TOKYO MASTER BANNER

MINISTRY OF TOKYO
US-ANGLO CAPITALISMEU-NATO IMPERIALISM
Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies
Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships
Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY
[LINK | Article]

*U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR*

Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
[info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows]  US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA.  British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA.  Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA.  US naval aggression against Russia:  Baltic Sea — US naval aggression against China:  South China Sea.  Continued NATO pressure on Russia:  US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe.     [info from John Pilger interview follows]  War Hawk:  Hillary Clinton — embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system.  USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict.  Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states.  US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST.  Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives.  Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico.  US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA.  US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea.  DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES.  China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT.  US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets.  Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves:  US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all.  WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. ⟴  
Showing posts with label Bill Shorten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Shorten. Show all posts

June 24, 2016

Electorate, Would I Lie to You?




ELECTORATE
Would I Lie to You?
AAP

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/federal/2016/06/24/pm-says-shorten-caught-lying-on-medicare.html

PM says Shorten caught lying on Medicare 

Published: 12:09 pm, Friday, 24 June 2016


PM Malcolm Turnbull says Bill Shorten has been 'caught out lying' on his Medicare scare campaign.

Malcolm Turnbull insists Bill Shorten has been 'caught out lying' over Labor's Medicare scare campaign.

The opposition leader, appearing on the ABC's 7.30 program, was not prepared to put hand on heart and repeat his claim the coalition had a plan to privatise Medicare.  [comment:  what are they, 5 years old?  It doesn't matter where their hands are, these tossers aren't to be believed.]

Instead Mr Shorten told host Leigh Sales: 'I can say to the people of Australia that this election and their vote on July 2 will determine the future of Medicare'.

He also took the opportunity to argue the Liberal plan, which included a freeze on indexed Medicare rebates, was 'scary'.

The prime minister, campaigning in Launceston on Friday, seized on Mr Shorten's apparent change of language.

'He was asked to put his hand on his heart and repeat his lies and he wouldn't,' Mr Turnbull told reporters.

'He has been lying about Medicare and he's been caught out.'

Mr Turnbull accused Labor and trade unions of calling older voters at night and 'frightening them with lies'.

'Now if somebody is running for prime minister and they're prepared to lie about something as important as that to vulnerable Australians, how can you trust anything else he says?'

Mr Shorten, for his part, accused the prime minister of having 'his hand in the policy cookie jar'.

'It is not what Malcolm Turnbull is saying now about a particular privatisation task force that's got me worried, what it is piece by piece, if given the chance, he will dismantle Medicare,' he told reporters in Darwin.

Labor campaign spokeswoman Katy Gallagher denied Mr Shorten was softening Labor's line of attack.

'There hasn't been any change to Labor's position at all,' she told reporters in Canberra.

'We are continuing to talk about our concerns about Medicare and potential privatisation.'

AAP

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/federal/2016/06/24/pm-says-shorten-caught-lying-on-medicare.html

LABOR PSEUDO LEFT
BILL SHORTEN

RE:  DONALD TRUMP
REPUBLICAN, USA
Australian Financial Review


" ... Mr Trump reached the number of delegates needed to secure his party's presidential nomination on Thursday. He has vowed to break the North American Free Trade Agreementand the Paris climate agreement, does not support the Trans Pacific Partnership and said he would slap a 20 per cent tariff on imported products."


Bill Shorten ... saying US Republican candidate Donald Trump's views are "barking mad"

...  Shorten feels free to hurl insults

Malcolm Turnbull hit out at Mr Shorten over the comments on Friday, despite two of his ministers raising serious concerns about a Trump presidency.

AFR

COMMENT

The Shorten pseudo 'left' politician, from a party that wants wants to give their country away, has the nerve to be critical of Trump, while he and his Labor party parrot Liberal party policies, having abandoned Australian working classes, as far back as the late 1960s.

Notice that both Liberal and Labor capitalist serving & nation screwing assh*les are at one when it comes to slagging off an American patriot that's opposed to trade agreements.

Is there any actual material distinction between these two capitalist serving Australian political party assh*les?

