Fred Pawle: Boomer Liberalism Died at Bondi

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese didn’t need to use ChatGPT — but probably did anyway — to script his statements yesterday morning about the terror attack at Bondi on Sunday.

“We are stronger than the cowards who did this,” he said with practised gravitas. “We refuse to let them divide us. Australia will never submit to division, violence or hatred — and we will come through this together.”

This schmaltzy liberal routine is older and even more grating than The Seekers’ I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony). Simpletons like Albo and the rest of the ruling elite who have been peddling it all their lives are the only ones unable to see what is now blindingly obvious to the rest of us.

On the contrary, Albo, many of us want to be divided. We don’t want to “come through this together” any more. We are tired of all your enforced togetherness. Instead, we want to “come through this” in a country where we feel at home, surrounded by people we can love, respect or at least have a beer with. Everyone else can — pardon me while I resist the urge to use expletives here — kindly find somewhere else to live.

Your entire schtick is based on the postwar consensus that the best way to avoid repeating the horrors of World Wars I and II is to open our borders and “tolerate” people who are different to us. The veracity of this idea was never tested. Neither were we asked if we wanted it. It was simply packaged under the cute but oxymoronic term “multiculturalism” and pushed on us in increasingly intrusive ways.

We were told that the migration of people from undeveloped countries into prosperous liberal democracies was essential and good; so good in fact that the Labor government had to pass section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act in 1995 to enforce compliance with it.

This has since spawned “hate speech” laws, which have had the intended psychological effect. Over the years, mass immigration has become unquestioningly virtuous, to the point where your government could import millions of unskilled parasites, and anybody who objected was automatically labelled a racist. By promising, through state-funded translators, to give these new arrivals loads of free things, you secured huge blocks of votes at every election.

You couldn’t care less whether these new Australians want to live among the rest of us. Turns out many of them don’t. Worse, some of them want us dead, and our culture erased. Immigrants who don’t assimilate are not immigrants, they are invaders. And eventually they act like them.

Every time the predictably “unthinkable” happens, as it did again Sunday, your instinctive response is to deny your own culpability and instead cling to the same tropes that caused the problem in the first place. That is, when you’re not throwing red herrings like gun laws out as a distraction.

Essentially, you are asking young and future Australians to reject the homogenous culture and high-trust society that allowed your generation the freedom and opportunity to become comfortably rich, and in its place put up with fragmentation, tediously shit jobs and a reduced sense of belonging in their own country.

And that’s not the only fundamentally flawed liberal idea you and the ruling elite are pushing through. You’ve told young women that motherhood is not as important as having a career, young men that their masculinity is toxic, and infant children that government childcare centres are even better than being at home, the odd serial pedophile notwithstanding.

There are alternatives to these suicidal ideas. Poland and Hungary, for example, both use taxation to encourage young people to start families, and are defiantly independent and resolute about the people they allow to settle there. It’s no coincidence that both these countries endured some of the worst atrocities in living memory. They are determined to rebuild themselves on their own terms because they know that the alternative to a strong, homogenous culture is unavoidably horrific subjugation by someone else.

Young Australians don’t have much time before your plan to replace them becomes irreversible. The attack on Sunday might be the catalyst for them to finally en masse call for an end to your suicidal empathy for foreigners, and maybe call bullshit on the rest of your anti-family, civilisation-killing novelties as well.

There are people amongst us who wish us harm. Instead of organising a wreath-laying photo opportunity at the scene of the latest crime, a proper national leader would be mobilising police and military to root out the remaining potential provocateurs and send them packing.

We’ve reached a fork in the road. Either we continue to embrace liberalism (in which case the next Bondi attack is just around the corner) or we reclaim the civilisation we were so lucky to inherit.

Bondi Terror Attack

My heart is heavy this morning having watched the news reports last night of the awful shooting at Bondi. In a clearly anti-Semitic attack on a Hanukkah celebration in a park adjacent to the bridge, two gunmen killed at least 16 people and injured 40 others. Police have also found explosives in their vehicle.

The only upside of this horrible event is the hero who walked up to one of the attackers and wrestled the rifle away from him. The thing I have noticed in these events over the years is that there is always just one or two men who will put their lives at risk to tackle an armed terrorist. This man’s name apparently was Ahmed Ahmed, so obviously an immigration success story and potential nominee for Australian of the Year.

