Category: LNP Economic Management

LNP Economic Management

Bank for International Settlements warns global economy is ‘flashing red’

Australians who took large mortgages during the pandemic could be among the most exposed in the world as central banks drive up interest rates to stop inflation.

Just over a month ago, Josh Frydenberg was telling us just how good Australia’s fundamentals were looking. The LNP was the best economic manager. Well, that’s proved to be rubbish. However, now the LNP is already declaring the ALP’s honeymoon period over and blaming them for the immediate turnaround or revelations about the economy. The books are being audited and were found the story is in fact quite the opposite to what Morrison and Frydenberg had been selling but much closer to what the ALP have been saying all along. The facts aren’t what we have been told. The question now is who is going to pay?

Global economic indicators are flashing red with a real risk of stagflation, one of the world’s most senior economists has warned, and highly indebted Australians are among the most exposed to rising prices and slowing growth.

Source: Bank for International Settlements warns global economy is ‘flashing red’

LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Revealed: Australia’s true emissions concealed, corporates “double-count” household rooftop solar – Michael West

Clean Energy Regulator, rooftop solar

The government has admitted almost all rooftop solar energy in Australia may be double-counted – a massive emission reduction free ride for Australia’s largest corporations. Callum Foote reports.

Source: Revealed: Australia’s true emissions concealed, corporates “double-count” household rooftop solar – Michael West

LNP Economic Management

Lacking Energy? It’s Labor’s Fault Apparently… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Sometimes I wonder why something that I see as a simple idea isn’t being suggested by people in public office. You know, simple things like – given the shortage of workers in some industries – why don’t we double the amount that the unemployed could earn before they lose any of their benefits? It would…

 It’s starting to sound all socialist and full of red tape and we all know that privatisation is the way to go because, hey, hasn’t privatisation worked a treat with all the areas where governments have privatised.

I’m trying to think of a specific example here, but I guess my trouble must be that there are so many of them,

Ah, Qantas. Once it used to be government-owned but now that it’s in private hands, they find your lost luggage much more efficiently because they’ve had so much experience at it…

All right, the Commonwealth Bank… Um, public transport?

Anyway, we know that it much be better because why else would governments keep selling off public assets to their mates?

Source: Lacking Energy? It’s Labor’s Fault Apparently… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP Economic Management

Michaelia Cash and Angus Taylor claim credit for low unemployment but shirk responsibility for energy crisis | The West Australian

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash

Strange how ex AG Cash can claim credit for a stat without being specific about what the LNP decisions were that caused low unemployment.  The pandemic not the LNP was to blame. The clamp of students, skilled, workers and Immigration was a decision forced on the LNP by Covid and not a proactive decision to reduce unemployment. It was a decision forced on Morrison after the Ruby Princess debacle. We certainly weren’t party to their wisdom at the time and it was an act instep globally.

What isn’t claimed as credit however is the degree of underemployment hidden in the figures. Something the Liberals stay silent on. They cut penalty wages and watched the income gap widen. They even fought against the reason for the 5.2% minimum wage rise necessary to diminish the actual wage loss the poorest workers suffered under their management. The real hidden unemployment figure that has been suggested is closer to 10% and the quality of employment is suffering.

A pair of high-ranking former Coalition ministers — including WA Senator Michaelia Cash — have claimed credit for Australia’s record low unemployment rate while attempting to dodge responsibility for the energy crisis engulfing the east coast.

Ms Cash, the Shadow Employment and Workplace Relations Minster, and Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said the nation’s 3.9 per cent jobless rate in May, confirmed by the ABS on Thursday, was evidence the economy inherited by recently elected Prime Minster Anthony Albanese was “in good shape”.

“The only reason you have an unemployment rate that has remained steady today at 3.9 per cent with the creation of 60,000 jobs… is because of the decisions that the former Coalition government took when they were in office,” Ms Cash said.

Source: Michaelia Cash and Angus Taylor claim credit for low unemployment but shirk responsibility for energy crisis | The West Australian

LNP Economic Management

Cost of living and superannuation gap leaves many migrants in Australia struggling to retire – ABC News

Suad Hirmiz's husband sist with his arm around her as they look at the camera smiling.

MORRISON & FRYDENBERG’S PROUD ECONOMIC MANAGEMEMT

At age 66, Suad Hirmiz found herself on the hunt for a new house to rent. 

With her only income being Centrelink disability payments and her husband’s age pension, she resorted to selling her gold jewellery and offered to pay four months’ rent up front.

“No real estate agents would accept our applications,” Ms Hirmiz told the ABC.

“So I sold my gold. I just went down to Sydney Road [in Melbourne] and sold it.”

The couple are on a housing commission waiting list, but in the meantime nearly half of their fortnightly government payments go towards rent.

With little or no superannuation, increasing costs of living and limited access to suitable care facilities, many Australians are struggling to retire.

