Latest news with #Trumpian
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
This serial pest called a woman a ‘fat dumb blonde'. He says he was being picked on
Andrew Thaler knew he was wrong to call a fellow Snowy Monaro councillor a fat liar, and for publicly arguing that if a non-binary council employee couldn't work out their gender – 'know whether it's a boy or girl', as he put it – they wouldn't be able to do their job, his barrister, the former Labor MP Adam Searle, told a tribunal this week. Thaler himself was less emphatic about his regret. 'It's hard to express remorse for telling the truth,' he said under cross-examination, arguing his 'robust' language was self-defence. He argued he was not speaking as a councillor, but he was merely quoting himself from a pre-election article in this masthead when he described fellow councillor Tanya Higgins as a 'fat dumb blonde, it's physically obvious'. Thaler also doubled down on his view that the staff member was a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) hire, invoking a Trumpian term. He also said his use of the pronoun 'it' did not necessarily dehumanise them, but rather highlighted their internal conflict. In fact, Thaler said, he was the one being picked on. He told the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), as it considered his appeal against a three-month suspension, that some of his fellow councillors had been hostile ever since his election last year, when they tried and failed to uphold a longstanding ban on his presence in council chambers (which arose from the risk council felt his behaviour posed to its staff; his election to the council in September automatically overturned the ban). But he thinks they dislike him 'because I'm a man', he told the tribunal. 'It's because I have five kids. It's because I've been married for 19 years … those are the things that [people are hostile about] at that council.' The drawn-out saga over Thaler's behaviour has gripped the Snowy Monaro region, where he was known as a serial pest before being elected to public office with little more than 100 first preference votes. His behaviour while a councillor has prompted the minister to issue a performance improvement order to the council, that says the drama is interfering with the operations of local government. His comments about the councillor and staffer in March earned him a three-month suspension, the maximum, from the Office of Local Government (OLG). But the Snowy's controversy is the pointy end of a bigger issue. Councillors are behaving badly across the state, yet the NSW system for holding them accountable is broken. This has been openly acknowledged across the sector for at least 10 years, but there has been no reform. A government discussion paper last year laid out the problem. Council debates are 'too often personal slanging matches', it said. Frivolous complaints clog the system, leaving little capacity for it to deal with serious issues. The system for handling misconduct should not be so unwieldy and ineffective that it inhibits 'the operation and function of local democracy'. Councils manage their own complaints (which can lead to politicisation), but can refer them to the OLG if they think it's warranted. In the financial year to June 2024, Bathurst clocked up the most complaints with 38 (none were upheld), followed by Lismore with 24 (none were upheld) and Sutherland with 23 (again, none were upheld). Of a total of 381 complaints, only 45 were found to constitute a breach. They cost almost $1.5 million to investigate. There were also concerns from the sector that penalties for councillor misconduct, when upheld, are too light. The maximum suspension the OLG can hand out is three months, while NCAT can issue a disqualification of up to five years. A 2022 report found the sector was concerned that the sanctions, and the OCG and NCAT's reluctance to invoke strong ones, was an ineffective deterrent to poor conduct. That earlier report, commissioned by the Coalition government, raised myriad problems with the system, ranging from conflicts of interest, partisan behaviour, incompetence, and the lack of appropriate penalties when misconduct was found. 'Key stakeholders in the sector have lost confidence in the current arrangements,' it found, and called for an overhaul. A road map for change went to cabinet in February 2023, just before the election. But when Labor won, the new local government minister, Ron Hoenig, jettisoned that plan and began his own review. Another discussion paper was released in September last year. There's not enough dignity in local government, it said, and proposed letting the OLG issue fines to councillors, suggested a privileges committee of experienced mayors examine allegations of misbehaviour, and said bans should be solely imposed by tribunals such as NCAT (they often end up there on appeal, anyway). It also proposes councillors have to rid themselves of real estate and development business activity and contracts. A spokeswoman for Hoenig said the Labor government felt the Coalition's solution would add more bureaucracy and complexity 'to an already broken system'. A new code of conduct, mechanisms to 'surcharge' councillors for frivolous complaints and a new meeting code would be released 'soon', she said. The behaviour problem is putting people – particularly women – off running for local government. A Victorian survey found 61 per cent of female local councillor respondents had experienced threatening or intimidating behaviour from fellow councillors, while another study found half of women left council after the first term. Women have been among Thaler's most frequent targets; he has called female elected officials dumb, fat, a pig, deliberately childless, a horrendous excuse for a human, and has told a state MP – and, on a separate occasion, this reporter – to go 'suck a dick'. Licia Heath from Women for Election said women were increasingly leaving councils due to bullying and harassment. 