Here is my latest musing on Australian politics, drawn by yours truly and published online at the Window Dresser’s Arms.

Welcome to Australia - the lucky country, where white people live happily ever after.

A story in today’s Daily Telegraph, titled “Asylum seekers made to feel at home, thanks to a $10,000 welcome pack” really sums up the inherent racism that lurks beneath the façade of our so called multicultural society.

The article, written by Gemma Jones, is nothing more than a simplistic  list of goods that are given to asylum seekers whilst they wait for their refugee claims to be processed. The overall tone of the article acts as a device that stirs up blatantly racist sentiments within the Australian public.

It is accompanied by an image that looks like it is straight out of an interior designer magazine to really rub in the fact that these no good asylum seekers must be living the high life, whilst the rest of us struggle.

“A family of five in community detention is eligible for goods valued at $7100… Families of more than nine can receive up to $9850 in furnishings… Asylum seeker families in Sydney arrive to a hamper of bread, butter, milk, eggs, other essentials, and cleaning products. Families with a baby can access a $750 pack of basic supplies, while phone and electricity connections are also paid for,” Writes Jones.

“The assistance is on top of free doctors’ visits, dental care, pharmaceuticals, and education, and payments of up to $433.25 a fortnight,” she continues.

One doesn’t have to look too far in the comments section to see the desired reaction to such an article unfold.

Now if that isn’t enough to get racist tempers flying, the article is supported by another, which cannot really be called an article, as it is merely a tedious list of over 60 items which these “starter packs” include.

“Colander… Oven mits… Salad bowl… Dish cloth…” The list goes on - Oh the extravagance!

But wait, there’s more, another supporting article titled “Boat arrivals sink taxpayer” waits in the shadows to catch all those who may be wavering in their decision as the whether or not these asylum seekers deserve anything at all.

“This is a shambles, not a policy, and it is costing taxpayers billions of dollars when reopening a detention centre on Nauru and reintroducing temporary protection visas would help to deter those prepared to pay and to risk a dangerous voyage on a leaky boat.” It states.

“Australian taxpayers are also paying in economic circumstances that are causing interest rate rises and job losses.” Continues the editorial rant.

The fact that some of these asylum seekers come from countries such as Afghanistan, which the Australian Government has helped to destroy by its unequivocal support of the American invasion and occupation, doesn’t even enter into the debate. No surprises there.

Perhaps the best summery of Gemma Jones’ article is Mike Stuchbery’s translation of her appalling attempt at journalism.

“WASHING machines, microwave ovens, DVDs and plasma TVs are among a 60-item welcome gift pack for asylum seekers offered rent-free homes in the community.

Brown People get free stuff! They don’t have to pay for any of it! Doesn’t that make you mad? It should make you mad!”

One thing is certain in all this. The sale of white bed sheets will increase ten fold, as it is clear that the Australian government will be supplying asylum seekers with free beds et al and the rest of Australia will be lining up to join the KKK and become clansmen.

We live in a capitalist country, so why not indulge in some disaster capitalism?

I recently filmed the global launch of On Utøya - a compelling and challenging new book.

The book was launched in Sydney by Greens Senator, Lee Rhiannon and Independent Journalist and Author, Antony Loewenstein.

Edited by Elizabeth Humphrys, Guy Rundle and Tad Tietze, with essays by Anindya Bhattacharyya, Antony Loewenstein, Lizzie O’Shea, Richard Seymour, Jeff Sparrow and the editors.

“On Utøya: Anders Breivik, Right Terror, Racism and Europe is a response to this attempt to deny responsibility, and any connection of Breivik’s act to a rising cult of violence, racism, and apocalyptic language. The editors and authors shine a light on Breivik’s actions, and argue that they cannot be understood abstracted from the far-Right racist and Islamophobic social and political conditions in which it emerged.”

South Australian Liberal Senator, Cory Bernardi, is Australia’s very own Geert Wilders. Not something to be proud of. Islamophobia is on the rise and people such as Wilders and Bernardi and flying the flag of hatred and racism.