Source: Cost of living and superannuation gap leaves many migrants in Australia struggling to retire – ABC News

LNP Economic Management

National accounts mark Coalition ‘F’ for Fail on the economy

LAST WEDNESDAY’S national accounts confirm what voters have apparently already decided — that the Morrison Government was not that great at economic management after all.

Source: National accounts mark Coalition ‘F’ for Fail on the economy

LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

The economy is growing but workers are not getting the benefits – ABC News

A female mine worker walks past a mine dump truck at a coal mine in central Queensland.

This week’s National Accounts show the economy growing solidly. But the growth is mainly benefiting businesses, especially mining businesses, while workers’ wages fall further behind. The

Source: The economy is growing but workers are not getting the benefits – ABC News

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Student visas: Little more than unsponsored work permits

What we inherited from the LNP

The current high approval rate for offshore VET sector student applications from Nepal could raise more risk of colleges focused on selling “work visas” rather than education, writes Dr Abul Rizvi.

MOST AUSTRALIANS would be surprised that over the last two months, Nepal was Australia’s leading source of overseas students, overtaking both China and India.

Source: Student visas: Little more than unsponsored work permits

LNP, LNP Economic Management

Barnaby Joyce’s dam water set to cost 100 times more than market rates | Water | The Guardian

Dungowan Creek, Tamworth, on which the current dam is sited and the new dam will be sited.

Sky News is prompting that the Liberals need to move even further right than the nationals to create an identity distinct from Labor. That alone tells us their only attention is to themselves and not the nation or the common good.  Some among them even seem to regard Neo Nazis as too left-wing. We’ve seen how Angus Taylor knows how to strike water deals with Barnaby, haven’t we? It’s all in-house and with taxpayer money.

Project backed by the National party is expected to top $162,000 per megalitre if cost recovery is pursued

Source: Barnaby Joyce’s dam water set to cost 100 times more than market rates | Water | The Guardian

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Coalition continues to spike consultancy costs to a billion – Michael West

Lobbyland

Private consultation was promised to be cheaper, more efficent, allowing money to be spent elsewhere.

Since the Coalition took office in 2013, contracts awarded to the big four accounting firms have risen by 209%, or by $70 million per year on average, from $309 million to $936 million in 2021.

Source: Coalition continues to spike consultancy costs to a billion – Michael West

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Cuts to public sector spending underpin Coalition’s forecast budget improvement – ABC News

Cuts to public sector spending underpin Coalition's forecast budget improvement

Morrison introduced the “efficiency dividend” a $1Bn cut to the ABC almost a decade ago when “No cuts” to the ABC were a promised LNP policy. That promise isn’t even an Oxymoron its a simple straight-out lie and a 1000 cuts were always planned. The “efficiency dividend” was a funding cut by another name. But it’s an illegal one at that and goes against the intended grain of the ABC as a legally constituted Independent Statutory Body, not one to be interfered with by any government let alone abused, as has been the case by the series of LNP governments this past decade. In effect neutering the constitutionally formulated body and our Democracy one and the same time. Yes the LNP has taxed us by stealth all these years at a greater rate than the ALP.

The government will increase the efficiency dividend, which cuts public sector spending, to 2 per cent The Coalition says the move will raise $2 billion in revenue Labor will release its policy costings on Thursday

Source: Cuts to public sector spending underpin Coalition’s forecast budget improvement – ABC News

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Politicians’ pay has gone up by a third in a decade, but a wage rise in line with inflation is too much?

On the money? Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

They are all about to benefit from stage 3 tax cuts the rest of will be left to watch.

It was pointed out, too, that politicians’ salaries have not suffered from the near-decade of wage stagnation that has afflicted the rest of us. Their pay has gone up 30 per cent over the past 10 years. The annual base rate for a backbencher is now $211,250 (ministers and shadows get more), and the prime minister’s salary is $550,000.

Morrison, his media backers and the business lobby were horrified at the thought that the wages of the poorest workers should meet inflation – which is to say, workers should not take a pay cut.

“Morrison supports decline in living standards” should have been the headline

Source: Politicians’ pay has gone up by a third in a decade, but a wage rise in line with inflation is too much?

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Scott and Josh “superior economic managers”? Not according to the IMF – Michael West

Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg, Australia economy

THE GREAT LIE, THE FACTS

It may be the only campaign tactic they have left, and it’s a lie, but the media laps it up and Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg are flogging it hard. That’s the claim that the Coalition are “superior economic managers” and Labor can’t be trusted to run the economy. Alan Austin looks at International Monetary Fund data and puts the case that Labor have been far superior economic managers.

Source: Scott and Josh “superior economic managers”? Not according to the IMF – Michael West

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

‘You may not like me’: PM tries to rally Liberal supporters

tax The PM's pledge only limits his government's options.

The point is nobody does “know the plan” because it hasn’t been laid out in detail and it keeps changing. It seems to be one that keeps “increasing debt” by “pork barrelling” and providing “benefits for the wealthiest” sectors of the community. We don’t like Morrison because he runs on dishonesty at a level never experienced before and commands a team comprised of the same qualities. His is simply not a government. He is rather, a CEO of a dodgy Corporation whose shareholders he’s trying to oblige and the nation are his workers to do with whatever he wants to service the ever flowing dividends.