 
Donald Trump, US Republican, position sounds more my idea of the left than anything the Australian Labor Party lowlifes stand for.

The Australian Labor Party & its union buddies ought to be challenged by forming alternative authentic left political parties and unions that represent socially conservative Anglo-Australian / European working-class interests ... assuming there still remains anything left of an Anglo-Australian or European working class in the country.  


COMMENT

Medicare is destined to be privatised when the politicians sign up for the US 'free trade agreement' (Transpacific Partnership (TPP)), which is a corporate free for all, in which national sovereignty, democracy, the welfare and the will of the people, will mean jack sh*t, on signing up for this American corporate rort.

I don't see that Shorten Labor tosser opposing the free trade agreement.

All his political party opposes is the ISDS clause.

While that's a positive, the entire free trade arrangement is sh*t and would be opposed in its entirety by any genuine left party that had national (and, particularly, mass, working-class) interests as a concern.

Both the Liberals and Labor are sh*t.  Greens are even sh*ttier.

I wouldn't vote for any of these assh*les.


ONLY VOTE WORTH MAKING IS A NATIONALIST VOTE


COMMENT 

Labor's refugee/immigration policy negates any reason whatsoever to vote for this capitalist serving, working-class undercutting and working-class resource redistributing, fraud of a 'left'.

CORPORATIONS
GET THE TAXCUTS

... Prime Minister used similar rhetoric in Sunday night’s debate against Bill Shorten to make the case for his plan to cut taxes for firms with revenue of more than $2 million.

... look at how far, or how low, Labor has drifted since Keating’s time.

Shorten described the Turnbull government’s plan to cut company tax as “useless and hopeless”.

It went largely unreported, although for a leader to describe a tax cut as useless and hopeless in an election campaign sounds like news to me.
Next day when he was quizzed about it, Shorten back-pedalled slightly to say “the truth (or troof if we are to be strictly accurate) of the matter” was that it was the wrong time and the wrong priority, despite the fact after last year’s budget he chided the government for not providing small business with an even bigger tax cut and invited it to work with him to take the rate down even further.
... Shorten also told the Australian Council of Social Service that “corporate tax reform helps Australia’s private sector grow and it creates jobs right up and down the income ladder”.
Under Shorten, after prodding from the unions, Labor baulked at the free-trade deal with China and equivocates over the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

The Australian



Australia Foreign Policy
http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/06/12/australias-uncertain-election-season/

Australian election offers few choices on foreign policy
12 June 2016


Author: Russell Trood, Griffith University


Australians will go to a federal election on 2 July 2016. At first glance the 19 seats in the House of Representatives that the Labor Party — the current Opposition — needs to win to take government seems a heroic undertaking. Yet, if the early polls are any indication, this may not be too far beyond its reach.

There are several dimensions to the 2016 election that add to the mystery of the result. The leaders of Australia’s mainstream political parties have only held their positions for a relatively short period of time. Neither has led his party through the gruelling demands of a federal election. And this year the election campaign period will go for around two months, nearly twice as long as usual.

But perhaps the greatest challenge is that this is a ‘double dissolution’ election — meaning that all 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 76 in the Senate will be up for grabs. It is the first time in nearly 30 years that Australians have experienced a double dissolution election. Predicting the result will be especially difficult.

To form government the winning party will need to secure a majority of seats on the floor of the House, but to be confident of providing stable, effective government and to pass its legislative agenda, it will also need to have a reliable coalition of supportive senators in the Upper House. This has been wanting in recent Australian parliaments and partly explains the rationale for a double dissolution election.

That said, this will likely be a very orthodox election with domestic political issues dominating the agenda over any significant international or foreign policy change. The Labor Party is making its pitch on increasing education funding, sustaining Australia’s high-class health care system and protecting the social security interests of its low-to-middle-class constituency. For Bill Shorten, the Opposition leader and former president of Australia’s trade union movement, this is the heartland of Australian politics.