Blind Freddie could have seen this coming two years ago, following the Hamas atrocity in Israel. On October 8th 2023, thousands of people marched on the Opera House, which has been lit up in the colours of the Israeli flag. They clearly chanted “Gas the Jews!” Every single one of them should have been charged under racial vilification laws, but the NSW Government chose the path of appeasement. They got “experts” to prove that the chants were “Where’s the Jews?” as if that was somehow less threatening.

Since then we have had weekly pro-Palestine marches in various cities. We have had synagogues, Jewish schools and Jewish-owned restaurants burnt and homes vandalised. We even had two nurses from Bankstown Hospital boasting online about how they had killed Jewish patients.

The response from politicians has been “There is no place for antisemitism in Australia.” Well, clearly there is place for antisemitism in Australia because the very same politicians have encouraged it. They have pandered to the Muslim community, they have made a moral equivalence of antisemitism and the made up disease of Islamophobia, they have brought in untold numbers of migrants and refugees with minimal background checking, they have refused to confront the hate preachers who every Friday call for the killing of the Jews, and all in the hope of winning their votes.

It is time to restore peace and hope to this nation.

It is time to reverse course before we end up in the same place as UK and much of Europe.

It is time to end mass migration into this country, and to ensure that only peaceful people who intend to assimilate into our culture come in.

It is time to round up every hate preacher who does not have Australian citizenship and send them out.

It is time to enforce laws against racial hatred.

Above all we need to pray for this nation of Australia. This attack is a wound to our national spirit. We need God’s grace to heal us.

Christmas Traditions

It’s that time of the year again when we hear a lot of complaints about disappearing Christmas traditions.

This year, the Martin Place Christmas Tree is bedecked with the words “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.” I love it when we try to pretend that the day being celebrated has nothing to do with Christ, but a more generic “holiday.”

David Jones copped criticism because they have abandoned the traditional Christmas window displays, which many people have for generations travelled into the city with children or grandchildren in tow to view each year.

The biggest outcry was reserved for rumours that Fire and Rescue NSW are abandoning the traditional lolly run due to health and safety concerns. Rather than throwing lollies at children while on the move, fire engines will have to stop to hand out the treats. This is out of concern for children running onto roads than any fear of hitting them in the eye with a hard lolly.

It is interesting just how much people value these traditions, even people who never set foot in church to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is like the generational memory of faith in Jesus, attending church services and celebrating real Christmas and Easter festivals continues to anchor people despite our rapidly changing culture.

Christmas is a time of incredibly good news, in a time when there is such a shortage of good news. It’s more than a long weekend, a time to get together with the family, or even a special time for the kids.

Christmas is about a God who cares about people so much that He came down to earth to live with us. The baby in the shed with the animals turned out to be the creator of everything in a human form. The story reaches its climax at Easter when we recall that Jesus Christ died to cover the wrongs of every single person.

If you haven’t been to church for a while, why not start a new tradition this Christmas?

Sowing And Reaping

The number of trucks going past my house reminds me that we are in the middle of harvest time. Farmers, contractors, silos, truck drivers and mechanics are all working long hours to get the harvest into storage before storms, birds, insects or other disasters can do serious damage.

The Bible is full of references to farming and, in particular, to harvesting.

The phrase “you reap what you sow” is one of those references, and I imagine it would have been a fairly common saying back in the day. We can’t imagine a farmer planting barley and hoping for wheat. That would go against all the laws of nature.

Strangely, though, many people fail to apply this to their own lives. If you sow kindness and generosity, people will respond by being kind back to you. If you live by violence and bullying, then you cannot expect others to treat you with love and respect.

One of the Old Testament prophets coined this phrase, “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” This referred to the then rulers of the state of Israel who ignored their God and instead chose to encourage the worship of the fake gods of other nations. The result, Hosea said, was that they would be overrun by the Assyrians, one of the nastiest empires of the time, and of course full of idols. The Israelites had played at worshipping idols, now they would be destroyed by expert idol worshippers.

In modern times, we might think of people who play fast and loose with the rules, seemingly untouchable until the Police or the Tax Office catch up with them. They sowed a wind but reaped a whirlwind of trouble.