“The point is you know what our plan is … now is not the time to take a risk on what you don’t know.”

Source: ‘You may not like me’: PM tries to rally Liberal supporters

LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Tactics

Who gives a stuff about inflation in the US and UK? – Michael West

Frydenberg would have, if he could have, said “They’re doing it tougher in Ukraine therefore we should be grateful for Morrison’s LNP”

‘‘Australians couldn’t give a stuff about inflation in the United States,’’ Labor’s Jim Chalmers told a media conference. ‘’And the UK,’’ he added later. The shadow treasurer was responding to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s attempts to play down the inflation rate (5.1%, the highest in 21 years) by citing higher rates elsewhere. Malcolm Fraser tried similar to Frydenberg in 1983 amid severe recession, running the slogan: ‘‘We’re not waiting for the world’’. It didn’t save the Coalition from a thumping defeat.

Source: Who gives a stuff about inflation in the US and UK? – Michael West

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

“Change is a law of life” – » The Australian Independent Media Network

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” (John F. Kennedy, 1963)

The former United States President spoke these eloquent words at a time when the USA was releasing itself from the restrictive leashes of its past and setting out at the dawn of an exciting new era.

Yesterday Mr Frydenberg said; “now is not the time for a change of government.”

The same desperate words were spoken by Mr Morrison again this morning on The Today Show. They are desperate words spoken from the decks of the sinking ship which is the Morrison Government. However, peel back the layers of fear mongering, dog whistling, disinformation and now desperation, what lays beneath at the bottom of the Morrison Government’s ship? Nothing! There is no plan for our manufacturing sector, for our aged care sector, and tertiary education providers, to name a few. It’s just the same old song, and the Liberal Party wants the beat to go on. They ask that you ignore:

Source: “Change is a law of life” – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP Economic Management

Inflation rises at twice the rate of real wages – Michael West

Lobbyland

Inflation has risen to 5.1%, according to the latest figures from the ABS. The 5.1% annual consumer price index (CPI) figure for the last quarter was above market expectations of 4.6%. According to economist Richard Dennis, this is roughly twice the rate of real wage growth across the economy leading to the worst real pay cut for workers this century. According to Michele O’Neil the president of the ACTU this represents a pay cut of nearly $2000 in the first half of this year. Trimmed mean inflation used by the central bank to set rates, which ignores volatile changes, rose to 3.7% which is above the RBA’s target range.

Source: Inflation rises at twice the rate of real wages – Michael West

LNP, LNP Economic Management

Week three – what’s up? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Welfare recipients were gifted with 5.1% inflation this week with a Morrison discount leaving them $400 or $ 8 a week worse off. Vegetables are up 15%. Remember when Morrison gave a generous 0.70 cents a day pay rise to aged-care workers and saw himself as a generous. He now says “we can’t keep giving”!! Yet inflation isn’t listening to the world’s “best” money manager. Morrison says he doesn’t, but does, hold of the wage hose the Public Service, Health, Education, Infrastructure, but but has only ever spent his energy trying stop stopping the flow of rising wages claiming that’s the cause of inflation. How fucking wrong is he?

The government sent $250 to every welfare recipient and pensioner today. On Twitter it is a popular meme, where the homeless and the destitute will be ‘saved’ by such generosity. Note that it is less than the ‘bribe’ Albanese was accused of offering, to drive faster take up of vaccinations. It is also less than the daily travel allowance paid to MPs who go to work in Canberra. That is $288 per day, paid on top of their salaries. Bring on the election, I say.

Source: Week three – what’s up? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP Economic Management

Australia’s economy not as robust as claimed by Morrison, Frydenberg

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

The Coalition’s repeated claims that Australia’s economy is one of the world’s strongest can be refuted by simply looking at the numbers. THEY ARE LYING AUSTRALIA

Income per person

Slumped 4 to 8th under the LNP

Economic growth

27th of 38 OECD countries

Jobless rates

2008- 2013 under the ALP it went  from 8th to 6th Under LNP it went  to 18th in 2019 and now 16th

Government spending

Under Howard we were 14th Under the ALP we ranked 7-10th then we tumbled back to 15th

Government debt

In 2013 4th 2019 15th and now 18th

Value of the Aussie dollar

Under the ALP it averaged $1 and Under the LNP it’s 0.72

We can also look at wage rises, productivity and other variables to see the same trends. Clearly, Australia’s economy is not leading the advanced world. It is barely leading Costa Rica and Chile.

In what world other than in La La Land can what Frydenberg or Morrison are saying be believed the reality and facts tell a totally different story.

Source: Australia’s economy not as robust as claimed by Morrison, Frydenberg

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

A Morrison guarantee? I would rather do a deal with Shylock – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Morrison wedges himself in his own lies

What does this mean? Well, firstly it means Mr Morrison’s “tax guarantee” is a bucket of lies, unless he cuts spending on health, aged care, and education, or raises taxes. Secondly, it’s further evidence Mr Morrison and the rest of the Morrison Government are not fit to lead this country.