In contrast, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s national economic plan of ‘jobs and growth’ draws on his more eclectic life experience, including as an international businessman. Since becoming prime minister in September last year, Turnbull has consistently emphasised the great economic opportunities offered to Australians by the transitions (and disruptions) now taking place in the global economy. He has stressed that there has never been more exciting time to live in a world of change and transition where enterprise and innovation can flourish and underpin significant domestic economic gains.

Against this background, it is unlikely that the election will provide much guidance on the future direction of Australian foreign policy. There is already a high degree of consensus, at least among Australia’s mainstream political elites, about foreign policy priorities. These include sustaining and deepening Australia’s security relationship with the United States, engaging with the Indo-Pacific, countering radical extremist terrorism and protecting homeland security.

During his three years as opposition leader, Shorten has done little to embellish this agenda, being content to respond to international issues as they emerge. And while the election will demand a more comprehensive statement of policy, it will likely be well within the parameters of the liberal internationalism that has long been the cornerstone of Labor’s foreign policy.

By contrast, the Turnbull government has already clearly marked its foreign policy ambitions. It will seek deeper engagement with the global economy through comprehensive free trade agreements and partnerships with Indonesia and India. Turnbull will also press hard, though perhaps unsuccessfully, for the Trans-Pacific Partnership to become a reality. Perhaps most notably, and with a significantly higher degree of emphasis from previous  statements on the subject, the Turnbull government’s recent Defence White Paper gives high priority to working with all countries to ‘build a rules based global order’ which incorporates agreed rules of international law and regional security arrangements.

Once settled, the victor will have to face up to the pressing issues on Australia’s foreign policy horizon. In Japan, the Abe government was widely reported to have been disappointed, if not stunned, when Australia failed to award the contract for the development and manufacture of its new generation of conventional submarines to the Japanese contender. The decision raised doubts in Japan as to whether Canberra was seriously interested in developing a deeper strategic partnership. The answer is almost certainly yes, but rebuilding trust and confidence will demand some assiduous diplomatic attention.

Likely to be of a more enduring difficulty for Canberra is China’s determined push to expand its maritime boundaries in the South China Sea. Australia shares widespread regional concerns about the destabilising consequences of these actions. But Canberra is wary of being drawn into confrontation with Beijing and will need to strike a finely tuned policy balanceespecially with the United States — which protects its own national security interests.

Finally, Australia has to address the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court’s decision to close the refugee detention centre on Manus Island. The decision punches a large hole in Canberra’s elaborately conceived regime to deter people smugglers and asylum seekers from looking to Australia. The issue resonates deeply within the Australian body politic and is highly controversial among wide sections of the community. The bipartisan consensus between the government and Labor on the issue is a further complication. Labor is struggling to hold together a febrile internal policy consensus against left wing opposition. The government will certainly exploit this split within Labor to its political advantage.

At the start of the campaign, opinion polls indicated that the election could hardly be closer, with one predicting a Labor victory of 51 per cent to the Coalition’s 49 per cent, while another reversed these results. Over the coming weeks, the polls will no doubt fluctuate as Australian voters wrestle with the choice they have to make on 2 July. At this stage it is almost impossible to say that either side can be confident it has a clear path to success.

Russell Trood is Director of the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University.
http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/06/12/australias-uncertain-election-season/


Free Trade Agreements
http://www.law360.com/articles/804406/australia-s-labor-party-wants-isds-nixed-from-trade-deals
Australia's Labor Party Wants ISDS Nixed From Trade Deals

By Caroline Simson

Law360, New York (June 7, 2016, 7:54 PM ET) --


Ahead of a July federal election, Australia's shadow minister for trade and investment and member of the country's Labor party said Tuesday that a Labor government would oppose investor-state dispute settlement provisions in trade agreements and work to remove them altogether from existing deals.

Speaking at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Trade Forum, Sen. Penny Wong, an opposition leader in the Australian Senate, said that a Labor government would not accept ISDS provisions in any proposed trade agreements.

Previous trade deals signed by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott contain ISDS provisions, including the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite concerns about the mechanism that have occurred in the country for years, she said.

In addition, she noted that there are
ISDS provisions in four of Australia’s earlier free trade agreements and in 21 bilateral investment treaties.

