development and use and land use. End gov’t support for renewable energy. Minimize uses of gov’t emergency powers. “Every candidate for the Liberal Democrats takes a public pledge to never vote for an increase in taxes or a reduction in liberty if elected.” LDP would probably work to inhibit government responses to the climate emergency. Do not vote for them.
National Party of Australia. Where Victoria is concerned in terms of their existing representation and 2022 contests, the Nationals for Victoria are clearly an average sized micro party seeking to maintain their representation of country electorates. They say nothing about climate, but surprisingly are offering households subsidies to take up renewable energy: “Our Power to the People Plan will provide 1 million households, including for at least 100,000 rental properties, with a rebate of up to $1,400 for solar panels and $3,000 for a home battery”. Nevertheless, given their affiliation with the Liberals and history in the Federal Parliament, we consider Nationals to be a dangerous choice if you are concerned to see action on the climate emergency.
New Democrats. This party fits quite well in three different categories.
First, [Kaushaliya Vaghela’s] New Democrats has many signs of the “Follow the Leader” personality cult. She is the an incumbent member of the Legislative Council, elected as the third Labor Party MLC in the Western Metropolitan Region, apparently recruited into the party by Adem Somyurek and was caught in the crossfire following on from the IBAC hearings on “red shirts” and branch stacking. She resigned/was expelled from the Labor party, accusing Dan Andrews’ office of persistent bullying, and went on to establish the New Democrats on 28 July as the Party Secretary. Using her high profile in the widespread community of aspirational Indian and South Asian immigrants, she was able to find candidates for the party to run in all Victorian Upper House Regions and most of the Lower House Districts in the Western Metropolitan Region. As founder and Party Secretary she is the designated contact person for all candidates.
As a Labor MP, Vaghela established herself as “the” representative for this extensive community throughout Victoria and seems to have done a very good job of this. Now, as an independent member of Parliament she with some justification presents herself as the Indian/South Asian community independent.
However, there is little doubt that much of Vaghela’s core policy places the New Democrats firmly in the “Don’t Tread on Me” category of anti-Dan Andrews parties with a strong emphasis on libertarian values.
I have found no mention anywhere that New Democrats have any policy relating to the climate emergency. Even if you are a member of Vaghela’s “Indian and south Asian community”, if you are concerned about the future of your family, we suggest that because of their angry libertarianism the New Democrats will be a dangerous option where effective climate is concerned, and that you put them near the last in your below-the-line preferences.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON). The Party is definitely Federal Senator Pauline Hanson’s angry, bigoted and racist personality cult that particularly appeals to the far right fraction of Queensland’s population. Additionally, PHON also provides a trumpet mouthpiece for Federal Senator Malcolm Roberts. I have had several personal exchanges with him over years. Roberts is a ‘retired’ coal mining engineer who is one of the most rabidly antiscientific climate science deniers in the whole Australian Population. PHON’s Climate and energy polices reflect this. Thanks to Roberts, PHON will likely fight climate action tooth and nail. Put them last!
Restore Democracy Sack Dan Andrews Party. Ex Labor Party staffers and whistleblowers totally focused on removing Dan Andrews. “The Restore Democracy Sack Dan Andrews Party intends to do what it says on the tin, and stands for:” No perceptible interest in climate and energy issues, so probably could not be trusted on climate issues. Put them near the bottom of your preferences.
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party represents and promotes rural libertarians and could just as easily be placed in the “Don’t tread on me” category. Compared to the more measured Federal Policy, The Party’s Victorian policy wants no legal rights for animals, strong limits to councils’ abilities to manage land use and to declare climate emergencies, opposes pandemic related mandates and lockdowns, no limits to land use and forestry, absolutely minimize restrictions to hunting and shooting, promotion of fossil fuel extraction, etc., maximize farmers’ rights to exploit their lands. This Party will clearly try to prevent effective actions against the climate emergency. Put them close to the bottom of your preferences!
Transport Matters Party (TMP). This party fits clearly in my “Follow the Community” category, as its national policies and those expressed by the Party’s founder Rod Barton, a Victorian incumbent MLC, almost exclusively represent the broad community of transport workers. Unlike other red-light parties, TMP is not especially libertarian or anarchic, and it actually has a reasonable favorable climate and environment policy: federal / Barton. Vote Climate One has given TMP a red-light flag, because of Barton’s voting record in the Victorian Parliament. However, he offers an interesting justification for his support of the EV Road Tax that should be considered:
“In May 2021, I negotiated with the government regarding the Electric Vehicle (EV) road user charge to ensure that there would be a substantial investment and subsidy package in place to encourage EV uptake in the short term. This became a $100 million package that provided 25,000 subsidies for EV buyers and investment in charging infrastructure. Subsidies do not need to be provided once price parity is reached, which is expected to occur anywhere between 2025 and 2030.“
Nevertheless, in other Parlamentary votes he has sided with measures to protect the fossil fuel industry, suggesting that TMP would not reliably support the kinds of climate action we need to save our species. Considering everything, we advise that TMP candidates should still be preferenced near the bottom of your list, but among the least worse of the red-light candidates.
[Clive Palmer’s] United Australia Party Victoria. Definitely multi-billionaire Clive Palmer’s personality cult. A con job financed to the hilt to support his passions: fossil fuel, anti-science (e.g., vaccination, Covid mandates, climate emergency), and general libertarian anarchy. None of his promises can believed. It is very likely that any one he elects will be obliged to fight climate science and any strong action against climate change. Put this party at or near the bottom of your preference list.

