Category: Informed Comment

Informed Comment

Is time up for Eric Abetz? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Labor’s Helen Polley and Anne Urquhart should be returned in Tasmania as should Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson. After an unsuccessful tussle with his former staffer Jonathon Duniam, Eric Abetz has been relegated to third spot on the Liberal party ballot with Wendy Askew at #2. There is a slim chance Eric could be gone and Labor pick up a seat but unlikely. It’s a nice thought nevertheless. Putting all that together, the likely end composition of the Senate is 37 Coalition, 24 Labor, 12 Greens, and Jacquie Lambie, with Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts as the deciding votes on legislation. I would suggest we all get very active about discussing the importance of the Senate vote with friends, family, neighbours, colleagues and anyone who will listen. A hung parliament is one thing but we don’t have time for a paralysed one at the mercy of PHON.

Source: Is time up for Eric Abetz? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

The Guardian view on a bad prime minister: how to get rid of Boris Johnson | Editorial | The Guardian

Last week Boris Johnson ‘brazenly refused to accept that the political principle should apply to him’.

An appropriate description of The Tories, The Republicans, and the LNP

A fish rots, it is said, from the head down. With claims of blackmail, bullying and racism, it seems so too does a political party

Source: The Guardian view on a bad prime minister: how to get rid of Boris Johnson | Editorial | The Guardian

Informed Comment

There’s a sense of disbelief at Morrison’s ignorance, lying, arrogance and supposed Christianity – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day When a political party deliberately withholds information that the voter needs to make an informed, balanced and reasoned assessment of how it is being governed. It is lying by omission. It is also tantamount to the manipulation of our democracy. ( John Lord )

PS: A comment by Kaye Lee on my last post is well worth repeating: “It’s not the comments that are the problem Scotty… it’s the lack of foresight of the Government in preparing for what would happen when they got rid of basically all restrictions at once and said to the unvaccinated go forth and party.”

Source: There’s a sense of disbelief at Morrison’s ignorance, lying, arrogance and supposed Christianity – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

EXCLUSIVE: Morrison and Hunt’s tricky denial of RAT requisitions

We didn’t do it and we don’t lie!!!!

RAT TRAP Both Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt have publicly denied this is the case. A spokesperson from Mr Hunt’s office informed IA that the Minister for Health categorically denies mandatorily requisitioning, redistributing or otherwise appropriating stocks meant for retailers.

Source: EXCLUSIVE: Morrison and Hunt’s tricky denial of RAT requisitions

Informed Comment

After the seven hottest years on record, Labor lessens its climate ambition – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Whilst Labor’s policies are preferable to the Coalition’s, they fall far short of what must be done. We cannot afford the timidity shown by the two major parties who bow to pressure from vested interests and are paralysed by fear of reprisal from their colleagues as much as from the electorate. Nor can we afford the denial from Barnaby’s mob and the Pauline and Clive cults. When Labor form government, the necessity for action will only be greater and the voices demanding it even louder. I hope they are ready.

Source: After the seven hottest years on record, Labor lessens its climate ambition – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

A closer look at Scott Morrison’s career before parliament – Crikey

Scott Morrison career

In among a string of election campaign failures, Morrison had a regular habit of leaving or being pushed out of jobs before his contracts were finished.There were two stints that have, perhaps understandably, been scrubbed from his Wikipedia page.

The first was a period at big four consulting group KPMG in 2000, where he was attempting to start up a tourism practice.

The second was an ill-fated turn as the strategic director for the campaign of New South Wales Liberal leader Peter Debnam during his failed 2007 election bid.A self-styled “marketer” (he actually has a Bachelor of Science in applied economic geography from UNSW) Morrison instead hired others to do the marketing work, according to a number of people that worked with him in his various tourism jobs, while he focused largely on the networking.

This networking brought him into contact with Liberal grandees who promoted him ever higher, until he landed in — or rather was parachuted into — federal parliament in 2007.

