Waka-jumping, ‘ambassador’-dumping, and super tax dodging: what’s been happening in Australian politics, these last few days?
The Imminent Dumping
As I reported yesterday, Nike’s sponsorship of ‘brand ambassador’ Grace Tame is collapsing faster than Tame’s failed ‘charity’. At issue is Tame’s repeated posting of unhinged anti-Semitic content on Instagram. Sportswear giant Nike, who in 2022, dumped Kyrie Irving for tweeting links to Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, are, finally and reluctantly admitting that the leftist poster girl may not be the type of person they want representing them.
Grace Tame’s partnership with Nike appears to be in jeopardy after the sportswear brand confirmed it had started a probe into her hatred of Israel and amplification of anti-Semitic claptrap to her 250,000 followers on Instagram.
Nike spent the weekend assiduously ducking questions over Tame’s remarks, but by Monday its officials emerged with a statement outlining their heightened concerns with the rhetoric.
“Nike does not stand for any form of discrimination, including anti-Semitism,” a spokeswoman said. “We take this matter very seriously and are in touch with Grace’s team to understand the matter further.” Translation: short of an apology, she’s toast.
Tame has repeatedly amplified the odious conspiracy theories and anti-Jewish hatred of ‘pro-Palestinian’ (which, in practice, almost always means ‘anti-Semitic’) activists who openly celebrate the October 7 pogrom. Notably, too, as a so-called ‘feminist’ whose only claim to fame is being molested by her high-school teacher, Tame has been completely silent on the mass rapes perpetrated by ‘Palestinian’ Arabs.
Tame is no longer just an affiliate of these people. She has positioned herself as a participant in the spread of lies about Israel and its supporters, to the point where she’s urging her followers to regard the deaths of two Jews in Washington not as a result of any libel, or anti-Semitism, but as the inevitable, justifiable consequence of a war being waged on another continent. It is completely bonkers for Nike to abide this sentiment.
By her own lights, though, Tame ought to have never taken Nike’s shekel: in case she’s ignorant (a distinct possibility), Nike’s stores in Australia are wholly owned by an Israeli company.
Another Jumping
In other politics news, the post-election fallout continues with another waka-jumping effort, this time from the Greens.
In a scene reminiscent of Cheryl Kernot’s shock defection in 1997, one of the Greens’ few remaining MPs has bailed from their sinking little Rainbow Warrior into the Labor lifeboat.
Cheryl Kernot, for those of you unfamiliar with the minutiae of Australian politics, was the leader of the Australian Democrats, who, for a few decades, filled the same political ecological niche as the Greens: a radical left party for rich people who didn’t want to vote for the scruffy oiks in Labor. In ’97, then-leader Kernot caused shockwaves by defecting to Labor.
Neither the Democrats nor Kernot lasted long after. The Democrats never forgave her betrayal, and the Labor backroom never trusts a ‘rat’, much less a ‘whinger’. Kernot was out of politics by 2001. Kernot’s defection, closely followed by their decision to pass John Howard’s GST legislation against the wishes of their membership, saw the Democrats also rapidly decline, leaving the field clear for the rise of the Greens.
Here we go again.
Dorinda Cox’s shock defection from the Greens to Labor has blindsided her former colleagues and angered ex-staffers who had complained of bullying during their time in her office.
Senator Cox appeared alongside Anthony Albanese at Perth’s Kings Park on Monday just over an hour after she called Greens leader Larissa Waters to inform her of her decision.
Whether Cox’s or the Greens’ political careers will long survive remains to be seen.
Hilariously for the uber-woke Greens, this is the second time an Aboriginal woman has defected from the party (although, in Lidia Thorpe’s case, ‘Aboriginal’ stretches credulity).
Greens leader Larissa Waters has defended her party’s treatment of Indigenous members after its First Nations spokeswoman Dorinda Cox sensationally quit on Monday to join Labor, blindsiding her former colleagues.
The West Australian senator’s defection marks the second time in less than three years that an Aboriginal senator has quit the minor party after Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe moved to the crossbench in 2022 and means the minor party now has no Indigenous representation within its federal ranks.
A better question might be: just what is it about the Greens that attracts such (allegedly!) toxic people? Thorpe faced repeated accusations of bullying from her staff, as well incidents where she reduced Aboriginal Elder women to tears and seeking medical health.
Several former staffers to Senator Cox came forward last year with claims that they had been bullied by the senator and had endured a toxic workplace environment marred by extremely high levels of staff turnover.
The Greens sure do ’ave ’em.
A tax on dodging?
If we were to tax a politician every time they dodged an awkward question, we’d pay off the national debt in a year. The latest, spectacular, example comes as Labor tries to defend its tax on unrealised capital gains and avoid awkward questions of whether they’ll have to pay the tax like everyone else.
You can already guess the answer to that one.
Anthony Albanese has sidestepped a question on whether he and politicians with more than $3m in their super balances will be required to immediately pay Labor’s proposed tax.
This follows comments from Employment and Industrial Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth stating that there will be provisions that mean people on defined superannuation funds won’t have to immediately pay tax even if their balance is above $3m.
Unless they’re a politician, it turns out.
However unlike Australians on ordinary and self-managed super funds, long-serving politicians on defined benefit pensions, like Penny Wong, Sussan Ley, Tanya Plibersek and the prime minister who entered parliament in 2004, will be able to defer paying the tax until after they retire.
Not that they want us plebs to notice that there’s one law for the rest of us, and another law for them.
I mean, next thing you know, we’ll be trying to prise their taxpayer-funded business-class flights out of their cold, dead, grasping hands.