Source: A Morrison guarantee? I would rather do a deal with Shylock – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Election 2022: Fact checking budget claims made by Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese during leaders’ debate

FACT CHECK 1: “In the last 12 months, the budget has turned around by over $100 billion. That is the single biggest turnaround in a budget in 70 years. And the reason for that is we’ve got people into work, off welfare and into work.” Prime Minister Scott Morrison, leaders’ debate, April 20.

On the face of it, this does represent an improvement of “more than $100 billion”. The trouble is, the biggest deficit year – 2021-22 – has dropped out of the latest budget period.  Put another way, a big part of the improvement referred to by Morrison happened simply because of the end of the pandemic.

not because of Morrison’s “perfect management”

FACT CHECK 2: “It’s important to remember that they [the Coalition] had already doubled the debt before the pandemic had hit.” Labor leader Anthony Albanese.

When the Coalition came to power in September 2013, gross debt (mostly in the form of Treasury bonds) was about $280.3 billion,

By the time the pandemic hit, around January 2020, gross debt was about $568.1 billion. This was, as Albanese said, about double the level of gross debt prevailing when the Coalition was elected.

According to the federal budget papers, by June 2014, about nine months after Tony Abbott won the 2013 election, the ratio of net debt to GDP was 13.1 per cent.

By June 2019, on the eve of the pandemic, it had risen to 19.2 per cent.

A rise in which Morrison leadership was very much involved .

Source: Election 2022: Fact checking budget claims made by Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese during leaders’ debate

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

How does the Coalition pay for Labor’s big ideas? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Perhaps the most important takeout from the leaders’ debate was when Scott Morrison admitted that it is Labor that introduces the big social reforms – Medicare, the PBS, the NDIS, paid parental leave, compulsory superannuation for example. Labor might have the ideas but it was the Coalition who had to pay for them, sighed Scott. They market themselves as the better economic managers. This seems to be based on Howard and Costello’s strategy of selling off every profitable asset we owned, privatising everything they could, whilst wasting the profits from the mining boom on doling out huge sums in tax cuts and deductions. And they hit us with the GST.

There is no recognition of the economic benefits Labor’s “big ideas” have delivered.

Not only do this lot concede they are not the party of big ideas, they have demonstrated that they also have no idea about how to plan for the future and budget and invest accordingly.

 

Source: How does the Coalition pay for Labor’s big ideas? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Policy

France’s Macron: “I am combating the Project of the extreme Right … which is to put an End to Renewable Energy”

We know where Morrison stands on Climate. He won’t put his signature to any International agreements while pretending and posturing he’s onside. Morrison is leaving it all up to the corporate world to solve  Climate Change. He isn’t about holding any hose he says.  It’s up to the commercial genius of the corporate world to save the planet according to the LNP. A world whose interests run counter to any effort or need to accelerate the transition to green energy as fast as possible. Never mind Morrison is lying while subsidizing the continued activity of Mining, export and Industry’s use of fossil fuels while saying. “I don’t hold the hose but making sure there’s only one hose to hold and it’s not green.

The two frontrunners in France’s presidential election who now face a run-off election against one another, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, have diametrically opposed stances on the climate emergency and renewable energy.

Source: France’s Macron: “I am combating the Project of the extreme Right … which is to put an End to Renewable Energy”

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Questions raised over millions in federal budget funding for charity with no office or staff – ABC News

An office is seen with a long white table with black chairs on either side, large windows behind it and a plant on the right.

Australian Future Leaders Program is set to receive $18m over five years and an extra $4m a year after that The Prime Minister’s department says the organisation has no office or staff it knows of However, the department insists it had followed due diligence in awarding the funding

Source: Questions raised over millions in federal budget funding for charity with no office or staff – ABC News

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Josh’s Jobless Jargon – » The Australian Independent Media Network

five claims he tweeted recently.

TESTED

Unemployment has dropped to 4% in Feb,

77k jobs created

The participation rate is at a record high

Female unemployment is at a 48 yr low of 3.8%

375k more Aussies in work than pre-COVID

Source: Josh’s Jobless Jargon – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Ukraine has become a graveyard for Russians — and for modern weapons systems | Salon.com

A destroyed tank likely belonging to Russia / pro-Russian forces lies amidst rubble in the north of the ruined city. The battle between Russian / Pro Russian forces and the defencing Ukrainian forces lead by Azov battalion continues in the port city of Mariupol. (Maximilian Clarke/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Peter Dutton just bought 121 new tanks OOPS! Will the LNP cancel that order like the one they canceled with the French that cost $5bn and returned NOTHING? How much would canceling the useless tank contract cost us.The cancellation of the subs cost twice what the ALP pledged to fix Aged Care with. Would canceling the tanks cost another $5bn is that why Reynolds needs to strip the NDIS  just in case?