Source: A closer look at Scott Morrison’s career before parliament – Crikey

Informed Comment

Arise, Pandemic Profiteers – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Another parallel of the Black Death is worthy of note. The plague was so disruptive as to cause its own alterations of the feudal order. The wealthy might have scurried to their places of ornate and padded seclusion, but they were by no means guaranteed survival. Around them, aggressive depopulation fed the fulcrum of change. It emboldened the peasantry, resulting in a range of riots and a challenge to social and economic circumstances. The likes of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have yet to see a modern version of a peasant insurrection. Perhaps it’s time they did.

Source: Arise, Pandemic Profiteers – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Barnaby thinks being in government is for looking after your mates. So does his mate Gina. – » The Australian Independent Media Network

When Barnaby Joyce regained the leadership of the Nationals in June last year, no-one could have been happier than his dear friend and supporter, Gina Rinehart. She immediately offered to host a party for him. Those VIPs lucky enough to secure an invitation to spend an evening with Barnaby and Gina at her palatial coastal hideaway in Noosa could secure their spot for a mere $10,000 a head. At a fundraiser for Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien shortly after their soiree, Barnaby sang Gina’s praises, which Ms Rinehart has graciously shared with us on her website. Mr Joyce spoke of the LNP’s belief in the importance of the individual to be master of their own game as opposed to being controlled by the state. He praised the efforts of his long-time “mate”, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, who attended the event. “Gina is one of the most powerful women in the world,” he said. “If we had more Gina’s we’d have a more powerful nation,” he said.

Source: Barnaby thinks being in government is for looking after your mates. So does his mate Gina. – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Paul Bongiorno: Summer of our discontent changes political calculus

Morrison Peter Costello tries to boost Morrison by telling us “what we think” in The Age poll.

However:

The rising death toll and explosion in infections are a direct result of the failure to provide adequate safeguards to cope with these new “freedoms”. Experts warned exceptionally high vaccination rates by world standards would not be enough. Instead, we were given the mantra of “getting the government off people’s backs and out of their lives”. It was a stark dereliction of a government’s public health responsibilities. The failure to provide self-administered rapid antigen tests (RATs) as an essential tool in keeping the country functioning is a major contributor to the deep malaise we are now experiencing. Empty supermarket shelves are the most eloquent witnesses to this reckless wishful thinking. The situation has become so dire even Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s critics are giving him a serious second look.

Source: Paul Bongiorno: Summer of our discontent changes political calculus

Informed Comment

Housing affordability plunge: radical policy the only answer – Michael West Media

Australia housing, real estate, property market

A drastic slide in home ownership, mirrored by an equally dramatic rise in mortgage debt and renting, is a direct result of failed government policy. Spiralling inequality in the “Land of the Fair Go can be addressed, ironically, by stronger lending standards. Economist and The New Liberals candidate Steve Keen on the crisis in affordable housing. At the 1998 Census, 43% of Australians owned their houses outright, 29% had a mortgage, 18% rented from private landlords, and 6% from the government (the remainder were in hotels, homeless, etc). Twenty years later, only 30% owned their houses outright, 37% had a mortgage, while 27% rented from landlords and 3% from the government. And yet the objective of housing policy, under both Liberal and Labor governments, was to increase home ownership.

Source: Housing affordability plunge: radical policy the only answer – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

Government sabotages rule of law in Djokovic case for political advantage – Michael West Media

Novak Djokovic, visa

The Novak Djokovic case has less to do with the tennis star himself and more to do with politics and how far a government is prepared to push the rules, indeed the independence of the Court, when the legal system is not working just as it would like. Four things stand out in the government’s campaign to undermine the rule of law: a convenient “minister swap” from Karen Andrews to Alex Hawke, Hawke keeping his decision secret for four days, the government’s fragile pretext that Djokovic might arouse anti-vax sentiment, and a judiciary prepared for a government which would play politics with the Court. Only the most ardent acolytes of the Coalition would agree with Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s claim to hold dear to rules. He might have said “rules are rules … no one is above these rules”, but his is a government prepared to subvert rules at any opportunity for political gain. And it is fair to say that, in this instance, a sacred rule of democracy – that is, the independence of the judiciary from executive government – has come under attack.