'We will shortly have a crisis of representation in local government,' she said. That will affect other levels, as state and federal MPs often cut their teeth in council. 'I'm getting increasingly concerned that there will be a pipeline issue of talented women in our state and federal parliaments, unless relevant ministers insist now on a similar review as the Kate Jenkins Set the Standard to be conducted at the local government level,' Heath said referring to a report by the former sex discrimination commissioner. Thaler is right that there are people in the area who don't like him. Before he was elected, he'd been banned from council chambers because his behaviour was considered a workplace health and safety risk. He'd also been banned from a few businesses. He was the subject of 19 complaints over a two-month period last year, the performance improvement order said; complainants alleged his behaviour left staff and fellow councillors feeling unsafe, anxious and in one case, physically sick (Thaler said he was never given a chance to respond, and those complaints have not been investigated). Loading He told the tribunal that the council had sought legal advice about what to do with him, which said it could not ban him but they could 'discipline me out of council'. In his appeal against his suspension on Tuesday, Thaler's barrister, Searle, argued the decision made by the Planning Department deputy secretary responsible for local government was invalid because he had not conducted a proper investigation first. He also said a three-month suspension was too harsh. 'We would say the applicant would say not much weight should be given to those incidences, they occur in the context of Councillor Thaler raising significant matters of public interest,' he said. Thaler insisted he was telling the truth when he used the word liar, despite not being able to produce evidence, but admitted he should not have referred to the councillor's size. However, the barrister for the Department of Planning, Matthew McAuliffe, said the penalty would be a deterrent to both Thaler and councillors statewide. 'He was barely able to accept that what he had done amounted to misconduct,' McAuliffe said. 'Each time I asked him whether he was remorseful it was heavily qualified, if at all. Any offer to apologise was only forthcoming if there was an order to do so. It's clear that despite the passage of time, he continues to believe that his conduct was justified.' The tribunal is considering its decision.
The Age
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
This serial pest called a woman a ‘fat dumb blonde'. He says he was being picked on
Andrew Thaler knew he was wrong to call a fellow Snowy Monaro councillor a fat liar, and for publicly arguing that if a non-binary council employee couldn't work out their gender – 'know whether it's a boy or girl', as he put it – they wouldn't be able to do their job, his barrister, the former Labor MP Adam Searle, told a tribunal this week. Thaler himself was less emphatic about his regret. 'It's hard to express remorse for telling the truth,' he said under cross-examination, arguing his 'robust' language was self-defence. He argued he was not speaking as a councillor, but he was merely quoting himself from a pre-election article in this masthead when he described fellow councillor Tanya Higgins as a 'fat dumb blonde, it's physically obvious'. Thaler also doubled down on his view that the staff member was a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) hire, invoking a Trumpian term. He also said his use of the pronoun 'it' did not necessarily dehumanise them, but rather highlighted their internal conflict. In fact, Thaler said, he was the one being picked on. He told the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), as it considered his appeal against a three-month suspension, that some of his fellow councillors had been hostile ever since his election last year, when they tried and failed to uphold a longstanding ban on his presence in council chambers (which arose from the risk council felt his behaviour posed to its staff; his election to the council in September automatically overturned the ban). But he thinks they dislike him 'because I'm a man', he told the tribunal. 'It's because I have five kids. It's because I've been married for 19 years … those are the things that [people are hostile about] at that council.' The drawn-out saga over Thaler's behaviour has gripped the Snowy Monaro region, where he was known as a serial pest before being elected to public office with little more than 100 first preference votes. His behaviour while a councillor has prompted the minister to issue a performance improvement order to the council, that says the drama is interfering with the operations of local government. His comments about the councillor and staffer in March earned him a three-month suspension, the maximum, from the Office of Local Government (OLG). But the Snowy's controversy is the pointy end of a bigger issue. Councillors are behaving badly across the state, yet the NSW system for holding them accountable is broken. This has been openly acknowledged across the sector for at least 10 years, but there has been no reform. A government discussion paper last year laid out the problem. Council debates are 'too often personal