Tag: Michael Pascoe

Informed Comment

Tapping into the Trump self-destructive American poison

And for Australia?

Meanwhile, far away on an island continent blessed way beyond any deserving, the Guardian has published a humbling poll that alleges 33 per cent of Australians, if they were eligible, would vote for Trump compared with 41 per cent for Harris – a mere eight-point difference. 

Given the saturation coverage here of the election and, especially, Trump’s multitudinous legal, character and policy failings, not to mention his level of dingbat craziness that only Greg Sheridan could like, that is a bit of a worry about the direction of our own nation’s psyche. 

This is not to suggest Harris is a great candidate, just that Trump is so palpably bad that America is considered something of a worrying joke everywhere outside of Russia and amongst a third of Australians. 

Who knew the drive of the Murdochs’ Fox News business model could  reach so far? 

Tapping into the Trump self-destructive American poison

Informed Comment

Dutton Goes Full Trump

As was made obvious on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday (23 June), Peter Dutton has gone full Trump – say anything to own the headlines, positive or negative doesn’t matter, truth and facts don’t matter.

By Michael PascoeJul 1, 2024

Dutton goes the full Trump

Australian Politics

Australia’s ‘utter embarrassment’ in Israel-Palestine conflict

Australia halted funding to the UNRWA and only restored it on Friday.

It suits the Coalition to be seen as the closest party to Israel. The Trumpification of the LNP proceeds apace. This is purely Australian domestic politics – a principle-free zone that leads to bad policy.

Anyway, the longer we’ve waited to resume funding, the fewer UNRWA staff there are to pay.

At least 165 UNRWA team members have been killed on duty and more than 400 people have been killed while sheltering under the UN flag.

But none of that matters here. It’s only what domestic wedging can be attempted or risked or avoided.

Source: Australia’s ‘utter embarrassment’ in Israel-Palestine conflict

Informed Comment

Dutton’s party takes another jump to the right

Dutton has never been a leader and as the party’s thug has never had a mind of his own. Ever since winning the opposition’s leadership from a reluctant membership Dutton flew to America and has returned 

Trump’s formula

Concentrating on the base, concentrating on outrage and division and never letting facts get in the way of a good headline, is the Trump formula, right down to Sky News YouTube and social media promotion mimicking its Fox News model.

Source: Dutton’s party takes another jump to the right

Informed Comment

The ‘horror story’ of Robodebt ‘monster’ one of cascading failures

When Scott Morrison gets around to disputing the Robodebt Royal Commission’s findings about his crucial role in the scandal – the disaster, the obscenity, the potential crime – remember this: The commission’s findings fit Mr Morrison’s modus operandi.

Source: The ‘horror story’ of Robodebt ‘monster’ one of cascading failures

and Morrison’s response same as Brian Huston’s denial denial denial

Scott Morrison rejects findings he misled government during Robodebt inception

Informed Opinion

New Daily-There will be no resurrection for Mr Dutton’s party and no legacy worth remembering,

May be an image of 2 people and suit

There will be no resurrection for Mr Dutton’s party and no legacy worth remembering, whatever the outcome of the referendum.
They have chosen the wrong side of history, enmeshed in the sneering conservatism of the status quo, wanting blackfellas to know their place and stay in it.
Most Australians are better than that. We want and hope for more for our fellows. We want to accept the Uluru invitation to step forward.

Source: Michael Pascoe: To what legacy do our leaders aspire? Peter Dutton might want to ask himself.

Informed Comment

How News Corp damages Liberal Party, and Australian democracy

It is tempting to liken the conjugal embrace of the Murdochs’ News Corp and the Liberal Party to that of praying mantises – News Corp playing the female role of consuming the male after getting what she wants.

Source: How News Corp damages Liberal Party, and Australian democracy

Informed Opinion, LNP, LNP Economic Management

Michael Pascoe: Peter Dutton’s venality and other tax jokes

Peter Dutton News Liberal Politics

Peter Dutton’s response to the tweaking is deeply, terminally flawed. It speaks to a darkness at the heart of the modern federal Liberal Party, a darkness that seeks to double down rather than save itself.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Peter Dutton’s venality and other tax jokes

Informed Opinion

Liberal Party unable to be honest with itself, let alone nation

Liberal Party

“If you can’t be honest with yourself, you can’t be honest with anyone.”