It’s clear as the sixth week of the war begins that his apparent plan was to send a column of tanks rumbling into Kyiv, blow up a few things, send Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government scampering away in fear, declare victory, install a puppet president and go home. Evidence that his plan was a strategic, tactical and political failure is showing on your television screens around the clock. If there is one image that will symbolize forever this war, it will be a blown-up Russian tank, its treads sagging and its turret tilted, rusting by the side of the road in Ukraine.

Source: Ukraine has become a graveyard for Russians — and for modern weapons systems | Salon.com

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Abolition of advisory body criticised after Morrison government promises $5.9bn for Queensland dams | Queensland | The Guardian

Anthony Whealy QC at a press conference

Barnaby Joyce abolished Water Advisory Board and made a promise of $5.9bn to invest in a Qld dam with no business plan. Yet, Josh Frydenberg dares to say after 8 years “We have no evidence Victoria’s biggest infrastructure program will be a success”. What a pure political betrayal of Victoria his own state when experts were consulted, reports, and due diligence done and all he did was not be bothered to read them. He inherited the blackmail offer left by Abbott of $4bn withheld unless Dan Andrews capitulated and did what the LNP demanded. Victoria was the growth state before the pandemic and kept the nation afloat when the Federal LNP were dragging us backwards.

The costs of the federal government’s commitment to fund dams in Queensland without the scrutiny of a now-abolished national advisory body should be a cause for concern for the community, a former supreme court judge says. Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce disbanded the National Water Grid Advisory Body this week, claiming it was “an appropriate time for it to conclude its work”. The body had been established by Joyce’s predecessor, Michael McCormack, in 2020 to scrutinise and provide advice on major water infrastructure projects.

Source: Abolition of advisory body criticised after Morrison government promises $5.9bn for Queensland dams | Queensland | The Guardian

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Tactics

‘Historic’ trade agreement with India signed after decade of negotiations – ABC News

India's trade minister holds up a signed document. In other screens, Tehan does the same and Morrison and Modi applaud

Ten years in the making of an agreement signed just weeks before an election smells of a scam. One needs to ask what Morrison actually sacrificed in order to gain this politically advantageous signing at such a fortuitous moment. The Indians are known for their bargaining skills and ability to take commercial advantage. They are one of the few countries currently refusing to criticize Putin and are not employing sanctions against Russia. Furthermore, they are happily buying their cheaper oil and so offering indirect and questionable support in their war against Ukraine. Morrison is rewarding India a nation for its questionable ethical and contrarian stance to ours and his associated  media propagandists are supporting him in this less than perfect moral stance. he’s indirectly siding with Russia. In fact he directly sided with Putin at the last Climate summit in Glasgow.

The Morrison government has hailed the agreement as a significant step in its efforts to diversify export markets and reduce Australia’s economic dependence on China.”This is an economic agreement that has strategic might to it,” Mr Tehan said.

Source: ‘Historic’ trade agreement with India signed after decade of negotiations – ABC News

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Tactics

Weaponizing Coal: Australia Gives Ukraine a Gift – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The King of Clowns,

Little by way of logistical or pricing detail was given. We know who benefits the most from this. A triumphalist Whitehaven Coal will supply it, and the cost to the Australian taxpayer will be in the order of AU$31 million. Given that Whitehaven Coal has been a Liberal Party donor – AU$98,000 has been given over the last five years – the whiff of something rotten in the land of coal is strong.

The Morrison government has made a habit of celebrating the announcement rather than the execution of detail. Mendacity and incompetence are twinned in this government’s insignia, and Ukrainian officials best ready themselves for disappointment.

 

Source: Weaponizing Coal: Australia Gives Ukraine a Gift – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

‘Real venom’: federal government extends NSW flood relief after pressure from local MPs | NSW and Queensland floods 2022 | The Guardian

Liberal MP Catherine Cusack at Parliament House in Sydney

Morrison NEVER LEADS from the front. He has to be dragged shoved pushed threatened to act. His own party is sick of him opening up a window of opportunity not only for the opposition but for an even bigger loser Peter Dutton.

The delay in extending the funding prompted an outpouring of criticism from Liberal and National MPs in NSW, with one upper house Liberal party MP, Catherine Cusack, announcing her intention to resign from politics altogether, telling Guardian Australia her decision was not a protest but “me not wanting to fight the machine any more”. Scott Morrison last week announced extra financial support would be available for people in Lismore, Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley local areas. Those regions all sit in the federal seat of Page, held by the Nationals. But other local government areas including Ballina, Byron and Tweed – all located in the electorate of Richmond, held by Labor – were initially excluded from receiving the extra funds. That prompted outrage from Liberal and National MPs in the NSW government.