slanging matches', it said. Frivolous complaints clog the system, leaving little capacity for it to deal with serious issues. The system for handling misconduct should not be so unwieldy and ineffective that it inhibits 'the operation and function of local democracy'. Councils manage their own complaints (which can lead to politicisation), but can refer them to the OLG if they think it's warranted. In the financial year to June 2024, Bathurst clocked up the most complaints with 38 (none were upheld), followed by Lismore with 24 (none were upheld) and Sutherland with 23 (again, none were upheld). Of a total of 381 complaints, only 45 were found to constitute a breach. They cost almost $1.5 million to investigate. There were also concerns from the sector that penalties for councillor misconduct, when upheld, are too light. The maximum suspension the OLG can hand out is three months, while NCAT can issue a disqualification of up to five years. A 2022 report found the sector was concerned that the sanctions, and the OCG and NCAT's reluctance to invoke strong ones, was an ineffective deterrent to poor conduct. That earlier report, commissioned by the Coalition government, raised myriad problems with the system, ranging from conflicts of interest, partisan behaviour, incompetence, and the lack of appropriate penalties when misconduct was found. 'Key stakeholders in the sector have lost confidence in the current arrangements,' it found, and called for an overhaul. A road map for change went to cabinet in February 2023, just before the election. But when Labor won, the new local government minister, Ron Hoenig, jettisoned that plan and began his own review. Another discussion paper was released in September last year. There's not enough dignity in local government, it said, and proposed letting the OLG issue fines to councillors, suggested a privileges committee of experienced mayors examine allegations of misbehaviour, and said bans should be solely imposed by tribunals such as NCAT (they often end up there on appeal, anyway). It also proposes councillors have to rid themselves of real estate and development business activity and contracts. A spokeswoman for Hoenig said the Labor government felt the Coalition's solution would add more bureaucracy and complexity 'to an already broken system'. A new code of conduct, mechanisms to 'surcharge' councillors for frivolous complaints and a new meeting code would be released 'soon', she said. The behaviour problem is putting people – particularly women – off running for local government. A Victorian survey found 61 per cent of female local councillor respondents had experienced threatening or intimidating behaviour from fellow councillors, while another study found half of women left council after the first term. Women have been among Thaler's most frequent targets; he has called female elected officials dumb, fat, a pig, deliberately childless, a horrendous excuse for a human, and has told a state MP – and, on a separate occasion, this reporter – to go 'suck a dick'. Licia Heath from Women for Election said women were increasingly leaving councils due to bullying and harassment. 'We will shortly have a crisis of representation in local government,' she said. That will affect other levels, as state and federal MPs often cut their teeth in council. 'I'm getting increasingly concerned that there will be a pipeline issue of talented women in our state and federal parliaments, unless relevant ministers insist now on a similar review as the Kate Jenkins Set the Standard to be conducted at the local government level,' Heath said referring to a report by the former sex discrimination commissioner. Thaler is right that there are people in the area who don't like him. Before he was elected, he'd been banned from council chambers because his behaviour was considered a workplace health and safety risk. He'd also been banned from a few businesses. He was the subject of 19 complaints over a two-month period last year, the performance improvement order said; complainants alleged his behaviour left staff and fellow councillors feeling unsafe, anxious and in one case, physically sick (Thaler said he was never given a chance to respond, and those complaints have not been investigated). Loading He told the tribunal that the council had sought legal advice about what to do with him, which said it could not ban him but they could 'discipline me out of council'. In his appeal against his suspension on Tuesday, Thaler's barrister, Searle, argued the decision made by the Planning Department deputy secretary responsible for local government was invalid because he had not conducted a proper investigation first. He also said a three-month suspension was too harsh. 'We would say the applicant would say not much weight should be given to those incidences, they occur in the context of Councillor Thaler raising significant matters of public interest,' he said. Thaler insisted he was telling the truth when he used the word liar, despite not being able to produce evidence, but admitted he should not have referred to the councillor's size. However, the barrister for the Department of Planning, Matthew McAuliffe, said the penalty would be a deterrent to both Thaler and councillors statewide. 'He was barely able to accept that what he had done amounted to misconduct,' McAuliffe said. 'Each time I asked him whether he was remorseful it was heavily qualified, if at all. Any offer to apologise was only forthcoming if there was an order to do so. It's clear that despite the passage of time, he continues to believe that his conduct was justified.' The tribunal is considering its decision.