Source: Government sabotages rule of law in Djokovic case for political advantage – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

Why You Definitely Should Do Your Own Research… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Yes, we heard about the four killed in the pink batts installations for years and they were all supposed to be Kevin Rudd’s fault, but we can have dozens dying every day and it’s just the price of a healthy economy. Who says this government doesn’t put health first? I guess the pink batts guys didn’t have “underlying health conditions”…

Source: Why You Definitely Should Do Your Own Research… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Deporting Novak Djokovic Is a Political Stunt

May be an image of text

This is closer to the truth

Do not be fooled Morrison’s Government can be right for the wrong reasons at one and the same time. Distraction the primary purpose for doing the most popular action doesn’t remove the stain of Morrison’s pandemic cock up.

While COVID-19 overwhelms Australia’s health system, Scott Morrison’s government has spent the week trying to deport tennis star Novak Djokovic. It’s a cynical attempt to distract from a major public health disaster.

Source: Deporting Novak Djokovic Is a Political Stunt

Informed Comment

Why Isn’t Corporate America Behind the Pro-democracy Movement? | The Smirking Chimp

Despotism is bad for capitalism. Despots don’t respect property rights. They don’t honor the rule of law. They are arbitrary and unpredictable. All of this harms the owners of capital. Despotism also invites civil strife and conflict, which destabilize a society and an economy. My message to every CEO in America: You need democracy, but you’re actively undermining it. It’s time for you to join the pro-democracy movement. Get solidly behind voting rights. Actively lobby for the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Use your lopsidedly large power in American democracy to protect American democracy — and do it soon. Otherwise, we may lose what’s left of it.

Source: Why Isn’t Corporate America Behind the Pro-democracy Movement? | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

Yes, “rules are rules” Scott, you invent them, break them, subvert them and ignore them – Michael West Media

scott morrison, rules are rules

With Trump gone and Boris on the verge Scotty is the one left standing spruiking Bullshit in the Anglo world. Odd isn’t it Murdoch is still entrenched.

PM Scott Morrison came out strongly against Novak Djokovic again this week, claiming “rules are rules … no one is above these rules”. Yet the list of this government’s broken rules is prolific. From sports rorts, au pairs, parliamentary entitlements, environmental standards, action on climate to Christian Porter. Callum Foote and Michael West on brazen hypocrisy.

Source: Yes, “rules are rules” Scott, you invent them, break them, subvert them and ignore them – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

Leadership is vital in this election – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day Lying in the media is wrong at any time; however, it is even more so when they do it by deliberate omission. Murdoch’s papers seem to do it with impunity. ( John Lord )

Source: Leadership is vital in this election – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

He just won’t listen – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The flooding of the media by the Djokovic case has tangentially drawn attention to Australia’s draconian border enforcement and the plight of the refugees who have been held hostage for nine years.When Morrison was told about the declining health and the neglect and abuse of children in detention, he denied it and accused advocates of promoting self-harm. When told that refugees are suffering torture, he claimed our strong borders make that necessary. Which makes his newfound concern about the mental health issues caused by state border closures sound very hollow.It really doesn’t matter what issue is facing the nation, risk assessment and expert advice are ignored in favour of tame consultants, ministerial decree, contracts without tender, grants without due process, and appointments without merit. We have panels and departments and commissions and reviews to make recommendations – all routinely ignored. To have such unerring confidence that you know better is foolhardy.Australia is paying a high price for Morrison’s hubris.