In documents obtained exclusively by MuslimVillage.com,  Bernardi clearly states his Islamophobic views and claims that “fundamentalist Islam in Australia has been linked with… Gang rapes being justified by Muslim Clerics… Hate speeches being espoused in Australian mosques in the name of Allah… ” and so on and so forth.

Whilst over on Bernardi’s personal website he really lets loose and goes on to concoct a fantastical conspiracy of Australia being targeted by a Sharia “stealth movement.” Oh please…

“…the very real threat of Islamic extremism that is already at work within our communities, intent on destabilising our nation and undermining our values.”

“Their ultimate goal is not simply to ‘punish the west’, it is to claim this nation for Islam and implement Sharia (or Islamic) law.”

“Outside of the threat of radicalised violence, we are also wise to be concerned about the long-term price of the ‘Sharia by stealth’ movement.”

The most embarrassing thing is that Bernardi is actually a Member of the Australian Parliament. How does this even happen? Hate speech should be shunned whenever it raises it’s ugly head, not celebrated and tolerated - especially when it comes from a public figure.

An incredible two part doco aired on Australian Story about Michael Ware - a fearless Australian journalist who has covered countless conflicts in some of the deadliest war zones…

Watch it online at Australian Story:

Part one: Click Here

Part two: Click Here

Tariq Ali will be peaking at “The Festival of Dangerous Ideas” this year along with a myriad of other speakers - it is a must for anyone with an inquisitive mind…

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM TERRORISTS

“Whatever else we might think about those labelled as terrorists, it is clear that their tactics have changed the world in ways that serve their religious, political and ideological aims.

For example, they have managed to force the West to curtail centuries of commitment to the principles of liberal democracy - winding back hard-won freedoms in the name of security - despite the proclamations of politicians who used to insist: “They shall not change our way of life.”

Given this, is there anything that terrorists have to teach us - about the single-minded pursuit of purpose; about the necessity of puncturing the consensus of mainstream politics and culture? Or about the need to feed the ever-hungry media beast?

Writer, essayist and film-maker Tariq Ali was born in Lahore in 1943 and educated at Oxford University. He is an occasional broadcaster on BBC Radio, writes regularly for The Guardian and the London Review of Books and is a longstanding editor of the New Left Review.

His fiction includes a series of historical novels about Islam, a quintet that was concluded recently with The Night of the Golden Butterfly. His non-fiction includes include The Clash of Fundamentalisms, Bush in Babylon, Pirates of the Caribbean: An Axis of Hope and due this October, The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home: War Abroad.

Tariq Ali is in Australia to present the 2010 Edward Said Memorial Lecture at the University of Adelaide.”

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: Sunday 3 October 3:45pm (Please note daylight saving commence Sunday 3 October)
Duration: 1 hour inc. Q&A

The following article is a piece I wrote whilst in Townsville documenting the AMIEU “live export exports jobs” campaign and was published on the Humane Chain website:

“Live export exports jobs” echoed through Townsville on Tuesday as local meat workers, Union representatives and politicians launched a public campaign to phase out live export by 2015. Writes Reuben Brand.

Labor candidate for Herbert Tony Mooney expressed his concern about job losses at the launch of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union’s (AMIEU) “live export exports jobs” campaign in Townsville this week.

This year alone, 960 full-time Australian meat workers’ jobs have been lost nation-wide. In response to the large number of jobs already lost, Mr Mooney announced that he supported the AMIEU’s campaign to end live export by 2015.

“Last week I experienced a day in the life of a meat worker – it’s backbreaking work, so I appreciate what these workers do and their contribution to the community and economy.
“Nearly 300 jobs have been lost in Townsville, that’s just plain dumb – so I am supporting this campaign to end live export and if elected to the seat of Herbert look forward to working with the Union and broader industry to address the issue,” said Mooney.

“My father was a butcher so I’ve been a long-time supporter of the meat industry and meat processing,” he said.

