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You\u2019d think a political operation would have to be fairly extreme to have its ads rejected by Facebook, the social networking giant which, let\u2019s face it, has never been too choosy about such things.<\/p>\n
So the mild-mannered men and women of Victoria\u2019s Legalise Cannabis Party, which had two candidates elected to state parliament\u2019s upper house last year, were left perplexed and confused \u2013 and not because of the bongs \u2013 when Facebook\u2019s parent company, Meta, refused to publish the party\u2019s ads.<\/p>\n
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Legalise Cannabis MPs David Ettershank and Rachel Payne.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Joe Armao <\/cite><\/p>\n After getting no joy out of Meta, MP Rachel Payne<\/strong> even appealed to the Victorian Electoral Commission to intervene in what the party alleges is a blatant case of censorship of political expression.<\/p>\n \u201cMy colleagues and myself are being unfairly treated and discriminated against through Meta\u2019s refusal to allow us to advertise, post stories about our party [and] even hiding our pages so that people cannot find us through searches,\u201d Payne pleaded.<\/p>\n The commission politely declined to get involved, saying this wasn\u2019t its jurisdiction, it had no authority over \u201cthe policies, procedures, or algorithms of social media platforms or companies\u201d and it couldn\u2019t advocate for a political party.<\/p>\n We approached Meta\u2019s comms people, several times actually, but we got no joy out of them either. So we all might just have to keep an eye on the feeds.<\/p>\n When facing insurmountable odds, sometimes you need your old soldiers, and in that respect the formerly embattled Camberwell Returned & Services League (RSL) sub-branch brings some big guns to the fight.<\/p>\n Former Liberal premiers Ted Baillieu<\/strong> and Jeff Kennett<\/strong> are helping lead the sub-branch back from the brink of extinction after it slipped into administration and looked like it was ready for the Last Post.<\/p>\n This is the first time any Victorian sub-branch has had two former state leaders on its board, and they\u2019re not just there for the parade ground.<\/p>\n Former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>David Caird<\/cite><\/p>\n Kennett, an army platoon commander in his national service days, recently deployed to engage in a rearguard action against the formidable State Revenue Office, which had hit the sub-branch with a $130,000 bill for several years\u2019 unpaid land tax on a property it owns in Camberwell Road.<\/p>\n The site is leased to a car wash business on a commercial basis, so pleading a charitable exemption \u2013 as a lot of RSLs are granted for their fundraising activities, including pokies \u2013 was tricky.<\/p>\n Kennett charged into Spring Street to get to grips with the tax men and women in what turned out to be quite a good-natured encounter.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were very polite and very calm and very accommodating,\u201d the former Second Lieutenant Kennett reported to CBD. \u201cI was too, of course.\u201d Of course.<\/p>\n But the charm offensive didn\u2019t win the day. The tax will have to be paid, although the former premier was able to wring some concessions on the interest owed on the back taxes.<\/p>\n Kennett said the club was facing an annual bill of up to $40,000 with the state Labor government\u2019s increases to land tax beginning to bite.<\/p>\n Things are looking more promising for the broader fight for the Camberwell sub-branch\u2019s survival, though, after a merger with the Tramways\/East Melbourne sub-branch to form the Camberwell Pompey Elliott<\/strong> Sub-branch. Kennett is upbeat about the club\u2019s prospects. But the car wash may, in time, have to be counted among the fallen \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just one of many organisations or families or businesses for whom land tax really is causing many people to think whether they can retain the buildings they\u2019ve got,\u201d Kennett told us.<\/p>\n We asked the state government if it wanted to talk any of that over, but it declined to take the field.<\/p>\n Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Alex Ellinghausen<\/cite><\/p>\n We brought the exciting news last week that Qantas\u2019 staff song-and-dance troupe, the Qantas Pathfinder Revue, would be giving the recent changing of the guard at the national carrier the musical treatment for a few performances of a show called Qaronation<\/em> at the end of the month.<\/p>\n Credit: <\/span>Jozsef Benke<\/cite><\/p>\n Now, we\u2019re happy to confirm, in a development that brought a puzzling amount of glee to insiders, that the carrier\u2019s new chief executive, Vanessa Hudson<\/b>, will be catching one of the performances.<\/p>\n This may seem an entirely run-of-the-mill occurrence, but it\u2019s seen as a small sign that Hudson\u2019s assurances to Qantas staff that desperately needed change is coming are genuine.<\/p>\n Over its 56 years, different bosses have taken different attitudes to the annual show, which has a tradition of gently sending up the airline\u2019s higher-ups.<\/p>\n James Strong<\/b>, who commanded the Flying Kangaroo\u2019s flight deck in the 1990s and early noughties, was a big fan. More recently, Alan Joyce<\/b>\u2019s attendance was sporadic at best.<\/p>\nSOLDIER ON<\/h3>\n
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