Agriculture has a huge role to play in both the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change. It is in their best interests to lead the way to a sustainable future and there is enthusiasm to do so from this generation of farmers. So why do they keep electing Luddites?
Tim is the archetypal Liberal. No expertise other than self-promotion, jobs for the boys, rapid u-turns for political expediency, maximise your expense claims, deals for mates, feather your financial nest, and get your photo taken a lot. He will probably go far. And isn’t that … so disappointingly inadequate?
Scott Morrison’s 2019 election campaign speech: “To run a stronger economy requires a government that knows how to manage money. If you can’t manage money, you can’t run the country.
Source: Scott Morrison’s “promise to Australia” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“The days of subsidies in energy are over, whether it is for coal, wind, solar, any of them,” the treasurer said. “That is the way I think you get the best functioning energy market with the lowest possible price for businesses and for households and that is what the national energy guarantee and our energy policies are designed to achieve.” Fast forward to this week when Keith Pitt, the minister for resources, water and northern Australia, blocked a loan for the Kaban green energy hub which had been approved by the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (Naif) in January. The blocked funding would have helped build a 157-megawatt windfarm and 100MW battery and included a 320km transmission line upgrade. Pitt’s reason for overruling the decision was that investment in “mature technologies” like wind and solar energy would be driven by the private sector whilst the government’s policy was to support dispatchable generation. I’m not sure what Mr Pitt thinks batteries are for.
It is a given that a Coalition government will, rightly or wrongly, promote their credentials on national security. Who could forget Tony Abbott’s ludicrous promise to shirtfront Vladimir Putin. The tough talk might appeal to some but this political posturing has real-life consequences for people.
Source: The drums of hairy chest beating – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Our current Environment Minister, Sussan Ley (number four to try the job), has just reannounced, for the umpteenth time, our commitment to capturing blue carbon greenhouse gases in mangroves, marshes and seagrasses. It’s a worthwhile endeavour, as it was when Julie Bishop made the same announcement in 2017. These systems are not just valuable because of the carbon they capture, they are valuable for a whole multitude of reasons around fisheries, around coastal protection, around supporting our marine biodiversity. But they are under threat. Since European settlement in Australia, we’ve lost about 25% of our sea grasses, 50% of our tidal marshes, somewhere between 50% and 70% of our mangroves, and that loss is continuing.
Source: Blue carbon sounds nice… again – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Scott Morrison is getting worse. The hubris and hypocrisy is flowing at every turn. Our Prime Minister believes he was given “a sign” by God in the shape of a picture of an eagle which he read as divine endorsement for his elevation to the top job. Being the “chosen one” confers some sort of infallibility to one’s decision-making. It implies motives are pure. Morality is unquestioned. Outcomes are ordained.
Source: Hubris and hypocrisy – » The Australian Independent Media Network
I was prompted to start writing about politics when the spectre of the highly inadequate Tony Abbott as Prime Minister was first being seriously considered.
Having known Tony at university, it was completely unfathomable to me. We had always dismissed him as an inconsequential bovver boy, an overconfident loudmouth who spouted his indoctrinated views, a young man with anachronistic opinions and an overinflated sense of his own ability – a ‘second-grade footballer, third-rate academic and fourth-class politician.’
When the unthinkable happened, it didn’t take the country, or his own party, long to realise they had given the job to a man who wasn’t up to it, and Tony was disempowered. The people of Warringah then completed the disengagement.
Sadly, for all his high and mighty words, both before and after, Malcolm Turnbull turned out to be a Fizza, unable to lead a party that always viewed him with suspicion.
Source: Taking out the trash – » The Australian Independent Media Network
No amount of photo shoots and image massaging or efforts to silence dissent and exhortations to all row together along the Kakoda Trail (or some such inane analogy) can hide the man beneath the baseball cap.
How good is Scott?
Not very.
It’s kind of disheartening when the people who make our laws and have complete control of our commonwealth admit that their only goal is to get rid of the other side.
When The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age invited federal MPs to attend a one-hour Zoom demonstration of what an empathy training course entails, five agreed – and their responses demonstrate exactly why we must change, not only our government but our whole system of governance.
Source: “This isn’t an outcome-oriented workplace” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
A ‘tearful’ Scott Morrison took to the stage this morning to tell us how his daughters, his wife, and his mother are the centre of his life. Yeah, we know. That’s how he began his election campaign – “Aren’t they fantastic? How good is Mum? How good is Jenny?” So, aside from the fact that he has female relatives, why was Scotty upset?
Spare me your tears – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The retailer said it would pay dividends totalling $249m, of which Gerry Harvey is set to receive $78m due to his 31.4% shareholding in the company. Despite this, they declined to pay back the estimated $22 million they somehow collected for JobKeeper, a payment they should never have qualified to receive. But that’s all fine and dandy with the Treasurer apparently who won’t be asking for the money back from any of the companies who claimed the payment despite making higher profits. As Secretary of the ACTU Sally McManus pointed out, “They have no qualms about requesting and forcing people to pay back Centrelink payments – no problem with that whatsoever. Somehow we’re all supposed to sit back and say ‘oh well that’s OK, that’s just the rules that apply to big business in this country’.
How good is Gerry! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Nicolle Flint seemed to be trying for a Julia Gillard moment yesterday when she attacked Anthony Albanese. “I say to the leader of the opposition: I will not be lectured by you. I will not be lectured by your side of politics about the treatment of women in this place.” Ms Flint, after saying that “the safety of women in this place should be above politics,” went on to get very political: “What I say to the Labor party today is that they may not have held the spray can to vandalise my office with sexist slurs and they may not have held the camera pointed at me by the stalker or called me evil in GetUp’s phone calls, but they did create the environment in which hate could flourish.” Oh come on, Nicolle.
Nicolle Flint’s “non-political” attack on Labor – » The Australian Independent Media Network
When Linda Reynolds and Christian Porter shed public tears, it was not for a young employee who had allegedly been raped in your workplace by another hand-picked employee, it was not for a friend from years ago who had tragically taken her own life. Oh no, those tears were solely about the possible political consequences for the Ministers involved.
The trouble with being privileged is that you cannot fathom what it is like for those who are not – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Angus Campbell isn’t a bad man. The vast majority of Australian men aren’t ‘bad’ men. But they still seem to think it is a woman’s fault if she gets raped. Don’t be out after midnight. Don’t drink. Don’t be alone. Don’t look attractive. Or you risk becoming ‘prey’? Do men feel that way? If a man goes out with his mates and gets pissed, does that make him a likely target for anal rape?
Wednesday was a weird day – » The Australian Independent Media Network
When you have a leader whose most memorable contribution has been a rather tragic Elvis impersonation, I guess it’s understandable that the natives might get restless. But in the last few weeks, the Nats have gone so far off reservation they seem to be occupying a totally different universe.
The only jobs the Nats are concerned about are their own – » The Australian Independent Media Network
It was no surprise to hear that Morrison’s government paid $190,000 of taxpayer money to an empathy consultant on how best to show drought-stricken farmers they care about them. Scotty doesn’t do empathy unless the focus groups suggest he should pretend to care and someone else explains to him what that looks like.
The daggy dad’s empathy vacuum – » The Australian Independent Media Network
A lot can be explained about conservatives’ view by Scotty’s belief that “the economy is what people live in. It’s real.” Actually, we live in a society. Rather than Morrison’s view that “it all begins with keeping our economy strong”, it begins with supporting our people to be strong – facilitating them to be their best. Economic and social benefits flow from this rather than the other way around. Coalition governments measure their success by corporate profits and private wealth. Labor governments invest in the people.
Claiming credit when it’s not due – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Perhaps if politicians paid a little more attention to their job and less to their photo shoots and “announcables” they might have a better handle on what is happening in their offices and departments. But that might mean they had to take some responsibility when it’s so much easier to blame someone else and, if necessary, find them a new lucrative position elsewhere.
Who’s running this show? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
And the excuse for this inaction? We won’t commit to any target until we know how we will get there and how much it will cost. Seriously. If anyone can tell me what technology will be available in 2050 and how much anything will cost in 30 years’ time, I’d be interested to hear it. We listen to health experts about the pandemic. It’s similarly crucial that we listen to the warnings and advice from experts about the health of the planet. And Scotty – Matt Canavan, Keith Pitt, George Christensen, Craig Kelly and Jim Molan do not qualify as experts. Share this:
The world knows Scott Morrison is a liar. Now Australians need to wake up – » The Australian Independent Media Network
As Labor goes through yet another bout of self-destructive leadership undermining and internal dissent, and a shadow cabinet reshuffle is leaked to the press ahead of time, this morning’s news should be enough to show them the way.
If anyone should go, it should be Joel Fitzgibbon – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Aboriginal Pride by Jodie Freeman
To everyone… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
When the world needs inspiration, courage, integrity and resolve, we are dished up leaders like Trump, Boris and ScoMo – a bunch of buffoons completely unworthy of the title ‘leader’.
Tin pot dictators, timid sycophants, and corporate schills – is that the best we can do? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Government contracts are bestowed on friends, associates and donors with no tender process, and grants are sweeteners to be doled out where politically expedient. Jobs for the boys and girls are blatantly handed around, and they keep preselecting and enabling the likes of Craig Kelly and George Christensen… And a significant number of them thought Peter Dutton would be a good Prime Minister. That, in itself, makes them unfit to govern.
Seven years later… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Reynald’s record is plain and clear to be seen here to remind us of just who she is. (ODT)
Oh Linda, we don’t forget.
So when Ms Reynolds takes time out from her sucking up to Donald Trump to issue a media release about Dan Andrews rejecting ADF help in Victoria’s fight against COVID 19, which was quickly refuted with facts from the actual person involved in Victoria’s emergency response, it is blindingly obvious that this woman is solely focused on petty party politics and will say whatever she thinks her bosses want to hear. She has a laser-like focus on where her bread is buttered.
Heaven help us if she is the best person we can find for the job of co-ordinating the defence of this country.
Linda Reynolds, you are the epitome of a political hack.
via Trust Linda Reynolds? Sure can’t – » The Australian Independent Media Network
We are witnessing what their deregulation and erosion of job security and ignoring of expert warnings deliver. Rather than learn any lessons during this pandemic, our Treasurer invokes Thatcher and Reagan who hugely increased inequality and diminished workers’ rights and protections. Persistently high rates of income or wealth inequality are bad for social cohesion, political inclusion and crime. The evidence for this is overwhelming.
One of my close friends was a flight attendant. I was staying at her place when, late one night, a high-profile sports celebrity rang to say he was in town overnight and would send over a taxi to pick her up.
The classic booty call.
And this is exactly how our government behaves and expects us to be grateful.
You have a crippling drought? They fly in, have their photo taken, offer you a gift which may or may not eventuate, and then head off into the sunset.
Same with bushfires. Ignore you, then turn up wanting a cuddle, before they move on to their next photo opportunity.
We now have Angus Taylor looking to change the rules of the CEFC and ARENA to further prop up fossil fuels. And his ‘hand-picked for previously expressed views’ advisers are giving a veneer of consultation to what is a full-court press to prolong the ‘climate destruction for profit’ policies of Coalition donors.
Righto. So we expect China to be open and transparent but not our fearless men in black. If our own Border Force won’t co-operate then why should another country, particularly considering the accusations being made and broadcast by the Murdoch muckrakers like Sharri Markson who now seems to have become the letter box for US propaganda.
What a joke.
And where is the call for an investigation into the handling of the outbreak in the US and the UK and our failure to stop them importing the virus into Australia?
via Scotty’s shirtfronting sophistry – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Currently, less than 1% of Defence’s budget goes into its innovation funds. There’s no point investing billions in military capability if it doesn’t support Australia’s needs.
The ADF are a highly-skilled, well trained, well-resourced, mobile workforce who are being wasted on war games.
Forty-one Australian soldiers died in Afghanistan. Eighty Australians have died in the last couple of months from the coronavirus.
Perhaps old generals are not the best people to equip us for the world of the future.
via Time to rethink the purpose of the ADF – » The Australian Independent Media Network
He made the following observation about political staffers:
Over the last 30 years politicians’ staff has increased dramatically. At federal level there are now some 17 hundred personal staff to ministers and members. The states probably account for over two thousand more. Add to this the direct political infiltration of federal-state public services and quangos with hundreds more jobs for the boys and girls, there is now a well-established political class.
This has provided the political parties with a career path for members. In many cases it often produces skilled, partisan, “whatever it takes” warriors with a richly rewarded life through local state and federal governments to a well-funded retirement. Unfortunately while this career path, as Tony Fitzgerald states, does include principled well-motivated people … it also attracts professional politicians with little or no general life experience and unscrupulous opportunists, unburdened by ethics, who obsessively pursue power, money or both.
Exhibit A: Alex Hawke; Exhibit B: James Patterson; Exhibit C: Tim Wilson, Exhibit D: James McGrath.
In the name of “Ensuring Integrity”, either political staffers should be accountable to parliament and the law, or the Minister who employs them should take responsibility. The Sergeant Shultz defence is not credible.
via The unaccountable Ministers’ advisers – » The Australian Independent Media Network
We don’t need people with small minds who long for the days of coal, copper and austerity. We need people with imagination about the opportunities of where we are headed and the foresight to start preparing now.
via We need imagination, not hibernation – » The Australian Independent Media Network
After active opposition to action on climate change, rorting on a grand scale in water management, no long term national drought strategy, and a woeful response to the bushfires, ScottyFromMarketing (SFM) is now positioning himself as some sort of crisis leader.
In actual fact, he is finally being led by advice from experts, and luckily able to share the burden with the Premiers, or pass the buck where necessary.
via Lest we forget – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Not laughing now (ODT)
Under the Coalition’s “responsible budget management”, net debt has increased from $161,253 million at 31 August 2013, a week before the election, to $424,164 million at the end of February this year.
Still stuck in slogan land, Coalition language is changing.
We have gone from a “targeted, modest and scalable” response to “targeted, measured and scalable” and now Frydenberg is calling for “quick, strong and co-ordinated action” from the G20 countries.
The self-satisfied smirks, the ridiculing of the idea of well-being, and the draconian persecution of the unemployed have disappeared.
After more than a decade of their bullshit, all of a sudden, “we are all in this together”.
The Liar from the Shire has sunk to new depths – ok, maybe not new – with his ridiculous claim that “Emissions today are 50 million tonnes less on average each year under our government than under the previous government.”
This crap should be used in school maths classes as an example of how data can be manipulated to mislead.
The latest release tracking Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions includes a table of emissions for each financial year.
Emissions to the end of June 2007 were 627.0 Mt CO2-e. Six years later, they were 537.6, and 533.9 a year after that when the carbon price was repealed in 2014.
In the year ending September 30, 2019, they were 530.8.
To save you doing the sums, under Labor policies, emissions reduced by over 93 Mt CO2-e. Since the Coalition “axed the tax” almost six years ago, emissions have reduced by about 3 Mt CO2-e.
But hey ScottyFromMarketing, run with that line if you want. Get Angus to say it too.
Because we ALL know how trustworthy you two are.
Hang the names out so we can see them (ODT)
We don’t want another party vying for a centre that keeps moving further to the right. We want people with integrity who make decisions based on expert advice about the best interests of the nation, not on how to appeal to people who will never vote for you.