"Some of these provisions were drafted many years ago and do not contain the safeguards, carveouts and tighter definitions of more contemporary ISDS provisions," she said. "A Shorten Labor government will develop a negotiating plan to remove ISDS provisions in these agreements. Where this is not possible we will seek to update the provisions with modern safeguards."

Bill Shorten is the leader of the opposition for the Australian Labor Party.

Concerns over the way ISDS provisions are being used to challenge public policies have been raised by economic and legal experts, including the government's Productivity Commission and the chief justice of the High Court of Australia, she said.

Australia's minister for trade and investment, Steven Ciobo, is a member of the Liberal Party and has come out in favor of the TPP, calling it "very good news for Australia" in a February interview with Australian media transcribed on the trade ministry's website. He accused Wong of continuing to "fuel misinformation in relation to the impact of ... the [TPP]."

"[ISDS] is a feature that has been in trade agreements ... for something like 30 years. In 30 years we've had one issue come up, and guess what? Australia won on that one occasion it came up," he said. "The Labor Party runs around and says they're going to tear up all of our trade agreements, that they want to renegotiate them all. It's just a really bad approach from Labor, so my criticism is actually directed towards Penny Wong and the Australian Labor Party."

In December, Australia defeated a claim over its plain packaging legislation for cigarettes lodged by Hong Kong-based Philip Morris Asia Ltd., which is the Asian regional affiliate of the Philip Morris International group of companies.  [comment:  as if this is reason enough to ignore the future costs.  it looks like it's a win on a technicality specific to this case:  Philip Morris restructuring to take advantage of a treaty.  it's not exactly protection against future claims by companies.]

The company claimed in the arbitration that the 2011 law, which imposed a sweeping ban on trademarks of any kind on cigarette packages, violated its rights under a 1993 bilateral investment treaty between Hong Kong and Australia by substantially diminishing the value of its investments in Australia.

But a tribunal for the Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected the claim during an initial jurisdictional phase, ruling that the arbitration was an abuse of right because Philip Morris had restructured itself to take advantage of the Hong Kong-Australia treaty when it knew that a dispute was on the horizon.

--Editing by Aaron Pelc.

http://www.law360.com/articles/804406/australia-s-labor-party-wants-isds-nixed-from-trade-deals

http://archive.is/rDPxt


This was a bastard to edit.  Don't know why.  It was all over the shop.  I'm so sick of looking at this.  

No matter how many times I look, it looks wrong to me ... as wrong as those mainstream Australian politicians.  LOL
Blogger throwing up unwanted code is sending me mental.  When I look at the back end, trying to edit things, I see a gazillion unnecessary font and like codes it's easier to leave in than edit out.  But when it later comes to editing specific portions, it's a nightmare of picking through vandalised code because of the automatic Blogger unwanted insertions EVERYWHERE.  Blogger, please don't help.  LOL



April 13, 2015

LIB-LABOR Stasi State: Mandatory Mass Surveillance of Australians & TPP





Mandatory data retention passes Australian parliament
Summary: The government and Labor have jointly ensured that the telecommunications data of all Australians will be retained for two years for warrantless access by law-enforcement agencies.

By Josh Taylor | March 26, 2015 -- 07:40 GMT (18:40 AEDT)
Follow @joshgnosis

The Australian government has relied on the votes of the Labor opposition to pass legislation on Thursday that will force telecommunications companies to retain customer data for two years for warrantless access by law enforcement.

The legislation -- which will see call records, assigned IP addresses, location information, billing information, and other customer data stored for two years -- passed the Senate on Thursday with the support of Labor senators.

The government and Labor shot down over a dozen amendments from the Greens, and several amendments from crossbench senators including those from David Leyonhjelm, Dio Wang, and Nick Xenophon.

The amendments would have forced the data to be held in Australia, would have required warrants for all accessing of the data, and would have limited the storage to three months -- bringing Australia closer into line with international standards.

Instead, the government agreed to a number of amendments from Labor, including requiring a warrant for accessing the data of a journalist for the purpose of identifying a source. The government will appoint a "public interest advocate" to argue on behalf of journalists -- who won't be aware that their data has been sought by law enforcement.