How they voted for their parties

The following graphic (prepared by Rob Bakes) shows how minor party and independent incumbents voted on several climate-related issues during the current Parliament. It is discussed in more detail on our How They Voted page.

Ranking the many independents

The insidious implications of Victoria’s electoral laws relating to Group Voting Tickets for so called ‘preferential’ voting in the Upper House led to the formation of an unusually large number of parties. We had to spend substantially more effort evaluating parties than we anticipated to understand the legal but highly unethical and secretive preference swapping that gives (and even encourages) microparties to apply the voter’s above-the-line [1] vote to apply THE PARTY’S preferences to elect 4 other candidates in the voter’s region.

Given the large number of micro parties, each of these parties then had the opportunity to endorse their own candidates in many or even all Lower House districts as well. Many of these micro party candidates will have strong anti-climate action biases due to their party affiliations. Also, it is likely some of the independents will be distractors encouraged to nominate by anti-climate major parties to draw votes away from pro-climate parties and independents. And then, there are a large number of genuine “community independents” encouraged to nominate by the success of the “teal” independents in the federal election, where Climate200 supported 23 independents and 10 were elected/reelected. Note that all these independent candidates were nominated by and worked to represent what their local communities wanted from government — Climate200 supported them because they had similar values.

Because the Victorian electoral law gravely minimizes the support independent candidates can receive compared to what major parties can do Climate200 is only able to provide limited support to four candidates in the present election. And even then there is a great deal of misrepresentation from the major parties as to what community independents are.

a great example of @LiberalVictoria's lack of ethics.

on tuesday 1 november false/misleading messaging like this becomes *illegal* — so they're pushing it out now.

they've learnt nothing.

if you're sick of unethical and petty politics, let them know at the ballot box. pic.twitter.com/zUjU542g2U
— 💧simon holmes à court (@simonahac) October 25, 2022

The fact is that there other community independents running that deserve green-light ranking for their climate policies, but are not necessarily easy to identify because they lack Climate200 support.

The above is a long-winded way of saying the Vote Climate One has lacked the resources in time and effort to rigorously survey all independent candidates for their climate action credentials. Some of these may be flagged with our default red-lights in our Voting Guides simply because we not seen evidence to rank them any other way.

If you are an independent candidate and think you deserve better than we have marked you, please contact us immediately with your climate credentials, and we will reassess your ranking

Hopefully, before Election Day itself, we will be able to complete our assessment of all independents. As this assessment work progresses, rankings updated.

Why are we at Vote Climate One going to all this effort to try to help you?

If we don’t stop global warming soon, we’ll have fueled enough positive feedbacks that runaway warming to Earth’s ‘Hothouse Hell’ state will virtually guarantee human extinction.

However, if we can help get climate savvy governments in power soon enough, they may be able to mobilize enough action so we can survive our accidental disruption of Earth’s Climate System so our kids and grandkids inherit a world they can live in….

Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.