The AMIEU press conference was set on the headland in front of the seaport which is frequented by live export vessels. Local meat workers peppered the headland as they came out in solidarity to fight for their jobs, two of whom were dressed as seven ft. trays of packaged meat.



Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh raised her concerns in Parliament last week saying that it is not in the long term interest of livestock producers for the industry to decline.

“Top if the list will be the impact of live cattle exports,” said Bligh.

“I have met with the Meat Processing Industry and I know they are very concerned about the number of live cattle being sent overseas, instead of processed here…abattoirs and the jobs of meat workers, are not viable without a consistent supply of stock.” She said

AMIEU Federal Secretary, Brian Crawford said that, “Every shipload of animals exported and processed overseas means less jobs right here in Queensland.

Local meat worker, Tiffany Kerle spoke about the huge impact that live export is having on Australian workers, their families and local communities.

“The loss of jobs and scaling-back of shifts is particularly hard on working mothers who have to be there for their family and for student who are trying to pay for their education.” Said Kerle.

“This year, for 267 people who no longer had employment it was just another hit, we all struggled to make payments on rent, mortgages, cars and to put food on the table due to live export,” she said.

The AMIEU is calling for the Government to phase out live export, implement a chilled meat trade and in doing so, recognise the huge benefits that keeping Australian meat processing jobs in Australia will have on the economy and rural and regional communities.

I recently attended and filmed the premiere screening of “American Radical: the trials of Norman Finkelstein” in Sydney. A fantastic documentary about an amazing individual.

The event was hosted by Independent Australian Jewish Voices and the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine.

After the screening of the film the floor was open for discussion during a Q & A session with a panel of guest speakers who included:

Antony Loewenstein - Independent Journalist, author of “My Israel Question” among others, political commentator and Blogger.

Peter Manning - Former Executive Producer of the landmark ABC current affairs program ‘Four Corners’. Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Sydney’s University of Technology and author of “Us and Them: Media, Muslims and the Middle East.”

Dr Peter Slezak - “Senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of New South Wales and occasional public commentator on science, philosophy, religion and politics.”

The following is a short mini doco I put together of the event, published online at Antony Loewenstein’s website:

My following article regarding the live export trade from Australia to the Middle East was published today at the Window Dressers Arms - it was also re-published at The Daily Bludge, where it made headlines on the front page.

Live export is not only cruelly exporting Australian animals; it is crippling local industry and exporting our jobs. Writes Reuben Brand

After conducting numerous investigations at livestock markets and abattoirs throughout the Middle East, I returned to Australia with hours of footage and hundreds of photographs that document the inhumane treatment these animals endure at the receiving end of the live export trade.

These investigations were launched by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore during a forum at Parliament House in Sydney, where I spoke alongside representatives from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU).

Since my return I have been working closely with local meat processors and Australian meat workers who are now doing it tough due to the fact that there is simply not enough livestock to support local industry because they are all being shipped offshore.

The myths about why live export is important are many; the most common are as follows:

Myth: “Many people do not have the luxury of home refrigeration, and supermarkets are often inaccessible and unaffordable to those living in regional villages.”

Fact: Australia predominately exports to the Gulf region which, despite industry claims, is a very prosperous region for obvious reasons. Oil. The idea of “a lack of refrigeration” is not only an extremely ignorant and un-researched claim, but it is highly culturally offensive. People in the Middle East are not Bedouins living in tents, during my time living in the region I saw more luxury vehicles and high-rises than I see in Sydney or any other “developed” country. Supermarkets are very plentiful and very accessible, all of which stock a huge variety of chilled meat – with Australian chilled meat as the cheapest and most sort after of all.

Did I mention that Dubai has air-conditioned public bus stops and indoor ski slopes? But apparently no one has a fridge. Go figure.

Myth: “The supply of live animals is also important for religious and cultural reasons.”