Many people spend their whole lives without any reference to God. They might be good people but just have no time for religion. They are good enough for God, they reason, and He will take care of them in the after life.

But if you have a life in which you sow arrogance towards God, then you will reap a whirlwind of wrath. On the other hand, a life of humble service to the Lord will reap a very different harvest.

What are you sowing?

Tasmania Day 10

Today we bade a fond farewell to Coles Bay, where the temperature this morning was 6 degrees, feels like -1. The wind was brutal, but no snow to be seen.

There are some nice towns along the way, such as Swansea and Sorrell, but right in the middle of nowhere we came across this coffee shop, where we enjoyed a nice cuppa and a Mars Bar slice. Lunch was cheese and ham on buns, enjoyed in the warmth of the car in a park in Sorrell.

The Salamanca Inn is located right next to the famous markets, but road closures made it hard to find our way in. We pulled over when we could find a parking space and rang the hotel. The receptionist cheerily told us to drive around the Road Closed barrier and into the car park where she would raise the barrier for us.

We found the place and checked in. This is our room…

Very classy!

With an hour to spare before closing time, we wandered down to the markets. It is exhausting just looking at it, let alone walk around the stalls. Apparently this happens every Saturday.

There are numerous transport options available. The Spirit of Tasmania does not normally come to Hobart, but is here to show off the latest incarnation before it returns to Melbourne for fitting out.

Margaret unwittingly demonstrated the changes in telecommunications in our lifetime.

It is Margaret’s birthday today, so feel free to call or text her with appropriate blessings. 😀

Dinner tonight is room service from the swanky hotel restaurant. Should be good!

Tasmania Day 9

A beautiful start to the morning at Coles Bay today. Sky and sea are blue, no wind and not too cold.

The forecast was for deteriorating weather during the afternoon, so we decided to check out the Tourville Lighthouse.

The lighthouse is in the Freycinet National Park, just 15 km away.

We came across a group of people at one lookout. They were excitedly looking at a rocky island a little way off the coast.

If you look closely at the top of the rock on the left, you may see a dark spot, which it turns out is a fur seal. Zooming in on my original I actually found half a dozen scattered around the rock. Here is a cropped version that might help you see them.

This is our last night here. Just two more nights in Hobart before we fly home. It has been a very relaxing and refreshing time.

Tasmania Day 7

Day 7! That means only 4 days left!

This morning the weather was terrible- very wet in Launceston. We were going to visit the famous Launceston Gorge, but the weather was not inviting. Instead we travelled to our next stop, St Helens.

The East Coast is more like your normal coastal towns on the mainland. The West Coast is far more rugged and towns are isolated from each other and from the main population centres.

Our room wasn’t ready so we had lunch and headed for the Bay of Fires. By now the rain was coming down and the wind was getting close to 100 km/hr. I quickly jumped out of the car, threw my coat on and snapped a few photos before we got blown into the ocean.

We then headed back to the Panorama Hotel, where our room was ready to enter. We have a magnificent view from our upstairs room, and the balcony is on the sheltered side of the building so it isn’t too bad out there.

We only have one night here so tomorrow we move on to Coles Bay, thence on to Hobart.

Tasmania Day 6

Today was cold, wet and windy in Northern Tasmania, so activities were limited to food related options.

Our first stop was The Tea Equation just outside of Launceston. The very friendly lady told us it was started by her mother and step-father as a hobby, but has grown faster than they expected. They take genuine Tasmania-grown tea from the Huon Valley and make up various blends. At our hotel, there is a daily compliment of two English Breakfast and two Earl Gray tea bags. I am not a fan of Earl Gray, but the English Breakfast is very nice.

We decided then to go for a drive to Devonport, a bit over 100 km from Launceston. What else is there to do on a day like this? Devonport is the Tasmania terminus of the Spirit of Australia ferry that links Tasmania to the mainland.

Not far from Devonport is Anvers Chocolate Factory. This was started by an immigrant from Belgium in the 19th Century. The picture shows the various types of cacao bean that are used in various stylers of chocolate making, as well as some moulds.