There was also intended to be an amendment limiting access to the data for the purposes of civil litigation, but Attorney-General George Brandis on Thursday admitted that through third-party access orders and subpoenas, data could be made available through the court for cases such as copyright infringement.

In the end, the Bill was condemned by Leyonhjelm, and Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, but ultimately passed 43 to 16.

The Bill will need to be returned to the House to agree to the amendments, but with a government majority this is a mere formality.

The legislation passed without the Australian public knowing the cost of the scheme to telcos to build systems to store the data, nor how much the government intends to contribute to the set-up.

Earlier in the week, Brandis revealed that the cost per customer per year for the operation of the scheme will be $4, but the cost of building the systems, contained in a confidential PricewaterhouseCoopers report, remains unknown.

Brandis said the government's contribution will be detailed in the Budget in May.

Telecommunications companies will be given 18 months after the legislation is passed into law to get systems in place in order to comply with the legislation.
Armed with a degree in Computer Science and a Masters in Journalism, Josh keeps a close eye on the telecommunications industry, the National Broadband Network, and all the goings on in government IT.
Follow @joshgnosis
http://www.zdnet.com/article/mandatory-data-retention-passes-australian-parliament/
COMMENT
This isn't what a democratic government is for; this is a totalitarian state in action.
Note:
(1) MASS surveillance; and
(2) WARRANTLESS access to data. 
The Liberals and the Labor party have sold out every single Australian with this data retention legislation.
Data retention is not only a totalitarian violation of civil liberties; it also exposes all Australians to third-party legal action (based on evidence obtained from data retained by internet service provider Stasi deputies).
Personal data of Australians will not even be retained on Australian soil and there is no provision for regulating the destruction of that data:
WHAT HAPPENS TO DATA THAT IS STORED AFTER THE MANDATORY RETENTION PERIOD?

The new laws do not prescribe any rules for the de-identification or destruction of the retained data after the expiry of the two-year retention period. [Lexology]
Furthermore, Australian taxpayers will foot the bill twice over for the 'privilege' of having their civil liberties pissed trampled on by bent, corporate serving politicians, aiming to maintain an iron grip on the freedom of all Australians, as taxpayers shall pay for: 
(a) the undisclosed federal government contribution to this totalitarian surveillance scheme; and
(b) the service provider costs that shall pass onto consumers.
The driving force imposing this totalitarian state in Australia, is the practical alliance between the Liberals and their Labor Party sidekicks.

Imagine what politicians are hiding from the public when they're targeting journalists with surveillance and secret probes into forcibly collected data.
This isn't about national security; this is about control:  control of the press and control of the people, by politicians who serve American and corporate interests, without regard for public welfare or standards of acceptable conduct - which is why whistleblowers, and whistleblower publishers such as WikiLeaks, are important. 
Just look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership 'free trade' agreement ('TPP') that government has hidden from public view during several years of negotiations.  What a rort.  They're negotiating away Australia's rights and democracy, and on a course to assign national sovereignty to the very corporations that politicians serve.

It's thanks to WikiLeaks - and NOT these corrupt government actors, who dodge transparency and accountability - that the public has even come to know the contents of the SECRET TPP document.  So what does that tell us about the political order in Western democracies, and what does that say about government witch-hunts, criticism and propaganda unleashed at the independent publisher, WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange?
The Lib-Labor Stasi, corporate-serving practical political alliance, is about to sell out Australia by signing up ALL Australian as subjects of the TPP (unregulated trade) agreement, which is a vehicle for corporate management of federal, state and local policies.


 

Secret

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)

Investment Chapter

WikiLeaks Link - here





^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

TPP a corporate-managed FTA
Signs away democracy & sovereign rights


 VOTE THE BASTARDS OUT
NEXT ELECTION


)))   BILL SHORTEN   (((

 2009 audition to US Consul General
* Criticises Union Movement *
#WikiLeaks - here.