Source: ‘Real venom’: federal government extends NSW flood relief after pressure from local MPs | NSW and Queensland floods 2022 | The Guardian

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Five years on, Snowy 2.0 emerges as a $10 billion white elephant

Snowy Hydro 2.0 ... it’s an uphill climb for the water pumped from the the Talbingo Reservoir. Three life-size white elephant statues in Royal Flora Expo in Chiang Mai Thailand Stock Photo - Alamy

The LNP delivering yet another FAILURE. A Herd of White Elephants,

The nation-building vision was for a big battery to be added to the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. It was to be completed in four years (that is, by last year) at a cost of $2 billion without any taxpayer subsidy, bring down electricity prices, generate renewable energy and incur minimal environmental impact on Kosciuszko National Park. Inspiring stuff. But not one of these grand claims has turned out to be true. Worse, Australian taxpayers and NSW electricity consumers will be up for billions of dollars in subsidies and increased electricity costs, all while Kosciuszko is trashed. Let’s have a quick recap.

Source: Five years on, Snowy 2.0 emerges as a $10 billion white elephant

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Tactics

Government denies that flood funding allocation is ‘political’

Image

Thousands of flood-stricken residents in the NSW northern rivers region have been cut out of flood relief payments, forcing the government to deny allegations the emergency funding has been allocated politically.

Following catastrophic flooding, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday announced a plan to provide two additional $1000 Commonwealth disaster payments to residents in the council districts of Richmond, Lismore and Clarence Valley.

But three other council areas in the region, all struck by the floods, were not granted the two additional payments: Tweed, Byron and Ballina shires.

Source: Government denies that flood funding allocation is ‘political’

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Government incompetence and lack of planning: it never rains but it pours – Michael West Media

National Severe Weather Outlook

The skies opened and the rains fell, hammering communities up and down the east coast. So how good is Australia in another time of tragedy? An FOI reveals that the government was warned about the increased likelihood of floods in November last year, and failed to properly prepare for the disaster, writes Callum Foote.

Source: Government incompetence and lack of planning: it never rains but it pours – Michael West Media

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Policy

National security debate submerged under waves of bluster and spin

 Australia is “13 years and $3 billion” into the project and all we’ve got to show for it Peter Dutton is “a study into getting a nuclear submarine and now a study where we might put them”.

Source: National security debate submerged under waves of bluster and spin

Informed Comment, LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Tactics

Twelve more things revealing Australia’s poor economic management

There is plenty in last week’s quarterly national accounts that the Coalition Government does not want voters to discover, as Alan Austin reports. THE SHARE of Australia’s income going to workers is now at an all-time low. The big corporations are getting the highest share ever. These are two pretty important facts that the Morrison-Joyce Government and the mainstream media – who are all big corporations – want concealed. They are well-hidden in the extensive files published last Wednesday by the Bureau of Statistics. But they are there.

Source: Twelve more things revealing Australia’s poor economic management

LNP, LNP Economic Management

Morrison humiliates Australia further with lowest economic freedom ever

Heritage Foundation has graded all countries on prosperity, security and freedom and given Australia a huge F for FAIL, as Alan Austin reports. AFTER THREE YEARS of incompetent and lazy mismanagement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Australia’s global score on economic freedom has collapsed to an all-time low. This adds yet another item to the list of “worst ever” outcomes notched up by this inept administration. That list is now well above 50. Australia no longer a global leader Respected Washington-based think tank Heritage Foundation released its 2022 index of economic freedom last week, scoring 177 nations on 12 quantitative and qualitative factors. Heritage gave Australia the shameful score of 77.7 points out of a possible 100.

Source: Morrison humiliates Australia further with lowest economic freedom ever

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

A proxy on the house: Frydenberg’s attack on advisers raises alarm

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg under fire over his overreach of proxy advisers

Our Harvard-trained Treasurer has been caught out acting as someone’s puppet and jumped into a stoush blindfolded. He’s tried to install a regulation while nobody was looking and thought he’d get away with it. All hell has broken loose and you know it has when even Murdoch’s Terry McCrann among other major conservatives have yelled Frydenberg’s gone a Fascist mile too far. Josh is all style and less polished looks with little attention to what it means when doing it. He’s managed to make Kooyong Victoria’s Warringah.

The biggest question is why spend so much political capital on such a small issue when it has such bigger issues – the global pandemic, the aged care crisis and a failure to create a federal corruption watchdog – and so little time given the impending election.

Source: A proxy on the house: Frydenberg’s attack on advisers raises alarm

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Coalition defends slump in latest Newspoll

newspoll scott morrison

When the world judged Australia the best economy and Wayne Swan as the best treasurer the L-NP bellowed they were could do better. Now when world comparison shows an 8-year slide Barnaby Joyce makes out they are better managers. Barnaby Joyce who showed us he can’t manage his own personal life without lying let alone the nation’s is running point guard for Morrison who has a history of being sacked for bad management and inability to deliver. It’s time for his third sacking.

The opposition is ahead 56-44 on a two-party-preferred basis – the Coalition’s worst polling performance since September 2018 – according to the latest Newspoll survey conducted for The Australian newspaper. As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, Labor has increased its lead since the last poll on December 6 when it was ahead 53-47. Labor’s primary vote is up three points to 41 per cent while the Coalition has dropped two points to 34 per cent. For the first time, more voters surveyed thought Labor was better placed to steer Australia out of the COVID-19 pandemic (33 per cent) compared with the coalition (32 per cent). Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said the pandemic made things tough but economic growth and a low unemployment rate were signs of good economic management.