It was lunch time, so we sat down at the cafe there and had a completely chocolate free lunch. I had a toasted turkey and cranberry sandwich, while Margaret had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. That alone was worth the admission price as they say (admission is free, but you get the idea). Lunch was choc free, but we did buy some merchandise to make sure it was up to required quality standards.

I notice that today is Day 6, and that means we are over half way through our holiday. Tomorrow we move on to St Helens for one night.

Today we managed to buy some scissors. When we went through security at Tamworth Airport, they found not one pair but two pairs of kindy scissors in Margaret’s carry on bag. The security operators thought is was a farce that they had to confiscate them- what would we do with kindy scissors, do some violent decoupage? You would’t believe how many times we have said in the last week, “Scissors would be handy for that.”

Tasmania Day 5

Beauty Point is a point on the Tamar River, 45 km from Launceston, and is located a few km from the ocean. It is a few km from the mining town of Beaconsfield, which many people will remember from the accident that left several miners trapped underground almost 20 years ago.

Beauty Point has a long history of fishing, but it is also home to Seahorse World, the biggest breeder of seahorses in Australia, mainly for pets and research. On the same property is a Creation Museum, which is only open Thursday to Saturday in the off-season, so we missed that one.

We went on a 45 minutes guided tour of the various display tanks and the breeding tanks. They have display tanks of various species of sea horse, some of which are native to Tasmania, but others from far away places, including the Great Barrier Reef.

The facility also breeds a few species of handfish which are all under threat. These fish are native to Tasmania. Rather than swimming, they propel themselves along the bottom using protuberances that look very much like human hands. They are a form of angler fish- you can see the “lure” poking out from his head. Other fish are attracted by the lure and when they come close to get a good look at it the hand fish catches them.

This rock lobster is over 30 years old, despite thousands of visitors thinking it might make a good lunch.

This fish is called the Old Wife. It has venomous spines in its dorsal fins that deliver a nasty sting. I won’t make any comparisons with other elderly spouses.

Seahorse World is a wonderful facility. Nearby there is another shed dedicated to the platypus and echidna. They have guided tours there, too, but I think we were overdone with nature, and we decided to go and have our sandwiches at the Beaconsfield Mining and Cultural Centre. There is a very nice park there. Much of Tasmania has daffodils blooming in parks, gardens, and even along fences. That is something you don’t see in Narrabri 😀

This afternoon, I made a huge technological leap forward. I have this wonderful new laptop, the only downfall of which is it only has USB-C slots, that’s the version you get on phones. The trouble is that my camera has a lead with the older style USB-A plug. Until now, I have had to get my photos off my camera by sending them to my phone, then uploading them to Google Photos, then downloading them from there to my laptop. We found JB HiFi this afternoon and I bought an adaptor that lets me plug the camera to the laptop.

We have another full day in Launceston tomorrow, so we have to work out which places to visit.

Tasmania Day 3

Today we are in Strahan on the West Coast of Tasmania. We spent most of the day cruising the mighty Gordon River.

The boat is a kind of hybrid with both diesel and electric motors. This means that you can cruise up the river almost silently to absorb the ambiance of the wilderness.

Margaret was very happy to be onboard, and I was trying to smile and press the right button on the phone camera at the same time.

The cruise is very pleasant with excellent presentations on history, cultural and environmental issues. We stopped off for a couple of easy guided walks.

We had an hour on Sarah Island which was, in its time, the most brutal convict colony in Australia.

It was also a place of amazing ingenuity, especially when it came to escaping. One convict who escaped and was picked up in Hobart, was set free to assist in surveying the highlands which he had just traversed and had unique knowledge.

Over time Sarah Island established a boat building industry because of Huon Pine which was regarded as an amazing timber for all kinds of construction. When the order came to close down the penal settlement, they left 10 convicts along with the master ship builder to finish the remaining ships that were partly built. When they came to completing the final one, the 10 convicts stole it and sailed it to Chile. They were eventually recaptured by the British and brought back to Australia where they were charged with piracy and stealing a boat. They argued that since the ship was never registered it was nothing more than a collection of materials, and since the offences took place in the Harbour, it was not “on the high seas.” The magistrate agreed, and they were convicted of stealing rather than the much graver offences.

Tomorrow we head off to Launceston (pronounced Lonceston not Lawnceston). Will we go via Cradle Mountain?