Source: Liberal Party unable to be honest with itself, let alone nation

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: NDIS honeypot inevitably attracting fat flies

The honeypot of vast pools of government money inevitably attracts flies, from the two-bob rorters to billion-dollar corporates.

What they have in common is adding the expense of a profit margin needing to be skimmed between the taxpayer, the actual care provider and the client.

We’ve seen this movie before with every government service that has been privatised/outsourced/flogged off to the for-profit sector, from tertiary education to aged care to employment services to child care.

And now the NDIS.

Source: Michael Pascoe: NDIS honeypot inevitably attracting fat flies

Murdochville

Michael Pascoe: What’s with the Murdoch empire re-merger?

 

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Nothing like Murdoch family business machinations to fuel speculation about motives and outcomes and so it is with the news that, nine years after splitting the empire in two, the Murdochs want to re-merge them.

Cue references to Lachlan’s ambitions and succession planning and Succession – the TV show about a Machiavellian media mogul who is not based on Rupert Murdoch. (I don’t think the script writers ever suggested Logan Roy was backing Donald Trump and embedding climate denialism in Australian conservative politics.)

Source: Michael Pascoe: What’s with the Murdoch empire re-merger?

Informed Comment

Worried about Australia’s sovereignty? Don’t be, it’s gone

US marine NT

The US has long been highly selective about whose sovereignty it might respect or totally disregard while conferring on itself extraordinary extraterritorial powers to do pretty much what it likes – invade nations, engineer coups, seize assets and impose trade blockades.

Source: Worried about Australia’s sovereignty? Don’t be, it’s gone

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: The federal Liberal Party doesn’t care about Australia

Michael Pascoe: The federal Liberal Party doesn’t care about Australia

So the rabble that is the federal Opposition will remain aloof from the jobs and skills summit, declining the opportunity to contribute to policy formation – if they have anything to contribute – preferring to remain remote to whinge, playing to their rusted-on base instead of the nation’s benefit.

And thus the Dutton opposition perforce marks itself as unfit for consideration as alternative government. It doesn’t care about the country, about our future.

It lacks any sense of integrity. It’s only in it for the mates, for the vested interests, for the lust for power, for the keys to The Lodge.

And that is a bad thing for us all. We get better government when there is good opposition, challenging, improving.

The Dutton opposition has left the building. It has nothing to offer.

Michael Pascoe: The federal Liberal Party doesn’t care about Australia
Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: Professional classes make billion-dollar tax rorts possible

Michael Pascoe: Professional classes make billion-dollar tax rorts possible

“The key lesson from WA Inc was that the shonks, crooks, spivs and conmen only really thrive with the assistance of the professional classes – the accountants, lawyers, valuers, journalists et al.

“It took at least a culture of acquiescence and, more likely, one of mercenary complicity for the likes of Bond and Connell to prosper.”

I wrote those paragraphs 14 years ago in a chapter on another WA-based fraud story, the Firepower scandal.

They are resurrected in light of Rio Tinto settling its tax avoidance bill with the ATO last month – close enough to $1 billion worth of tax it attempted to dodge on the vast fortune it has made exporting WA iron ore and funnelling the money through its “Singapore marketing hub”.

“Singapore marketing hub” might make it up there with “colourful racing identity” as a useful euphemism.

Michael Pascoe: Professional classes make billion-dollar tax rorts possible
Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: Political coroner finds Coalition deeply corrupt

Michael Pascoe: Political coroner finds Coalition deeply corrupt

Michael Pascoe: Political coroner finds Coalition deeply corrupt
Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: Time to chill about election – we’re regaining balance

This election was simply about the arrogance and corruption of the Morrison Government and its backers. As long as Morrison,Dutton, Ley Taylor Cash, Tudge, Hawke,and Robert remain in the Liberal Party it will never be regarded as anything but, a bunch of arrogant and corrupt maggots who dislike each other.

It was the Morrison government’s arrogance that it thought it could simply dictate to the electorate what the Liberal and National parties’ sponsors wanted it to be, along with buying votes through unprecedented corruption and abuse of power.So don’t panic even if you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid about a Labor government being a threat to civilisation. In the end, the centre wins.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Time to chill about election – we’re regaining balance

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: Reserve Bank independent or in Frydenberg’s pocket?

reserve bank

 

If the Reserve Bank does not increase interest rates on Tuesday, it will be perceived as having surrendered its independence, the governor in Josh Frydenberg’s pocket.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Reserve Bank independent or in Frydenberg’s pocket?