Source: He just won’t listen – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Healthy humans drive the economy: we’re now witnessing one of the worst public policy failures in Australia’s history

Healthy humans drive the economy: we're now witnessing one of the worst public policy failures in Australia's history

Australians are getting a stark reminder about how value is actually created in an economy, and how supply chains truly work. Ask chief executives where value comes from and they will credit their own smart decisions that inflate shareholder wealth. Ask logistics experts how supply chains work and they will wax eloquent about ports, terminals and trucks. Politicians, meanwhile, highlight nebulous intangibles like “investor confidence” – enhanced, presumably, by their own steady hands on the tiller. The reality of value-added production and supply is much more human than all of this. It is people who are the driving force behind production, distribution and supply. Labour – human beings getting out of bed and going to work, using their brains and brawn to produce actual goods and services – is the only thing that adds value to the “free gifts” we harvest from nature. It’s the only thing that puts food on supermarket shelves, cares for sick people and teaches our children.

Source: Healthy humans drive the economy: we’re now witnessing one of the worst public policy failures in Australia’s history

Informed Comment

The Coming Coup: How Republicans Are Laying the Groundwork to Steal Future Elections – Mother Jones

For months, voting rights advocates and scholars of democracy have issued hair-on-fire warnings about the danger that the GOP’s death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy poses to the very foundation of representative democracy. “The American experiment is at risk,” Holder says. This is not hyperbole. And by 2024 the damage may have already been done. The members of Congress, governors, secretaries of state, attorneys general, state legislators, and local officials elected this November will determine to a large extent whether there will be fair elections for years to come.

Source: The Coming Coup: How Republicans Are Laying the Groundwork to Steal Future Elections – Mother Jones

Informed Comment

Will we survive the Morrison Government?

Morrison has died a thousand political deaths only to be spawned again yelling “don’t look in the rear vision mirror. Don’t look at the history of his government his political life is reborn and starts again today and he has the media Murdoch, Costello, and Stokes paid to back him up. Look how well Harvey Norman, Housing and the stock exchange are doing. Unfortunately we have a leader whose been playing whack-a-mole, without any concept of the past or future merely trying to stay alive today with no real direction. 18 months ago the Government was approached by an Australian RTA mfger and rejected. Yes rejected by our Government. No need for such trivia.

Meanwhile the nation is systematically sinking at an accelerated pace because what Morrison has in fact been doing is nothing. Nothing to stave off the collapse of the essential workers in health, industry, retail, transport or education why because the unions just might have some advice. What he is doing is trying to change the laws to allow infectious workers to keep on working and spreading the virus. A virus that can be caught no just once but multiple times to a point of collapse. How the fuck did this happen? Because Morrison believes a healthy economy produces a healthy nation and not that healthy nation produces a healthy economy. Morrison said  “It was China’s fault”,”it’s not a race”,”lockdowns aren’t necessary”, and it’s “our fault” never his. What has he been doing? He’s been ” doing a Trump and like a camp follower has brought us to where we are today. He’s even pulled the RATs out from the Pharmacies reach that not so “free market” because the fucker can’t deliver the ones he promised. Yes it’s Morrison playing whack-a-mole with our lives.

He’s given us the most expensive government in Australia’s history. He has taxed us more invidually than the ALP, cut welfare, while subsidising and lowering corporate taxes as if there were no tomorrow. Our standing in the world has plummetted on every social metric while allowing only 1% of the nation to prosper and government debt increase by 200% to a $1Trn. Now that’s not leader. Thats not for the common good of this nation by any measure imaginable that’s a snake oil huckster a vampire sucking the very marrow out of us by simply doing nothing or when doing something it’s  far too late. Good Onya ScaMo

The answer to all the above questions is that this Morrison Government is not interested in rules. It’s not even concerned with the welfare of its own people in the midst of a global pandemic. Its interests lie only in getting re-elected and appeasing its donors so this can happen.

Source: Will we survive the Morrison Government?

Informed Comment

“Living with Covid” – not so easy if you’re in an aged care home! – Michael West Media

aged care home in lockdown

 

What was Scott Morrison’s plan when he decided Australians should “live with Covid”? Did he give any thought to the impact this would have on older people living in aged care homes? Sarah Russell reports on the plight of our most vulnerable.