Source: Coalition defends slump in latest Newspoll

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Political platitudes like ‘we’re in a good place’ won’t fill the cracks in Australia’s economy ahead of the election | Satyajit Das | The Guardian

People walk through the Brisbane CBD

All sides of politics, wary of becoming wedged into electorally damaging positions, avoid confronting these challenges. Emollient slogans – ‘we are in good place’ or ‘push through’ – cannot address these problems. These issues vital to Australia’s future may not even make it onto the election policy agenda.

Source: Political platitudes like ‘we’re in a good place’ won’t fill the cracks in Australia’s economy ahead of the election | Satyajit Das | The Guardian

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Rapid antigen test shortage makes Aussies instant millionaires | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

Ms Campbell’s company has sponsored a Chinese RAT.

Australia’s insatiable demand for rapid antigen tests is turning importers into instant millionaires, with one company that operates out of a two-bedroom apartment in Elizabeth Bay securing a $26 million contract with the Department of Health. CEO and founder Austyn Campbell, 38, who set up the company Motion One less than a year ago, inked the massive deal with the Morrison Government to supply $26,290,000.00 in “medical supplies” this month.

Source: Rapid antigen test shortage makes Aussies instant millionaires | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Policy

The atrocity of indefinite and arbitrary immigration detention must stop – support Andrew Wilkie’s Bill – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In February last year, Andrew Wilkie introduced a Private Members Bill, seconded by Zali Steggall, calling for an end to the immoral, illegal, and extremely expensive practice of indefinite and arbitrary immigration detention. In presenting the Bill, Wilkie drew attention to the staggering cost of this irrational cruelty. It costs approximately $346,000 to hold someone in immigration detention in Australia for one year but it costs only about $10,221 for a refugee or an asylum seeker to live in the community. In fact, the budget for our offshore detention is still running at about $1 billion per year. These figures are breathtaking and almost unbelievable.

Source: The atrocity of indefinite and arbitrary immigration detention must stop – support Andrew Wilkie’s Bill – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

ANTHONY KLAN: Josh Frydenberg caught out in salary scandal

Our Harvard Scholar and Treasurer belly flopped again.

Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) executive Chris Jose – a Morrison Government appointee – was was illegally paid for two public service jobs simultaneously, receiving $40,100 in overpayments. The details of the scandal are set out in a secret report detailing a year-long investigation conducted by the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The scandal implicates the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C); the Department of Treasury; the Department of Finance; the National Competition Council (NCC); and staff at competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). For two years, until April 2020 – and at the same time he was being paid by ACMA in a full-time role – Jose was employed by the NCC in a part-time role, collecting a $20,000 annual salary.

Source: ANTHONY KLAN: Josh Frydenberg caught out in salary scandal

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Imagine if Australia applied its new no-dickhead policy on Novak Djokovic to government troublemakers | Sarah Martin | The Guardian

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic

Even when right the Morrison LNP Government is wrong. Kicking Djokovic out while dancing with Australian anti-vaxxers like Palmer, Kelly etal just makes Scott a Trump. Swapping Ministers midstream didn’t improve his image among women but showed he thought Karen wasn’t man enough. Basically Morrison hasn’t done anything progressive just again tried to  distracted us from the fact that his government has been a total series of failures when it comes to the day-to-day Welfare of Australians. The LNP have issued free RATs for Canberra yet commandeered those  he was “gunna” give to us “others”. Substituting reality with daily announcements they’re coming from the weasel retiree Greg Hunt MP, who if he smiled would crack his face. Our promised free allocations for the vulnerable and essential services have been on Morrison’s slow train “coming” for the past weeks. We are being “gaslighted Australia” just as we were way back when “this wasn’t a race for vaccines” and “it’s just another flue”

The Flue kills 200-250 Aussies a year this week we saw 45 deaths in a day and hospitalisations climb and they are actually still making announcements that Omicron is just another cold and having idiots run Covid parties believing they will become immune and not the walking dead by catching this unknown virus multiple times. Meanwhile they have kicked Djokovitch out for thinking privately what they’re actions have always amplified.

Has Alex Hawke chewed the fat with Alex Antic or George Christensen in the Coalition party room lately? They make Djokovic look like a veritable quiet Australian, what with their calls for civil unrest and suggestions state health departments are involved in grand cover-up conspiracies. Queensland LNP senator Gerard Rennick is publicly questioning the safety of booster shots and has suggested the health department of having a “callous attitude towards the safety of Australians”, while Nationals senator Matt Canavan has continually downplayed the threat of the virus compared to the threat to personal liberty. The poor old Therapeutic Goods Administration has been pulling its hair out in frustration over the well-funded Clive Palmer misinformation campaign, which gets met with an official shrugging of shoulders when asked if the government can do anything about it. If only Palmer and Craig Kelly were non-citizens!

