Here's to hoping we soon leave fantasyland and realise that "Pigs don't fly."

Congratulations on your flying pigs and I hope I see them flying, if necessary, on false statements made by all politicians in Austalia.

But pigs DO fly. You only have to look at the 'McCain' ad for their chips.

They fly around in the background, outside the window.

Or shouldn't I believe everything I see on TV?

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

In a speech to Parliament on 29 May, Independent MP Peter Slipper praises Independent Australia and other online media and applauds the launch of Guardian Australia.

I am a strong supporter of media diversity in our country, and I am concerned by the domination of News Limited, Fairfax and Seven West.

Of course, in recent times we have been fortunate to have independent media ‒ online media ‒ occurring more and more, such as Independent Australia, Crikey, New Matilda, VexNewsand so on.

But today, in the chamber, I would like to applaud the launch ofGuardian Australia. This will bring a new level of diversity. Already, Guardian has 1.1 million subscribers in Australia.

As Katherine Viner, the editor and chief of the Australian edition said:

“Our research indicates that Australians are looking for an alternative that is truly independent, both global and local, which offers serious reporting and lively commentary, and is all-embracing in its use of everything that the digital sphere has to offer.”

Guardian Australia has been fortunate enough to be able to secure the services of some very senior journalists, such as David Marr, Lenore Taylor and Katherine Murphy, and no doubt others will join Guardian Australia.

I think that diversity is important. I have been appalled at the attacks on the government, particularly by News Limited ‒ even though I am an Independent member of the House ‒ and I just think that the Australian people do deserve the opportunity of balanced news and the opportunity to make an informed decision at the election on 14 September.

(Speech to the House of Representatives; Wednesday, 29 May 2013, 13:47; Source: Hansard.)

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/business/media-2/peter-slipper-on-independent-media-guardian-launch-and-media-diversity/

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Gus: One must praise the Guardian and all other independent media organisation, like IA, that are taking on the mass media led by the merde-och press. It's a mighty task with the ABC and Fairfax often joining Uncle Rupe in a war against the Left...

Since March 2005, YD has held this fort, often alone (apart from the far more serious webdiary), in battles against a warring rightwingnuttery. This article is written under my first — quite crappy really — published cartoon for YD, though I have been a cartoonist for more than 62 years in various "styles" and guises... I had done some better ones for institutions in this country under various monikers but after a short rest, I had taken to the craft again with a vengeance when Bush, Blair and Howard were rumbling to go to war in Iraq... These cartoons were published in a CD limited edition of 50. 

All along, the Australian Left appeared to spent too much time looking at its own divided navel to be efficient, until Rudd came along and a "magnanimous" Uncle Rupe decided to let him run "equally" because Rudd was a Catholic, could be manipulated to believe in his own glory and Howard was starting to smell like old warriors' boots.

Crikey already existed, but it had become apparent to me that it was an instrument of the small L Liberals in revolt against a rabid extreme right led by Tony Abbott and his bunch of henchmen... One of its sacked writer, Hugo Kelly, claimed Crikey had no guts...

One needs the aim of a David armed with an Exocet missile against the Goliath slime of Uncle Rupe... Unless one use a clever philosophical stone. But so far the stone has not been found in our desert of sand... It's a bit Jewish of me to write like this as if I dreamt of the promise land and its palm trees, but there I am — despite an ancestry that is more Germanic than Hitler's (he was born in Austria)...

The Aussie left is still killing each other in this country because some people claim Rudd is better than Gillard... We won't go into this silly battle, only for me to say the Rudd supporters, aided by Uncle Rupe the-Great-Divider, have wounded the Labor party equally.

Magic can happen... Uncle Rupe might come to realise that Abbott is a thug leading a bunch of morons with law degrees. But we need to twist Uncle Rupe's neck to help him discover this truth because Uncle Rupe LOVES MORONS. He creates morons like one makes macaroons... Rupe makes morons so they can buy his papers at ALL LEVELS  of the Australian society... and of the entire world, under the spell of his "renard" (fox) and other manipulative tools... Uncle Rupe is a pox on humanity's butt.

Magic is unlikely to happen... But one can hope and carry on the fight, even with both feet in the grave...

Some silly innocuous item often spreads like wildfire in the cybersphere... We need to find such a needle and prick Abbott's balloon before it's too late... Otherwise this lying conniving detritus will sink Australia's dignity to a low we'd never seen before...

Hopefully the Guardian will fire some broadsides that will destroy Tony's bicycle after IA has deflated his tyres.