I have just had the extremely unfortunate experience of watching the PM Turnbull's announcement to the press about the expulsion of two Russian diplomats in "solidarity" with the UK's actions against that country over the poisoning incident involving Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. The number of lies, distortions and unproven allegations that Turnbull and Julie Bishop were able to string together in such a short diatribe was truly astonishing!
See it here:
This event that Theresa May and Boris Johnson have used to deflect attention from their disastrous government record and calamitous Brexit program has all the hallmarks of another lie being exploited to take the world into another Cold War, and even an actual Third World War. It absolutely forms a part of the campaign to demonise and isolate Russia as part of the geopolitical game being played out that also involves China and Iran, with key focal points in Syria and North Korea. The war hawks are certainly flying high today!
It is shocking that the mainstream media has bought into this Russian poisoning propaganda program when not shred of evidence has been presented by the UK government to definitively prove that the Russians were involved. Their denials are taken as proof of guilt and the media sucks up the hysterical cries of "Russia this, Russia that" without any attempt to ask for proof — of which there has been absolutely none provided to date. Never are the words "alleged Russian involvement" used in the reporting and not one question made of our politicians as to the substantive evidence provided that supports the actions taken against that country.
If ever there were a time for the media to stand up and perform it's role of holding politicians to account and digging into their claims and not just parrot the received truth as read out to them it is now. But no, we had instead questions about whether the measures being taken were sufficiently strong and what Australia could expect in return. But to cap it all off, some idiot journo actually changed the subject to ask about a soon to be mothballed power station. This was then followed by even more crucial questions seeking the PM's comment on cricket cheating.
Time indeed for the media to do their job!