Source: Imagine if Australia applied its new no-dickhead policy on Novak Djokovic to government troublemakers | Sarah Martin | The Guardian

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Omicron: reality bites as no planning cancels out government’s optimism

Preparedness would have been great Optimistic messaging emerged even before we knew much about Omicron. Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly said in late November his “number one Christmas present” would have been for a less virulent variant of the virus. After two long years of restrictions, the Morrison government was quick to inject hope and optimism into its rhetoric. But what the government didn’t do was to plan for the worst. Anyone with two eyes could see opening borders and easing restrictions across Christmas when festivals and family get-togethers are on steroids would cause a huge surge in cases especially as a more transmissible variant emerged. Optimism as a tactic could have worked if it was supported by planning — bolstering the PCR testing workforce, getting RAT supplies, sorting out boosters in aged care homes, the list goes on — behind the scenes. As it is, we just got the optimism.

Source: Omicron: reality bites as no planning cancels out government’s optimism

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

2022 has well and truly begun – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Morrisons “Freedom”, ” Let it RIP”  “Push Through” call it what you want they have truly fucked the Economy, our supply chains, reduced the frontline staff needed to prevent death and Abbott ex PM even promotes it these days. But to keep us safe he’s bought 120 obselete tanks for $3.5B no doubt to use against us if push comes to shove when and if  he cancels the election and calls a national emergency..

I believe the whole east coast should be going into lockdown right now because it’s evident that even triple vaccinated can catch Covid and then be required to isolate, so the rhetoric about getting out there and getting vaccinated is all good and well…yes it will help fight infection but it won’t stop one from catching it and having to isolate until better. It’s already disrupted the distribution centres for Woolworths and Coles, shelves are empty, delivery drivers are sick or having to isolate. The more they just let it go in the community the more the infection will spread. Even non-infected people going to work are at risk of catching Covid. Sooner or later no one will be able to go to their place of work. Scott Morrison and Dominic Perrottet have a lot to answer for as they have neglected to protect Australians. This is all their fault. They let it loose instead of stomping on it in the beginning and relying too much on everyone getting their vaccines and now thousands of people are infected.

Source: 2022 has well and truly begun – » The Australian Independent Media Network

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How the Reserve Bank rescued Australia from Scott and Josh – Michael West Media

RBA, Josh Frydenberg

Contrary to anything Josh Frydenberg has said data has revealed otherwise.

Extraordinary details have emerged of how the Reserve Bank intervened to stop Treasurer Josh Frydenberg crashing the economy as the pandemic took grip, how, contrary to their fable of “superior economic management”, the Morrison Coalition pursued political gain over good government, and how they have been borrowing its billions almost for free. Investigation by Michael West and @13foot7.

Source: How the Reserve Bank rescued Australia from Scott and Josh – Michael West Media

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

To End Hyperexploitation, Seasonal Workers Need Union Solidarity

In October, Australia introduced a new visa for seasonal agricultural workers that is supposed to create pathways to permanent residency. But history shows that seasonal workers can only guarantee their rights if they’re organized into fighting unions.

Source: To End Hyperexploitation, Seasonal Workers Need Union Solidarity

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Government defends pork barrel allegations

coalition pork barrel

Morrison admits he doesn’t “govern” for all Australians when he says the LNP are” better represented” when applying for grants. After all, 50% of Australia didn’t vote for him their “needs ” obviously have little or nothing to do with the grants given out. He agrees only politics does. So,his pork-barrelling is quite ok and he’s the better politician because of it. How much a Dervish can he get?

Birmingham claims the LNP supports disability but  only regional areas areas is would seem. He says that despite the fact we know that the current LNP program is to cut the NDIS. Data is data and neither Morrison or Birmingham put up a convincing argument that bribing electorates enhances Democracy , or that they are working for all Australians. When will these pricks stop normalising gaslighting? The biggest distribution of welfare has been Corporate, it’s been direct, and shit, given the increased income and wealth gaps these past 8 years we know how well that’s worked. As a consequence the money comes flowing back by way of donations x5 times that of the opposition and that’s just what is visible. Is it any wonder Andrew Robb quit politics for a $1M pay packet or the many others that are now well paid lobbyists for major industries? Or that Barnaby gets a massive personal cheque from Gina or Abbott’s daughter a scholarship?

Senator Birmingham also pointed to other grant programs that provided strong support to Labor electorates, such as disability support.Prime Minister Scott Morrison put the discrepancies between Labor and Liberal electorates – including Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s inner Brisbane seat receiving almost 50 times more than its Labor-held neighbour – to Coalition seats having good local members.

Source: Government defends pork barrel allegations

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Policy

No, There Is No Such Thing as the Undeserving Poor

Former Liberal Party minister Pru Goward recently published an opinion piece outlining her views on the “underclass.” Her analysis exemplifies the ignorance, mediocrity, and condescension of Australia’s elite.

Source: No, There Is No Such Thing as the Undeserving Poor