Source: “Living with Covid” – not so easy if you’re in an aged care home! – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

Today everyone gets a serve. Including Scott. Line ball or not. – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day Scott Morrison’s words and actions bring into question the very essence of the word truth. Or they have at least devalued it to the point of obsolescence.( John Lord )

Source: Today everyone gets a serve. Including Scott. Line ball or not. – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

ScoMo plays Djoko but Dutton buys tanks – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The saga of a tennis star’s visa cancellation certainly serves to highlight the incalculable damage the federal government is suffering as it utterly fails to deal with a pandemic catastrophe which its own Libertarian easing of restrictions helped create. It also exposes a mind-boggling degree of incompetence and miscommunication, of posturing and dissembling that would be comic were it not so toxic to the health of the commonwealth.

Source: ScoMo plays Djoko but Dutton buys tanks – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Anachronistic Frivolity: Australia’s Recent Tank Purchase – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Critics of the purchase have included otherwise hawkish pundits such as Greg Sheridan of The Australian, who spent some of last year shaking his head at the proposed acquisition after it was announced by the US Defence Cooperation Agency. The decision, he opined unleashing his talons, was one of “sheer idiocy,” an “anachronistic frivolity.” Tanks and other heavy, tracked vehicles would “never be of the slightest military use to us.” Sheridan poses a range of questions. In any confrontation with China, could a tank defend shipping in the South China Sea? Or “take out enemy submarines?” Or “deliver attack missiles over hundreds of kilometres?” His solutions: buy more jets, manufacture more drones, and address naval capabilities. Others also argue that Dutton, were he to be genuinely interested in Australia’s security and safety, would be spending more time on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and coping with the threats posed by climate change, or investing in pandemic responses. Now that would be a big ask. The tank fraternity, a gathering of near cultic loyalty, are swooning in triumph. As Peter J. Dean, director of the Defence and Security Institute at the University of Western

Source: Anachronistic Frivolity: Australia’s Recent Tank Purchase – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Big business profiteers ride Omicron wave, private hospital profit wave is next

Big business profiteers have made out like bandits through the Pandemic, emboldened by myriad failures of government and community panic. Callum Foote and Stephanie Tran report on the RAT test wave and the wave of private hospital profiteering looming in its wake.

Source: Big business profiteers ride Omicron wave, private hospital profit wave is next

Informed Comment

Djokovic case makes Australia an international laughing stock

Whichever way the Federal Circuit Court decides, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews’ decision to cancel Novak Djokovic’s visa has made Australia an international laughing stock. It highlights the dangers of ministers and prime ministers becoming involved in individual visa decisions for purely political purposes. But how did it come to this?LNP

Source: Djokovic case makes Australia an international laughing stock

Informed Comment

Teachers are not babysitters – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Health- medical frontline staff shortage, Education- Teaching Staff Shortage and  Morrison is yelling “Let it RIP”.

We all want our kids to be back at school, learning and playing and doing all the normal kid stuff. But these are not normal times and teachers are not easily replaceable babysitters.

Source: Teachers are not babysitters – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Visa Gridlock: the migration surge is coming … but who is it? – Michael West Media

Australia immigration, visas, Abul Rizvi

The Morrison government, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke and the business lobby desperately want a surge in immigration to fire the economy but 330,000 migrants are stuck on bridging visas as the permanent migration program remains – contrary to reports – mired at an intake of 160,000. Former immigration chief Abul Rizvi on a murky MYEFO and the migration backlog.

Source: Visa Gridlock: the migration surge is coming … but who is it? – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

Djokovic unhappy but Australia’s refugees face lifelong persecution

LNP supports privatized Prisons for Profit and Prisons for Profit support the LNP. Isn’t that a perfect Quid pro Quo policy? The LNP’s urgency in privatizing all government services is not just a Quid pro Quo movement described by Mussolini as the ideal state. He called it Fascism. However quite the opposite of the ideal Australians strive for called Democracy. Save Our Public Service

The immigration detention industry in Australia profits from imprisoning refugees. The Australian Government outsources the day-to-day management of its cruel immigration detention system to private corporations who, in turn, make political donations to them. One of the largest beneficiaries of Australian Government contracts is Serco Group, which has an octopus-like grip on many former government and community services in the UK and across the globe that are now privatised for profit. This human rights-abusing “profit before people” approach must be stopped and the rights of asylum seekers upheld everywhere.

