Pensioned-off former Croydon MP, Speaker, Multicultural Minister & AG.

Joined February 2009
Michael Atkinson retweeted
LIMOGES UPDATE: Second suspect, male, 66, arrested by RAID elite police in connection with torching/destruction of Limoges town hall early this morning. Thought to be part of same ultra-left circles as first suspect, 34, also arrested by RAID (on Tuesday), identified by images of him on the scene, including protesters' own videos. He is on the "fiché S" security watch list as an ultra-left activist. Previously convicted of hitting a police officer at a 2024 protest. Custody has been extended by 48 hours, to the 96-hour maximum. Any charges could include the attempted murder of police, since 13 municipal police officers were inside the town hall at the time.
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
The face of the Victorian Socialists and their lead candidate Jordan van den Lamb (Purplepingers), openly supports political violence.
Our thoughts are with Helen Haines, her family, friends, staff and the community of Wangaratta and the rest of Indi after this horrific attack.
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We all feel in our guts that this is happening online. Yet our politicians seem feeble and powerless, unable to assert sovereignty in our online spaces as they do offline. There is a real need for a paradigm shift. We need to recognise social media as a form of public square which cannot be left to the self interesed whims of for-profit foreign companies to control and govern. Democratic governments need to take a more robust role in the regulation of online spaces, and platforms need to be legally liable for the content posted on them. For Australia, the senseless attack on @helenhainesindi makes this more urgent than ever. The central question is will our politicians and governments have the courage to do more than just tinker?
NEW: Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said the recent riots in Milan and other parts of Italy were the result of what he called a hybrid war being waged against Western countries through unconventional tools such as TikTok, social media and YouTube. Crosetto said that three in ten young people had participated in the demonstrations and six in ten supported them, arguing that young people had been subjected to a counter-education outside their families and schools that shaped their values, ambitions and worldview in ways that conflict with democratic rules.
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מה שקורה ביו״ש זה טרור יהודי בחסות ממשלת ישראל. פעם נוספת, בתוך יממה אחת בלבד, חוליות של פורעי חוק אלימים תוקפות אזרחים זרים - והפעם דיפלומטים ובעלי תפקידים רשמיים. מול עינינו מתרחש פיגוע מדיני וביטחוני חסר תקדים. קומץ עבריינים שורף את מעט הלגיטימציה שנותרה למדינת ישראל, מסכן את כוחות הביטחון ופוגע בהתיישבות ביהודה ושומרון ובביטחון הלאומי. אף אחד בהנהגה לא יוכל לטעון שלא העירו אותו בזמן ושלא התריעו בפניו.
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
The Greens are now splintering as if they are a partisan front formed and supported by a foreign power …. As many factions as there are hyphenated names
Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇫🇷🇺🇦🇹🇼
@DrewPavlouOct 17
BREAKING: I can exclusively reveal that Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John stands accused of ''stealthing,'' the practice of removing a condom during sexual intercourse without a partner’s consent. I can also exclusively reveal that Mehreen Faruqi appears to be behind the leak campaign - this is a coup to topple David Shoebridge! Read my article now: drewpavlou.substack.com/p/me…
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
🚨BREAKING: The Islamic regime has confirmed the death-sentence of 18 year old Melika Azizi was carried earlier today. Melika was arrested in January 2026 during nation-wide protests and charged with "moharebeh" (waging war against god for allegedly burning Islamic regime symbols. In court, Melika told the judge: "You let so many young people bleed. How can I remain silent? I don't care just kill me." She was a brave young lady!
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
Reform supporting bot traffic falls off a cliff after a Russian data centre is hit. Because, patriotism 🇬🇧
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
This has been talked about for decades. But we’re getting on with it. This tunnel is one of four being built through T2D to deliver a non-stop South Road. It’s a massive undertaking. And it’s happening right now.
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
It is sickening that the USA is now lifting sanctions on Russian fuel, and transparently ridiculous to blame Ukraine for the spike in prices that obviously began with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Putin is murdering innocent Ukrainian civilians every day. The Ukrainians are fighting for their lives. And yet the White House is apparently determined to force American drivers to bankroll Putin’s slaughter. It won’t work and I doubt it will make much difference to the price of fuel. If we want Russian oil and gas back on the world market then let’s end this war - with a free, sovereign and independent Ukraine.
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Thrust into SA Parliament 29yrs ago today thanks to the people of the western suburbs & the amazing campaign by @Mike_Rann in the biggest come back in SA political history.
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
Read this statement by GWB after the execution of Timothy McVeigh and just wanted to cry. Within my lifetime, this level of moral seriousness was the bare minimum we expected from officeholders.