VOTE THE BASTARDS OUT NEXT ELECTION



Hmmmm ... think I might get a bit melodramatic when I come across news that particularly annoys me.

I've come back to edit 'pissed on' to 'trampled on'.  LOL




July 20, 2014

MH17 - Bishop's on Abbott's US mission | Shorten's swinging by | Joe Biden's hovering

JULIE BISHOP AND TONY ABBOTT

Yahoo News
July 20, 2014, 1:43 pm


Julie Bishop heads to US

Australia is taking a lead role in pushing for an international investigation in the crash, with Ms Bishop on her way to the US.

Ms Bishop is expected to touch down in Washington for meetings before launching a lobbying offensive at the United Nations in New York.

"[Ms Bishop] is there to lead our work at the UN. She's there to give focus to our work at the UN and so that the world knows just how seriously Australia is taking this and there are 36 people who call Australia home who have been snuffed out," Mr Abbott said.

Australia wants tougher action from the Security Council, believing a press statement calling for an independent international investigation is not enough.

It wants a binding resolution from members and is drafting the text to put to the Security Council for a vote. It would need Russia's support.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will also travel to the US this week for high-level talks on a range of issues, including the Malaysia Airlines tragedy.

Mr Shorten is attending the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, and will meet US vice-president Joe Biden and deputy state secretary William Burns.

While he is there, Mr Shorten will be briefed by Australia's representatives at the UN about efforts to secure an investigation into the MH17 crash.

...extract...full @...
SOURCE - Yahoo News - here.

Australian-American Leadership Dialogue (AALD)

AALD is a not-for-profit NGO, founded as a 'private diplomatic initiative',  drawing together Australian and US achievers from government, the community and the corporate sector, in pursuit of promoting closer Australian-US understanding and ties.

Official site AALD - here


--------------------------------------
COMMENT

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's headed to the US on Abbott's mission:   gaining top mileage for US-Australian political advantage.

Bill Shorten, Labor opposition leader, is also headed over for talks; which is strange to a new political watcher.

One would think the opposition would take information directly from the government of the day, rather than have independent discussions.

Shifty Joe Biden is waiting and hovering, and there's even an Aussie-US hybrid NGO in the package.

Shorten's attending AALD, which was formed by Phil Scanlan and his US wife, Julie Singer Scanlan, back in 1992; with the support of Republican President George H W Bush.  

GHW Bush came after Reagan; Clinton followed this Bush and GHW Bush's son, George W Bush, followed Clinton. 

AALD's Scanlan, described as an exceptional networker on his NGO's site, is a former managing director of Coca-Cola Amatil and has now joined the 'strategic advisory board' of Bridge Growth Partners, a New York private equity fund, specialising in technology and financial services.  

Scanlan also happens to be a former Australian Consul-General in New York, before the short-lived Gillard government appointment of Steve Bracks in the role.

Steve Bracks was soon dismissed by Tony Abbott's newly elected Liberal government, in favour of appointing 'Liberal powerbroker Nick Minchin' in Abbott's stead.

Here's some Michin background and what Bill Shorten had to say about on matter of Minchin's appointment:


Mr Minchin ... held several posts in the [Liberal] Howard government, including finance minister. He was instrumental in the then Coalition opposition changing its stance on supporting an emissions trading scheme proposed by the then Rudd government."

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the appointment of Mr Minchin showed the Coalition government’s jobs priorities were wrong.

''The Abbott government will fight for Liberal politicians - they just won’t fight for ordinary people,'' he told reporters in Perth. The government had ''ripped up the rule book'' with the appointment of Mr Minchin.

SOURCE - SMH - here.

Don't know much about Bill Shorten, but I'm impressed he stood up for Bracks.

-------------------------------------------

OTHER SOURCES

http://www.afr.com/p/business/companies/us_pe_fund_bridge_growth_seeks_tech_zSRp3stk0aFpIIz7AJxNxM

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/former-victoria-premier-steve-bracks-gets-new-york-diplomatic-role/story-fn59nm2j-1226645536753

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/liberal-powerbroker-nick-minchin-appointed-consulgeneral-to-new-york-20140214-32ns5.html