We are in the midst of the right-of centre, establishment, speech-giving season.
Recently, there was CPAC 24 in Brisbane, featuring a failed British Prime Minister and Covid Cabinet conspirator (Liz Truss) as the headline act.
https://www.cpac.network/
Tony Abbott was there too. He is a near-fixture at these events. A smart and decent man and never given a chance as Prime Minister, but a little sad in his endless speechifying in retirement. Mind you, I seldom disagree with the things he says. The problem is the things he doesn’t say. I have it on good advice, that he was all for rolling up your sleeve for Australia in 2021. As a former Health Minister, some public statements against the killer jabs might have helped things. Or the cultural maskism. Or the lockdowns. Or the mandates. Or his successor Scott Morrison’s acts of moral and actual treason. Silence wasn’t golden, and there were many, many hills on which to die, for a conservative hero.
CPAC Event sponsors, equally inevitably, included the Institute of Public Affairs.
Coming up is the Centre for Independent Studies’ “Consilium”, a word usually not using the indefinite article before it when used in this context. Like old Labor Party stalwarts referring to “conference”, as in “I am attending conference”, “consilium” as an unadorned noun has that unmistakable air of wankery. Consilium used to be an invite only event with Chatham House rules. It is, above all else, a free market Davos. A Bilderberg Group, if you will. The CIS, of course, can scarcely call itself independent, since most of its sponsorship comes from big corporates. In the age of globalism, not being dependent on government for funding should elicit the “so what?” question.
I see that Consilium is now open to public attendance. Oh, for $10,000 a throw. So not really open to the public. A bit of an insult to the plebs.
https://consilium.org.au/
Which brings us to ARC, and, in particular, to one of its speakers. The global Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, the brainchild of former Nationals leader John Anderson, met in Sydney recently. It isn’t often that Sydney hosts King Charles – inevitably bleating about climate change on his Aussie lap of honour – Jordan Peterson and Niall Ferguson (a Bilderberger and Kissinger mate) on the same day. And yes, Tony Abbott was there. Of course.
They all share the speakers around. They are all such limited hangouts, these affairs. And the strong corporate presence bespeaks heads in the sand. Listening to beautiful words spoken to a conservative ghetto that mean little beyond the plushly carpeted hotels in which they are uttered.
In turn, this brings us to Paul Keating. It was Keating who, possibly using his own words or possibly those of his speechwriter, Don Watson, once described Peter Costello as “all tip and no iceberg”. Costello, who got the sulks and shunned the Liberal Party when it needed him most, was making a rare public appearance at ARC after recently decking a cameraman at an airport. News.com explains:
Peter Costello gave Victoria’s former premier Daniel Andrews a spray at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship.
The heavily jowled Costello was among friends. Picking on Daniel Andrews. An easy day at the office, then.
On Andrews. Worst government in Australia. Incompetent. All blindingly obvious. Yes, Dictator Dan got a serve over Covid management too. How very useful, in 2024. Covid hero Craig Kelly wasn’t impressed:
Where were you when we needed you Peter?
And "little protest"?
- hundreds of thousands of Australians marched in the streets protesting against government during Covid - the biggest demonstrations in Australia’s history - and at the time you were the Chairman of NINE (that along with the other media) that lied to the public and falsely report the crowd numbers.
And where were you when I was fighting in Parliament against the lockdowns, government over reach and mandatory injections - and forced to resign from the Liberal Party ?
Although it’s good you are finally speaking out now, someone with your standing joining me in the fight would have made all the difference.
You could have led the charge and saved your nation, but you elected to hide under your desk when the bullets were flying.
Source: Craig Kelly’s Telegram channel, 23 October 2024.
Craig Kelly would never be invited to one of these do’s. They provide a contrast to events organised by groups like AMPS, the renegade anti-Australian Medical Association outfit who recently invited Paul Marik and Angus Dalgleish down under. And to Monica Smit’s roadshows.
(I should note that Monica Smit and George Christensen were at CPAC in Brisbane, suggesting there is some hope in places).
Yes, the bullets were flying during Covid. Literally. Rubber bullets, heads smashing into concrete. Tasering. Grandmothers thrown to the ground. Pregnant mothers arrested.
Peter Costello was, at the time, quite comfortably off, ensconced as Chairman of Channel Nine (including The Age newspaper), one of the most vicious pro-vaxx, pro-lockdown, pro-Andrews outfits going. Costello’s Future Fund has also been an investor in Big Pharma.
Big Pharma and healthcare are another favoured destination for the Future Fund's investments with a $279.4m stake in Pfizer, $257.7m with Johnson & Johnson, and $258.4m with United Health Group.
And why just pick on Andrews? What about corrupt Gladys? Oh wait, she is a Liberal. Costello is now the second Liberal to get queasy about Covid decision-making after the event, following in the footsteps of Gladys acolyte and former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.
Perrottet is in the “mistakes were made” camp. No, not mistakes. More pure evil. The bonus for Costello with Andrews is that he is on the other side of politics. A free hit.
The former treasurer told the crowd Mr Andrew’s government was “moronic” for the restrictions his government placed on Victorians during the pandemic.
Moronic? This is the old “stupid not evil” error. It is the easy schtick of members of the UniParty attacking members in the opposing branch of the same party. Hanlon’s razor bullshit.
“This moronic government even decided to institute a (curfew) ... you’re not going to catch Covid driving alone in your car after 9pm.”
So did Gladys, mate. In Western Sydney. She had army choppers enforcing it. And, very awkwardly, Costello steered clear of vaccine territory. Covid’s mortal sin. Not surprising, considering his day jobs at the time.
Peter Costello. Gutless as always. All tip and no iceberg.
Peter Costello has probably never heard of Peter Lynch. Andrew Bridgen has:
Peter Lynch was arrested and charged while protesting with a placard which said that politicians , police and media were corrupt. He has been described by the media as a conspiracy theorist. It is reported that he took his own life in prison. Thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.
Source: Andrew Bridgen’s Telegram channel, 22 October 2024.
Peter Lynch was preyed upon by a Tory government, a government containing celebrity, establishment speaker Liz Truss, for telling uncomfortable truths. He was all iceberg and no tip, and emblematic of the Covid dissent movement unacknowledged by Costello and his establishment peers.
Costello also had a go at the public, for giving up their freedoms so easily. That got some applause from the in-club. Partly true but irrelevant and distracting. As Craig Kelly noted, in using the phrase “with little protest”, Costello clearly missed the not inconsiderable dissenter movement that was active during Covid and that landed possibly a million heroes on the very steps of Parliament House in Canberra, in February 2022.
It is all a bit sickening, really.
Paul Collits
23 October 2024
I like what you write about covid. I knew it for bullshit from the get go. But what I noticed was that people, on the whole were massively into it. I think the reason the political class has not been forced to do a proper inquiry is because too many people joined in. It would be like doing an inquiry into Nazism in Germany in 1950. Crickets……
To say the Liberal governments have been a disappointment is a gross understatement. They have done little to pare back big government, the welfare state, curb high excess spending, lower tax in a meaningful way, or increase freedom and liberty. There were and are a few stand alones, such as Craig Kelly, but they do no have sufficient mass or power to change the uni party deep state apparatus. And remember Tony Abbot wanted to introduce an insane maternity leave scheme that even his fellow Libs could not support.