Source: Djokovic unhappy but Australia’s refugees face lifelong persecution

Informed Comment

Now let’s get this straight: We don’t have the best… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day We live in dark times where horrible things are being perpetrated on us. The shame is that we have normalised them and adjusted accordingly. ( John Lord )

Source: Now let’s get this straight: We don’t have the best… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: The Great Golf Rort where Labor seats need not apply

golf

Then there is the issue of why the federal government is throwing millions of dollars at golf clubs at all – they are, after all, private businesses, whatever their ownership structure, and part of the big business that is golf.

Source: Michael Pascoe: The Great Golf Rort where Labor seats need not apply

Informed Comment

The Secret to Tenacity | The Smirking Chimp

How do reformers maintain their strength and commitment over so many years? Continuous activism is exhausting. Burnout is a constant hazard. What’s the secret to their tenacity? I can think of three:

Source: The Secret to Tenacity | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

Skilled migrant arrivals hit 20-year low – but Covid is not the reason for innovation deflation – Michael West Media

Migration

The drop in skilled workers arriving in Australia has hit the economy, and it began six years before the Pandemic. Alan Austin reports on the decline of innovation and the jobs crisis.

Source: Skilled migrant arrivals hit 20-year low – but Covid is not the reason for innovation deflation – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

While university jobs disappeared, Jobkeeper provided a windfall to wealthy private schools – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The resource advantage of private schools is set to continue for the rest of the decade under the terms of the Commonwealth-State bilateral funding agreements. Private schools will be funded at over 100 per cent of their Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) while public schools will be funded at less than 91 per cent of their SRS in all states except the ACT. As a result, public schools will remain massively under-funded. It points to the need for a comprehensive overhaul of school funding.

Source: While university jobs disappeared, Jobkeeper provided a windfall to wealthy private schools – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

The Potterizing of America: As the Child Tax Credit Ends, Big Corporations (and Their CEOs and Investors) Keep Raking It In | The Smirking Chimp

This is what I mean when I say America has been Potterized: People at the top — top corporate executives and big investors — are doing better than ever. Everyone else is being squeezed.

Source: The Potterizing of America: As the Child Tax Credit Ends, Big Corporations (and Their CEOs and Investors) Keep Raking It In | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

Whopper Returns: Tax Office fee bonanza the latest in the privatisation of government – Michael West Media

ATO, tax, outsourcing

There are few government agencies which have escaped the privatisation fetish of the Coalition. Callum Foote and Michael West report on the hypocrisy of the “personal responsibility” mantra amid concerns raised by Australian Tax Office insiders over the surging use of external consultants and lawyers.

Source: Whopper Returns: Tax Office fee bonanza the latest in the privatisation of government – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

Édouard Louis: Why Is Individual Responsibility Only for the Poor?

Is he describing Scott Morrison PM?

French author Édouard Louis is famous for his works portraying the daily humiliations of working-class life. In an interview, he explains how our rulers avoid responsibility for their decisions — while blaming the rest of us for how we cope with the consequences.

Source: Édouard Louis: Why Is Individual Responsibility Only for the Poor?

Informed Comment

The Week Ahead: The Start of Accountability for Trump’s Attempted Coup? | The Smirking Chimp

Yet if we do not strengthen voting rights, and if Trump and his accomplices are not held criminally accountable, we are inviting another attempted coup. Next time, it could succeed. Your thoughts?

Source: The Week Ahead: The Start of Accountability for Trump’s Attempted Coup? | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

How to solve the RAT supply dilemma – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The federal government could procure the needed supplies and provide them to pharmacies for free who could then distribute them for a set dispensing fee that covers their fixed costs – no mark-up, no GST, limited supply per person.Other businesses could buy them in bulk for workplace testing for cost price from the government who would act as the wholesaler.That’s why we have a universal healthcare system.Use some of the Medical Future Fund that Costello is hatching if you really need some cash to pay for it.Or stop spending billions on war toys we will never use.Priorities.It’s not rocket science, troops.

