Ukraine, Climate Change Floods And A Look At The Australian Progressives

The war in Russian invasion in Ukraine is escalating, and it’s difficult to know how this will end. But Vladimir Putin has already lost, irrespective of the outcome: a crashing Russian economy, the Rouble has collapsed, and receiving opprobrium from most of the rest of the world. As well as what populist dictators hate the most: removal of the Russian football team from World Cup games.<br /><br />And is has also provided an opportunity for the Australian Prime Minister to talk tough. It’s obvious Scott Morrison wants to be seen as part of a war-time government, but it’s hard to convince the Australian public. He’s doing the right thing to call out Russian aggression in Ukraine but Australia is not at war. <br /><br />It’s also hard to think that if there wasn’t a federal election coming up, the government’s response would have been close to nothing. After all, that’s all they did when Russia annexed the Crimea in 2014, and almost as much during the wars in Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s.<br /><br />Australia doesn’t have very much of a relationship with Russia or Ukraine: the electorate would like Australia to provide the support needed to end the conflict, but it’s a far away conflict and it probably won’t play on the mind of the electorate at the next federal election. <br /><br />There is one Australian connection, however, that needs to be looked at: Rupert Murdoch and Putin do have a close relationship. Putin facilitated the sale of Russian media companies to the Murdoch empire in the early 2000s, a time when Murdoch was having financial difficulties. And now the favour is being repaid, with favourable pro-Russian commentary on the US Fox News channel, which is now being replayed on Russian television. A friend in need is a friend indeed, and 20 years later, Murdoch is propagandising on behalf of Putin.<br /><br />There is very little governments could have done to stop the floods in Queensland and northern NSW – except for introduce climate change mitigation about 30 years ago – but, even still, there is