“This morning, the United States of America carried out the severest sentence for the gravest of crimes. The victims of the Oklahoma City bombing have been given not vengeance, but justice. And one young man met the fate he chose for himself six years ago. For the survivors of the crime and for the families of the dead, the pain goes on. Final punishment of the guilty cannot alone bring peace to the innocent. It cannot recover the loss or balance the scales, and it is not meant to do so. Today, every living person who was hurt by the evil done in Oklahoma City can rest in the knowledge that there has been a reckoning. At every point, from the morning of April 19, 1995 to this hour, we have seen the good that overcomes evil. We saw it in the rescuers who saved and suffered with the victims. We have seen it in a community that has grieved and held close the memory of the lost. We have seen it in the work of detectives, marshal, and police. And we've seen it in the courts. Due process ruled. The case was proved. The verdict was calmly reached. And the rights of the accused were protected and observed to the full and to the end. Under the laws of our country, the matter is concluded. Life and history bring tragedies, and often they cannot be explained. But they can be redeemed. They are redeemed by dispensing justice, though eternal justice is not ours to deliver. By remembering those who grieve, including Timothy McVeigh's mother, father and sisters, and by trusting in purposes greater than our own, may God in his mercy grant peace to all; to the lives that were taken six years ago, to the lives that go on, and to the life that ended today.”
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
Love this. Makes no sense. Will never happen. They’re already public companies with shareholder bases that include super accounts. But we want to shift the risk and capital burden directly onto you, the income taxpayer.
Grocery prices are out of control. Since 2019, they’ve risen by 31% 🛒📈 Meanwhile, this year Coles & Woolworths pocketed a record $2.23 billion - in just six months! The Vic Greens will take 30% off your essential groceries by introducing publicly-owned, local supermarkets.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Coles and Woolworths supermarket profits have risen mostly because of larger sales volumes, not because they've dramatically widened margins. Their reported EBIT margins have remained within a relatively tight band around 4-5% over recent years. finbox.com/ASX:COL/explor…
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
Financial Review
@FinancialReviewOct 7
The Greens have long rallied against greedy Airbnb hosts for fuelling the housing crisis. That’s a bit awkward for the party’s new deputy leader, who as Rear Window reveals, co-owns a family farm with her sister. ebx.sh/SQ8s0U
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
Matera, Italy
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
❗️1/3 I asked progressive figures around the world what they thought of the new policy of the Australian @Greens Leader @DavidShoebridge, to oppose military aid for Ukraine.
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
“I have long realised that the great figures in my old party have long ago given up Toryism and have adopted Manchester Liberalism of about 1860.” Harold Macmillan
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, dissident, and first president of democratic Czechoslovakia Václav Havel would have been 90 today. He was a one-off, too bad we don’t have more like him today in Central Europe, and beyond.
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
“Cat! Oh, cat!” Truman Capote disliked the 1961 film version of his novella “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, because it sanitised the character of Holly Golightly, turning her from a call girl into a madcap socialite. But he was particularly enraged by the film’s ending, which is one of the most romantic imaginable, and unites Holly and Paul (George Peppard) as they search for her cat in the rain, finding it, and embracing. In the book, the ending is melancholy and ambiguous. Holly rejects love, gets rid of her pet and boards a flight to South America. Moreover, the cat remains lost.
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
I have been trying to work out why the Carlson—Rees-Mogg interview is going viral. I think it’s because because it represents the moment when traditional conservatism, defined by courtesy, self-restraint and truth, visibly overcomes the feverish, conspiracist and bellicose post-liberal Right. Sir @Jacob_Rees_Mogg was the perfect instrument of destruction. He is a man of unquestioned sincerity, intellect and courtliness. He was one of only two Ali G interviewees to emerge with his reputation enhanced, the other being Tony Benn, and for the same reason: utter sincerity. With Tucker, as with the brilliant Baron-Cohen, he bats away feverish, crackpot claims in a calm, measured and devastatingly gracious way. What ended McCarthyism was the dignified put down delivered by the Army’s lawyer, Joseph Welch, on live TV in June 1954: “Senator, you have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?” Joe McCarthy died three years later at the age of 48, broken and disgraced. As Welch to McCarthy, so Mogg to Tucker.
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Michael Atkinson retweeted
🚨🚨 Tucker Carlson argues that the UK should have stayed out of World War II and let Nazi Germany win. Jacob Rees-Mogg says that it was good to defeat Hitler, and says that they would be speaking German if they had lost. Tucker Carlson: “Who cares?” Oddly enough, you never hear Tucker Carlson say “Nazi Germany should have stayed out of Poland.”
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