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: The election campaign is silent on the biggest issues

election scott morrison melbourne

What we don’t care about according to the LNP and MSM.

It seems the most extraordinary story: Seven Coalition MPs on the record “have hit back at criticism of Scott Morrison’s broken promise to deliver a federal ICAC, declaring voters aren’t raising the corruption commission”. It also seems like a story successfully promoted by “Coalition sources”. To paraphrase, “the punters don’t care about integrity in government, so we don’t need to”. As far as excuses go for not delivering the integrity commission promised four years ago, it is pathetically, miserably, depressingly weak, albeit still better than Scott Morrison’s actual excuse: “It’s Labor’s fault.”

Source: Michael Pascoe: The election campaign is silent on the biggest issues

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: Morrison gone, Frydenberg trying to save the furniture

Scott Morrison is gone. Anthony Albanese will win the election. Josh Frydenberg is fighting to save some of the furniture. There, it’s been said. The commentariat generally is too scarred from getting the 2019 election wrong to call it, carefully hedging their collective bets. Something similar happened in 1996 after Paul Keating’s surprise 1993 “true believers” victory, but the polls and the national mood have had enough of the Morrison government in 2022 as they had had enough of the Keating government in 1996. The majority of the electorate perceives the Coalition as tired, cynical and short of talent after nine years in power – not fit for purpose.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Morrison gone, Frydenberg trying to save the furniture

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: Here comes the window dressing (Cheers, Biloela family!)

Scott Morrison and the Biloela family

Media staged politics is at the expense of humanity and everything decent. The history of Morrison’s cruelty will be on display. The ABC has seemingly been promised some money back that was taken away after Morrison’s win as it was after Abbott’s. It’s par for the LNP.

The Biloela Family will be used in Morrison’s cruel plan to advertise a false fact “I’m not the man they say I am”. These people have been held politically captive to be released for just this sort of event. We have to remind ourselves, Morrison is simply looking to stop a small % swing against him in marginal electorates. He’s not trying to influence the whole country. So Religious Discrimination stays, ICAC goes, humanizing Morrison remains a priority according to the polls. So acts like this will and must remain on the agenda no matter how calculating they seem to the majority of us. There will be very Australian not a French polish used and it’s coming our way. However, what lies beneath won’t change.

The good news: I’m quietly confident the Biloela family will be “home to Bilo” before the election. The bad news: They should have been there years ago. The despicable news: The timing of their release is being delayed for political theatre, the staging of a “Liberal moderates acting tough, achieving change” pantomime.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Here comes the window dressing (Cheers, Biloela family!)

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: Aged care, COVID and cheap migrant labour

michael pascoe aged care

Morrison pointed out that 66% of the Covid Deaths in Aged-Care were among the ” already near dying”. That seems his justification for not increasing the cost of labor but importing “cheap ” to keep the pressure on and shut the unions up. It seems like Abbott he wishes nature would take its course. So, case settled there’s no real need for him to intervene and lose voters it’s the natural course of events. The outcry of his inaction was there before Covid the virus has merely brought it into view and magnified it. His Minister Colbeck reflected that L-NP attitude. His solution has even magnified it more. The offer of an $800 two week bonus payment with strict conditions attached over a  4 month period amounts to a generous $0.77cents an hour bonus in reality. Morrison really seems to be a character out of a Dicken’s novel rather than Australia’s PM. “Scott sir. can I please have a little more dignity”

Mr Morrison’s miserly “retention bonus” in the face of a supply crisis reeks of a government determined to import cheap labour as soon as possible to solve its problems.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Aged care, COVID and cheap migrant labour

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: And now Iran is threatening us, claims Acting PM

So Iran, a country with which we were enjoying warming relations until Donald Trump poisoned them, is up there with China and Russia as a threat to Australia in the opinion of the National Security Committee. Barnaby Joyce reminded the media the ‘‘reason we have a National Security Committee is because it’s secret’’. Photo: AAP The possible insight is that such a perception betrays the entirely American-centric nature of our security and defence outlook. It underlines our client state status that Iran-Saudi and Iran-Israel tensions were a consideration in signing open cheques for nuclear-powered submarines. After our participation in the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles, the Morrison government apparently maintains an interest in Australian military involvement in the Middle East.

Source: Michael Pascoe: And now Iran is threatening us, claims Acting PM