Source: How to solve the RAT supply dilemma – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: No, there is no wages growth over the next four years

Frydenberg The Carpetbagger’s Pitch

Fairly typical of government’s successful pre-MYEFO marketing was: “The update will also forecast an associated uptick in wages growth of about 11 per cent between now and 2024-25, which is up from the 9 per cent forecast in the May budget, and worth about $10,000 to those currently earning $90,000 a year.” Sounds good, doesn’t it? But it’s the old trick of adding up a number of years and ignoring inflation and taxation, never mind interaction with the transfer system. The document itself forecast “wages growth to outstrip inflation over the four-year forward estimates”. But that was only for pre-tax wages. After-tax is still going backwards over that period.

Source: Michael Pascoe: No, there is no wages growth over the next four years

Informed Comment

US could be under rightwing dictator by 2030, Canadian professor warns | US politics | The Guardian

Donald Trump speaks in Greenville, North Carolina, last June.

The US could be under a rightwing dictatorship by 2030, a Canadian political science professor has warned, urging his country to protect itself against the “collapse of American democracy”.

Source: US could be under rightwing dictator by 2030, Canadian professor warns | US politics | The Guardian

Informed Comment

Know your Premier – » The Australian Independent Media Network

As NSW records over 22,000 new cases of COVID and the number in hospital races towards a thousand, it’s worth getting to know the man who decided to “open up” just as the Omicron strain was taking off.At 39, Dominic Perrottet is our youngest premier. He is one of 12 children and is about to become a father for the 7th time.His younger brother gave an interesting defence to police when he faced allegations of rape in 2017. Mr Perrottet, who comes from a large family belonging to the conservative Catholic order Opus Dei, later told police there was no way they had sexual intercourse. “It’s against my religion,” he said.Dom was born in 1982 and was preselected in 2010 for the NSW seat of Castle Hill. Prior to that he had completed a commerce/law degree which takes 5 years. He apparently worked briefly for a law firm but it was purely a stepping stone as his political ambitions were clear, serving as the President of the NSW Young Liberals Movement in 2005 and on the NSW State Executive of the Liberal Party from 2008 to 2011.Perrottet is an electorate hopper, moving from Castle Hill to Hawkesbury to Epping, wherever he sees the cushiest path.

Source: Know your Premier – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Olde Pascoe’s Almanacke reveals pirate prefers plank to politics in 2022

2022 coming to get you

If you think you know the sound of horror, try the unmistakable thump of a bloody pirate demon’s wooden leg coming down the stairs accompanied by the scratch of a hook hand gouging the railing for balance. Yes, it really is worse than fingernails on a blackboard.

Source: Olde Pascoe’s Almanacke reveals pirate prefers plank to politics in 2022

Informed Comment

Rupert Murdoch media inquiry misses the real bogeys – Michael West Media

Rupert Murdoch, News Corp Australia, media inquiry

Half a million Australians have called for a Royal Commission into Rupert Murdoch’s abuse of power and Australia’s media concentration. But are News Corp thuggery and media diversity really the main game? Michael West investigates a mollycoddled media.

Source: Rupert Murdoch media inquiry misses the real bogeys – Michael West Media

Informed Comment, Nuclear Energy

IKEA it ain’t: don’t go looking for friendly nuclear option, no matter the spin – Michael West Media

SMRs, small nuclear reactors, modular reactors

Despite the Murdoch media hype over small nuclear reactors as a solution for Australia’s “clean energy” future, this is costly technology which barely exists in a commercial sense. Noel Wauchope explores the murky world of funding for Small Nuclear Reactors (SMRs).

Source: IKEA it ain’t: don’t go looking for friendly nuclear option, no matter the spin – Michael West Media