Fact: Yes, there are religious celebrations that require live animals – only two times a year. Eid al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan and Eid al Adha, that marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca. Only twice a year – but we continue to send live animals 365 days a year.

I spoke to one of the young migrant workers at a livestock market in the region who told me he does not get paid by the local livestock company for his services. Rather, they give him a small amount of food and let him sleep in the holding pens with the animals. He has a Diploma of Associate Engineering and this is what he gets. This kind of cheap labour comes at a very high price and is all the more reason for Australia put an end to a trade that treats both humans and animals so appallingly.

The solid fact of the matter is that the live export trade is exporting Australian jobs (to countries that in some cases don’t even pay their employees) and is crippling our meat processing industry.

During a recent trip to Townsville and Dinmore in Queensland, I interviewed meat workers who are now either unemployed or have had their shifts cut right back and are trying to survive on government handouts.

In Townsville I watched as truck after truck, loaded with cattle, drove straight past the local abattoir. One local meat worker, who is now unemployed, told me that the export vessel docked in the harbour was not only exporting cattle, it was exporting the jobs of approximately 250 people who had just been stood down.

“Nobody is working today and yet there is a boat with thousands of cattle leaving. Thousands! You know, that’s a whole months’ worth of work for us,” she said.

According to Grant Courtney, President of the AMIEU, 40,000 people have lost their jobs and 150 processing plants have been shut down due to the live export trade – over 700 of these job losses have happened in the past six months alone.

“I can’t understand why the Government is sticking its head in the sand when thousands of Australian jobs are being lost due to this trade,” he said.

Another man I spoke to who lost his job at the local abattoir is now struggling just to keep his family afloat. His fiancé, who is also pregnant, has now had to go back into the workforce to try to support their growing family.

With no money for food or bills, no fuel in the car, debt collectors breathing down his neck and relying on donations to survive, life is becoming increasingly tough he bravely told me.

“Lately it’s been getting pretty bad… we’ve even had to go down to the local community centre and grab food vouchers… You start to appreciate things like that when people donate food and money vouchers so you can live.”

Shift cut backs and job losses at the processing plant in Dinmore now have workers pondering the future of the Australian meat processing industry. As one woman told me, if the Dinmore plant is suffering, which is one of the biggest in Australia, then she can’t see hope for the survival of any of the smaller ones.

“Every boat of cattle that leave this county, leave the Australian worker and I know what it feels like without work…it’s no good saying that the live cattle export doesn’t contribute, it certainly does. Because it’s just got worse and worse,” she said.

With a daughter who has a terminal illness and needs a surgery that could save her life, this woman courageously sat and gave a first-hand account of how the live export trade is affecting her life and many others who are now in the same boat.

Andrew Martell, a sheep farmer from central Western NSW, attended the live export forum at Parliament House last month and made some points during Q and A time – he also told the room that he receives the same amount of money for his sheep regardless whether he sells them to exporters or local industry.

So why on Earth would you want to send sheep offshore to be slaughtered and transported inhumanely when you could have it all done here and create much needed jobs in the process?

It is an absurd idea to think that all people in the Middle East buy their daily meat from a wet market – can you imagine how long it would take just to buy a single steak? Local supermarkets and butcher shops operate on a cuts and carcass trade where the outcome for the consumer would remain the same with a chilled meat trade.

Independent research, conducted by ACIL Tasman, shows that a sheep processed domestically is worth 20 per cent more to the Australian economy than one exported live.

According to the Australian live export industry this trade contributes $1.8 billion to the economy, so by using their own figures, if we phase out the live export trade and implement a chilled meat trade for export we could have an industry that injects $2.16 billion into our economy. Not to mention the huge impact it will have on Australian jobs.

A chilled meat trade is not only a sustainable alternative but is also extremely lucrative for all involved, be it farmer, processor or meat worker.

To view a video of Reuben’s investigation in the Middle East please click here

To view interviews of meat workers please click here

Below is my second installment in a small series of thoughts on the world around us - Published this week at The Window Dressers Arms: