But most of all, I hate being lied to.
So no, I don’t feel proud today. I feel angry at how a great country is being destroyed by political hacks whose only goal is to keep their nose in the trough.
Tag: Kaye Lee
Oh you mean like when Labor steered us through the Global Financial Crisis emerging as the strongest economy in the world?
Would it be too much to ask that we drop the “talking points” crap and actually tell the truth about the current situation so we can make a plan that actually reduces emissions without having to resort to accounting dodges and PR spin designed to make it look like you give a shit?
Enough of the lies!
Scott Morrison is trying desperately hard to find the right language to reassure Australians that he believes climate change is “real” but that he won’t do anything that might cost money to address it.
He wants us to be “patient” as he methodically changes his mind about whether volunteers should be paid since they “want to be there”, whether the ADF should be deployed, and whether we might in fact have to bring in some more aerial firefighting assets.
No “knee jerk reactions”… and certainly nothing that could possibly resemble being proactive from our PM.
He talks a lot about the funding that the Commonwealth is handing out. Because we all know we can’t have Labor’s “unfunded empathy”.
The Messiah from the Shire seems a little flustered that people expect him to actually do something – show some leadership maybe?
He keeps saying now is not the time for politics or photo shoots.
But what else has he got?
To quote another pretender to the leadership … he’s a “bit of a weathervane“.
via Do the smoky hokey – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Smoke and the figures in short cook the climate books do nothing cook the MYEFO and do nothing (ODT)
via A couple of quick take-outs from MYEFO – » The Australian Independent Media Network
As catastrophe engulfs us, what is our government doing?
Union-bashing.
Refugee-bashing.
Labor-bashing.
Decimating the public service.
“Refusing to apologise” for blatant misdeeds by Angus Taylor.
It’s business as usual for the do-nothing Coalition sticking to their age-old ideological vendettas.
via Ensuring there will be no integrity – » The Australian Independent Media Network
You will never hear a Coalition politician say we caused this problem, we must fix it. You will never hear them say this approach hasn’t worked, we must change it.
Since John Howard unexpectedly won the 2001 election, wedge politics is the Coalition MO and Scott Morrison is a devotee.
But when you use that approach, you can never take responsibility for anything, as demonstrated so pitiably by the climate change debacle.
Yesterday, Scott Morrison trotted out this old chestnut.
“To suggest that with just 1.3 per cent of global emissions that Australia doing something differently, more or less, would have changed the fire outcome this season, I don’t think that stands up to any credible scientific evidence at all. If anything Australia is an over-achiever on global commitments.”
How Morrison can continue to make this claim flabbergasts me.
via Man up, Morrison – » The Australian Independent Media Network
What we don’t need is to waste hundreds of billions on obsolete weapons of mass destruction, billions on consultants and government advertising, and politicians who think attending sporting matches is more important than their day job.
We don’t need a surplus. We need someone who has a clue about how to invest in this country rather than their own political future.
via MYEFO will be interesting – » The Australian Independent Media Network
A couple of days before the Four Corners investigation, Who Cares, was to air, Scott Morrison rushed to announce a Royal Commission into Aged Care. This was a government turnaround directly in anticipation of the damning ABC expose.
When interviewed for the program about a month earlier, Wyatt had said a royal commission would be an unnecessary move because the Government was already reviewing the sector.
“A royal commission, after two years and maybe $200 million being spent on it, will come back with the same set or a very similar set of recommendations,” he said, preferring to see that money go towards frontline aged care services.
Emails revealed at the RC show a flurry of activity in response to programs on the ABC whilst reports from the department on how to address the problems languished on the Minister’s desk.
Protecting his precious surplus, Morrison is willing to let people die while waiting for help.
Not only that, he wants kudos for calling yet another inquiry into a crisis of his party’s making in its never-ending pursuit of profit and deregulation
via “I called the Royal Commission” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
So this is what we have sunk to – a Prime Minister who wants us all to be quiet and, if we don’t, he’ll make us.
He doesn’t want us to talk about his government’s woeful record on greenhouse gas emissions. He doesn’t want us to talk about reefs dying and rivers drying up and mass extinctions. He doesn’t want us to choose ethical investments in sustainable industries.
He wants to bully insurance companies into insuring unviable projects and he wants banks to lend money to uncommercial ventures. He wants to make our superannuation funds invest in what will inevitably become stranded assets.
The idea that one would get their investment advice from the likes of mummy’s boy Matt Canavan is hilarious.
One of Joe Hockey’s first acts as Treasurer in 2013 was to gift the RBA $8.8 billion. The main reason for this was to make Labor’s deficit look bigger. As a side bonus, it allowed the RBA to invest in the forex market, banking on the Australian dollar losing value as the mining boom subsided.
And that is exactly what happened allowing the government to draw…wait for it…$8.8 billion in dividends over the last six years. That’s all very well (if we ignore how the Coalition screamed like stuck pigs when Labor took a one-off dividend of $500 million in 2013) except Hockey borrowed the $8.8 billion so we are still paying interest on it.
via The Coalition money shuffle – » The Australian Independent Media Network
When the Coalition under Malcolm Turnbull won 76 seats in the 2016 election, it was generally accepted that Turnbull had “blown it” and the knives were quickly sharpened. Yet when the ad man wins 77 seats, he is hailed as a messiah that has delivered a decisive victory enabling the Coalition to do whatever they damn well please.
Let’s be clear about that election result.
Leaving out Queensland, in the rest of the country, Labor won 62 seats compared to the Coalition’s 54. That is a resounding victory.
We have the government that Queensland thrust upon us against the wishes of every other state and territory (except WA – the only other state where the Coalition won a majority of seats).
via Labor are losing their nerve – » The Australian Independent Media Network
There is a disturbing trend emerging in Australia where the government is increasingly trying to silence the people.
They have painted unionists as lawless thugs and removed our ability to withhold our labour without their pre-arranged permission.
They have made charity funding dependent on them being uncritical of government policy.
They label conservationists and animal welfare groups as ecoterrorists and are pushing forward with legislation to make protesting unlawful if it causes any sort of disruption.
Public servants, journalists and whistleblowers face prosecution if they reveal what the government is doing.
They claim the gay community has “an agenda” and are therefore trying to introduce laws that make discrimination against them legal but discrimination against religious people illegal.
They dismiss school students who are concerned about inaction on climate change as being brainwashed by virtue-signalling elites and tell them to be quiet and get back to school.
via Now is NOT the time to be a ‘quiet Australian’ – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Wherever you look, we are being manipulated by messaging. The idea that, unless we persecute a hard-working Sri Lankan couple and their two baby daughters, our navy, air force and border force will be unable to repel an invasion by fishing boats, is beyond ridiculous. The apathy brought about by the safety and comfort we have enjoyed in this country has led to an acceptance by the majority of the population of these massacred messages. The truth has been obscured by spin. No longer do we hear genuine debate about opposing ideas informed by factual evidence – we hear propaganda designed to maintain the power and privilege of the few.
Source: Message massacring – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“Kelly’s family furniture business went belly-up. Whilst this loud-mouth ignorant bully continues to exert influence via threats to colleagues and an inflated media presence, his appalling lack of judgement risks doing the same to the country.”
via Craig Kelly, the ultimate hypocritical NIMBY – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Next week, Australia will host its first Australian Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. The organiser says the event will “not be a one-off” and that its US backers, the American Conservative Union (ACU), had committed to holding the event long-term.
You also get to hear from ACU’s executive director Dan Schneider and their chairman, Trump fundraiser Matt Schlapp, whose wife Mercedes is Trump’s Director of Strategic Communications. In his role as vice president of federal affairs at Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, Schlapp directed the major federal public policy strategies on anti-environmental and energy policies, financial markets, legal reform, and international and domestic tax issues.
For your entertainment, you can also listen to Nigel Farage – the man who so desperately wanted Brexit and then had no idea what to do with it when he got it.
Home grown contributions will come from luminaries like Craig Kelly, Mark Latham, Tony Abbott and Amanda Stoker as well as Fox News host Jeanine Pirro and sundry kids from the IPA.
The ACU have been involved with some shady fundraising practices in the past. Asked whether they saw an Australian conference as a financial opportunity, Cooper disagreed. “My perception of the ACU is that they are looking to spread their message,” he said. “If anything they are going to be investing in us for a long, long time.”
Considering how the government is going in the US and the UK, I fail to see what advice we could get from this bunch of tossers.
Unless it’s on how to put a fool in power.
via Foreign influence in Australian politics – » The Australian Independent Media Network
There will be no social reform under this government – no Voice for Indigenous people, no help for the unemployed, no fair distribution of the wealth earned from 28 years of economic growth, no action on cutting emissions.
They are paralysed by the bullet lodged in their spine.
via Government paralysis – » The Australian Independent Media Network
I will make one prediction; after this is published it will be promptly followed by the remnants of the traditional media in furious pursuit of my heresy. Questions will be asked by the fourth estate and high octane derision will issue forth from the climate change actionistas.
via The batshit crazy ramblings of Barnaby Joyce – » The Australian Independent Media Network
This government is addicted to ideology and slogans. Until they start being honest about the reality of the problem’s we face as a nation, we will continue down the slide of an increasingly divided and fractured society where selfishness and greed are the only motives and more and more people fall through the cracks. The beauty of our natural wonders and our unique wildlife will be lost.
The government has delivered tax cuts. Some of us who already have a job will get an extra 20 bucks a week.
So fucking what?
USE OF PUBLIC RESOURCES
Bridget McKenzie is taking full advantage of the opportunities afforded to her.
In 2017, despite being a Victorian backbencher, Bridget claimed thousands of dollars to attend a shooting awards ceremony in Sydney.
Bridget loves to turn up for a photo when grants are being handed out to small sporting clubs. Considering the cost of having her in the photo often exceeds the grant, one wonders if it wouldn’t be better left to the local member to hand over the grant, perhaps with several thousand extra saved if Bridget didn’t insist on being there.
In September last year, the senator farewelled the Australian Youth Olympic team before attending the NRL grand final and staying at a hotel. Which might have been ok except she was scheduled to speak at a function farewelling the same junior team the next day. Obviously, their departure was a day late for the footie so saying bye twice was necessary.
Politicians are “personally responsible” for deciding if their use of public resources “achieves value for money”, is “publicly justifiable” and is “ethical”, according to the IPEA guidelines updated in January 2018.
The IPEA also says MPs should be “prepared to publicly justify your use of public resources” and “bear community expectations in mind because your use will be measured against these”.
Which begs the question – ah Bridget, too far?
via Ah Bridget, too far? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
It is inconceivable that they would choose now to pay down debt when they could borrow money at such low rates and really kick start the economy through government spending on productivity enhancing investments.
It’s not only the surplus fetish that is a problem as former head of the RBA, Bernie Fraser, points out. The government’s self-imposed cap on tax-to-GDP would also act as a restraint on the economy.
“What this dopey cap does is that it acts as a cap, not just on tax but also on expenditure, so if you have to do something you’ve created a problem for yourself,” he said.
With borrowing costs so low, an exchange rate at the bottom end of its range in recent times, surging iron ore prices boosting our terms of trade, and a nominally low level of unemployment, things should be going a lot better than they are.
But the reality is that social security payments are too low and many people are living in poverty, wages have stagnated, underemployment is rising and job security is falling.
Yet all this government can talk about is tax cuts for the wealthy and delivering a surplus.
via The RBA must be tearing their hair out – » The Australian Independent Media Network
It’s all very well to offer tax cuts but it kinda feels like a man in a trench coat is offering us a bag of lollies.
How will they simultaneously deliver surpluses whilst collecting $158 billion less in revenue, and keep the economy growing when it is only government spending and a temporary boost in commodity prices that is keeping us out of recession?
Increase the GST? Increase the pension age to 70? Introduce GP co-payments? Sell off the ABC? Increase fuel taxes? Tighten eligibility to family payments and disability support? Underspend on the NDIS? Tougher compliance rules for Newstart? Workchoices 2.0? Increase university fees?
Before you gleefully grab the bag of lollies, you should be wary of what’s under the trenchcoat.
via Beware the man in the trenchcoat offering lollies – » The Australian Independent Media Network
I say to those who work on the ‘it’s ok when we do it’ philosophy, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
via It’s ok when we do it – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Has the ABC entirely capitulated?(ODT)
The Australian people are sold short by the dishing up of such tripe. But as we saw with Emma Alberici, factual analysis is no longer welcome at the ABC.
Did it ever occur to you Andrew, that by refusing to split the tax bill, it is actually the Coalition who is blocking tax cuts?
ABC is now modelling Sky News (ODT)
Since when did negotiation to make something better become a weakness?
And why on earth does a tax cut that will not come into force until after the next election (or two) have to be legislated now?
Why is it considered irresponsible to wait and see how the economy is doing?
Where is the modelling about the economic outcomes of the three stages of the tax cuts?
Where are the questions about what cuts will be made to compensate for the loss of $158 billion in revenue?
The Grattan Institute released analysis during the election which outlined the government would be forced into making $40bn in spending cuts to meet its forecast surplus and tax cut promises, which the government immediately rejected yet failed to come up with any evidence to counter the institute’s research.
Whilst commentators like Probyn may revel in the intrigue of the Game of Wedge and thrive on any perceived party disunity, what he serves up is more like a gossip column than journalism.
The Australian people are sold short by the dishing up of such tripe. But as we saw with Emma Alberici, factual analysis is no longer welcome at the ABC.
Did it ever occur to you Andrew, that by refusing to split the tax bill, it is actually the Coalition who is blocking tax cuts?
It is clear that Angus Taylor is a man on a mission. What’s less clear is whose best interests are driving him.
Richard Taylor also made a submission to the department’s review of how environment laws affect the agriculture sector. His submission called for changes to make the laws more simple and compatible with broadscale agriculture and best-practice weed control.
It’s handy when your family has such a prominent platform on which to express their views and such insight into investment opportunities. Even handier when they get to make and change the rules that directly affect them.
via Angus Taylor is on a mission – » The Australian Independent Media Network