Economist
2 days ago
- Politics
- Economist
How strongmen mastered the art of dividing Europe
It takes weeks of haggling by ministers and their diplomatic underlings to craft what the leaders of the European Union later announce as the 'conclusions' of their regularly scheduled confabs. Settling into a windowless conference room for a summit that will nonetheless drag well into the night is a time-tested ritual for the continent's presidents and prime ministers. But a spectre hung over the group even as they prepared for yet another gabfest in Brussels on June 26th, as The Economist went to press. For in the same time it takes EU leaders to sign off on a communiqué that few will ever read, Donald Trump may well post a slew of social-media posts reversing, un-reversing then finally re-reversing American policy on precisely what his many counterparts sitting in Brussels are discussing. Europeans might rather prefer the deliberative ways espoused by their leaders to Trumpian chaos. Yet in foreign policy the contrast between the EU's genteel, consensual decision-making rhythms and the brusque ways of strongmen even beyond America has grown starkly of late. Autocrats from China, Russia, Turkey and beyond are too often able to run rings around Europe.
Economic Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
RBI can't be very aggressive in cutting rates if Fed is not doing so in USA: Swaminathan Aiyar
Swaminathan Aiyar, Consulting Editor, ET Now, says the Reserve Bank of India may cut interest rates, influenced by a potential US recession but the US Federal Reserve's stance on inflation and interest rates could limit RBI's actions. A significant gap between American and Indian interest rate trends may cause capital market movements. India has performed well with higher interest rates, so immediate cuts are not essential. Aiyar also thinks that RBI cannot become very aggressive in cutting interest rates if the Fed is not doing so in the USA. ADVERTISEMENT You are saying that the geopolitical situation is turning positive now and the equity markets are reacting the same way, a case in point being the Indian market. What is your current take on the market? How do you see the up move that we are witnessing right now? And yes, 9th July is going to be a critical day not just for the world but for the Indian markets as well. How are we heading towards that? Swaminathan Aiyar: As I said, that is one of the big things that we do not know about. If you get a return to that high Trumpian reciprocal tariffs, that will be a negative. But there are two things: Trump is negotiating very hard to try and get a number of results and he will certainly announce some results and say, victory. He loves to announce victory. So, a certain amount of tariff will be there. But as far as I can see, the European Union is in no hurry. They are saying no, no, we are not going to just give way. We are going to take our time. We are going to push our things and they are very much against import duties on steel, aluminium, and especially cars. Of course, there is an issue now which is going to be a big one – whether or not Europe can continue to tax what in India is called the Google tax, the practice of taxing of the biggest American MNCs on the basis of revenue and not profit because they are shifting the profit to offshore heavens. So, we will do it as a percentage of Google, so that is very much a thing coming up and the Europeans feel that this is one thing which can be used as a lever to get Mr Trump's tariffs down. Let us see if that happens and let us see how long that takes. The EU is prepared to fight well beyond the 90 days. India has been in a mood to give in. But as I have always said, India should also be fighting because I do not think these tariffs are going to hurting us so much. At the end of it all, while the United States is an important trading partner, if it goes down, there are ways around it. One thing that we have seen very clearly is that the international trading system has been extremely good that if there is a high tariff on one country, you send it out. God knows to which heaven on what kind of invoice, but you are ultimately able to export it to the USA or some other desired country through a third party. The world seems to have been extremely successful in that and let us see whether it is equally successful in the case of the reciprocal tariffs. When we interacted with you during the RBI rate cut recently, I remember your stance on liquidity. Now, we are hearing that the RBI is going to be holding a VRRR auction very soon. Is this a sign of a liquidity bubble because on one hand we have frontloading, and on the other hand, there is the VRRR auction? Swaminathan Aiyar: I will simply say that RBI either on the basis of instructions or on the basis of Mr Malhotra's mood, is in an interest rate cutting mode right now. You can certainly justify that if you think that there is a coming recession in the USA which will pull down the world economy. You can say that at the time when the world is going into an era of somewhat deficient demand, why not try and pick it up by having a more aggressive monetary policy in the sense of pushing rates down rather than pushing the rates up? Mr Powell in the USA is not so keen. Mr Powell is very clear that he sees significant chances of inflation coming out of Mr Trump's tariffs and therefore, there is a hold on interest rates there. We tend to pretend that we have an independent monetary policy and we can set interest rates, but at the end of the day, if there is too much of a gap between the American trend and the Indian trend, then that will lead to huge movements in the capital markets and then the RBI is likely to shift. So, let us see. ADVERTISEMENT If the Fed remains conservative on its interest rate now, that may act as a brake on Mr Malhotra's inclinations. It will be very interesting to look forward to. I would say that interest rates are not a critical part of whatever we are doing. India has been through relatively high interest rates for the last few years when we have done very well. So, it is not that India is unable to cope with high interest rates and they have to be brought down in a hurry. It is not essential. We have managed to do quite well. I have a feeling that Mr Malhotra or shall we say the RBI cannot become very aggressive in cutting interest rates if the Fed is not doing so in the USA. (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
RBI can't be very aggressive in cutting rates if Fed is not doing so in USA: Swaminathan Aiyar
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel , Consulting Editor,, says the Reserve Bank of India may cut interest rates, influenced by a potential US recession but the US Federal Reserve 's stance on inflation and interest rates could limit RBI's actions. A significant gap between American and Indian interest rate trends may cause capital market movements. India has performed well with higher interest rates, so immediate cuts are not essential. Aiyar also thinks that RBI cannot become very aggressive in cutting interest rates if the Fed is not doing so in the USA.: As I said, that is one of the big things that we do not know about. If you get a return to that high Trumpian reciprocal tariffs, that will be a negative. But there are two things: Trump is negotiating very hard to try and get a number of results and he will certainly announce some results and say, victory. He loves to announce victory. So, a certain amount of tariff will be there. But as far as I can see, the European Union is in no hurry. They are saying no, no, we are not going to just give way. We are going to take our time. We are going to push our things and they are very much against import duties on steel, aluminium, and especially course, there is an issue now which is going to be a big one – whether or not Europe can continue to tax what in India is called the Google tax, the practice of taxing of the biggest American MNCs on the basis of revenue and not profit because they are shifting the profit to offshore heavens. So, we will do it as a percentage of Google, so that is very much a thing coming up and the Europeans feel that this is one thing which can be used as a lever to get Mr Trump's tariffs down. Let us see if that happens and let us see how long that EU is prepared to fight well beyond the 90 days. India has been in a mood to give in. But as I have always said, India should also be fighting because I do not think these tariffs are going to hurting us so much. At the end of it all, while the United States is an important trading partner, if it goes down, there are ways around it. One thing that we have seen very clearly is that the international trading system has been extremely good that if there is a high tariff on one country, you send it out. God knows to which heaven on what kind of invoice, but you are ultimately able to export it to the USA or some other desired country through a third party. The world seems to have been extremely successful in that and let us see whether it is equally successful in the case of the reciprocal tariffs.I will simply say that RBI either on the basis of instructions or on the basis of Mr Malhotra's mood, is in an interest rate cutting mode right now. You can certainly justify that if you think that there is a coming recession in the USA which will pull down the world economy. You can say that at the time when the world is going into an era of somewhat deficient demand, why not try and pick it up by having a more aggressive monetary policy in the sense of pushing rates down rather than pushing the rates up?Mr Powell in the USA is not so keen. Mr Powell is very clear that he sees significant chances of inflation coming out of Mr Trump's tariffs and therefore, there is a hold on interest rates there. We tend to pretend that we have an independent monetary policy and we can set interest rates, but at the end of the day, if there is too much of a gap between the American trend and the Indian trend, then that will lead to huge movements in the capital markets and then the RBI is likely to shift. So, let us the Fed remains conservative on its interest rate now, that may act as a brake on Mr Malhotra's inclinations. It will be very interesting to look forward to. I would say that interest rates are not a critical part of whatever we are doing. India has been through relatively high interest rates for the last few years when we have done very well. So, it is not that India is unable to cope with high interest rates and they have to be brought down in a hurry. It is not essential. We have managed to do quite well. I have a feeling that Mr Malhotra or shall we say the RBI cannot become very aggressive in cutting interest rates if the Fed is not doing so in the USA.
