Action on hold

May 19, 2019
Written by: RosemaryJ36
34 Replies

I am appalled – but not surprised – that the coalition has been re-elected.

Australia is an incredibly immature country when it comes to politics. We have a political system which works on sound bites and short-term policy. As far as the Coalition is concerned, what will ensure re-election is far more important than policies which require us to bite the bullet in order to ensure survival in the long-term.

We are long overdue for reform of our financial system as well as acceptance of the demands on us, as part of a world community, in relation to climate change.

Clive Palmer spent millions (is he really going to pay his former employees as promised, now that he has won no seats???) to ensure that a government favourable to his ambitions would be elected. Look out Carmichael – not only Adani is waiting for the green light!

For whatever reason – naivety, misplaced trust, laziness, whatever! – people have allowed blatant lies to influence their vote, without making any real effort to inquire as to the truth of the statements which influenced them. Job gains – generally less than have been claimed – in one area will be balanced out by job losses in another. After all – demand for coal is decreasing as other nations start taking climate change action, so mining greater quantities is liable to lead to greater stockpiles,

While many of us will not mourn the failure of Tony Abbott to be re-elected, the fact that Peter Dutton has returned to the House will send shivers down many a spine. He has perfected cruelty to genuine asylum seekers to the extent that his actions alone must be discouraging refugees from seeking Australia as a safe haven.

It is true that Australia, by itself, cannot save the world when it comes to global warming. But actions in individual States in the USA and in most European countries and many in Asia are already in train – we would not be the first to take action and the more who do act, the more likely it is for those yet to commence action to change their plans. Having a global carbon price would really work!

The Coalition continually relies on the health of the economy to support its case for being the party which Australia needs to have in government. In truth, a small amount of research would tell you that our economy, despite claims to the contrary, is NOT in good shape. Wait for the next RBA report!

But if the economy only supports some of the population, and others are ignored and left to die in the gutter, is it not wise to also consider other issues?

During the campaign, Morrison made much of the “those that have a go” mantra – but what about those who are incapable of having a go?

What about the pensioners who cannot afford dental care and face months or year on the Dental Clinic waiting list before they can eat properly? Or wait for years, in increasing pain, for ‘elective’ hip replacement surgery in the public hospital? They cannot afford private hospital cover so waiting is their only option.

I have read enough about the research into climate change to be convinced that we really are close to the tipping point. We now need really urgent action to reduce emissions and deal effectively with pollution from all sources – and particularly that which is affecting the oceans. We may have already waited too long for the best possible outcome and we really cannot afford to wait any longer.

When I was 10, in biology at school I learned about photosynthesis – as do most students. During the day, green plants take in carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil and using the chlorophyll in their leaves, create glucose to ensure their growth, with a bi-product being oxygen. Throughout the 24-hour cycle, just as we breathe out and secrete waste, the process of respiration takes place in plants, taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. However, over the entire day, the net result is an increase of glucose in the plants, a decrease of carbon dioxide in the air and also, very importantly, an increase of oxygen in the air.

The extent to which profit-making enterprises have undertaken massive levels of deforestation has been highly damaging, the result has been an increase of carbon dioxide – one of the major global warming gases – and a decrease in oxygen – on which nearly all life on earth depends.

Around the world, green vegetation is a very effective carbon sink – as were the oceans. Now, however, ocean temperatures are rising and marine plant and other life is adversely affected – not to mention the damage done to marine life by the massive amount of plastic pollution.

By the end of 2030, my youngest great-grandchild will join her 2 older brothers as a teenager. I will be in my 90s so near the end of my life but I agonise over the conditions in which they will be living if action is not taken NOW to reduce pollution in all forms.

Information from all sources indicates that mankind is the most dangerous predator on earth! We just have time to be redeemed – not by some amorphous god but by our own actions!

Morrison’s stunt with the piece of coal might have been good theatre, but, unless he now accepts that we must stop mining, exporting and using coal – wherever it might be burned (we only have one atmosphere for the entire planet!) – then we will truly become the Pariah of the Pacific!

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JohnMay 19, 2019 at 5:51 pm

Yes the victory of the coal-ition is definitely a loss for the environment, and thus all of the living-breathing beings that inhabit the Earth.
The Adani mine will most probably turn out to be a black elephant. It will most certainly be an environmental catastrophe because sooner or later it will destroy the watersheds both at the surface level and underground too.

And of course they have signaled that they are going to remove much of the “green tape” that is holding up “progress”. Just like the great orange circus clown who not haunts the American polity.

whateverMay 19, 2019 at 7:06 pm

Spitefulness, ….that’s the motive force that Scotty exploited.

Also, the SMH was running this strange mantra about ‘OMG House Prices are Falling!’ for at least 6 months before the election.

helvityniMay 19, 2019 at 7:30 pm

With a smirk on his face and one hand nonchalantly in his pocket, Scomo demanded Shorten to show his hand….
Shorten obeyed and did what was asked of him…

Why not ask what Scomo’s policies were and/or if he had any….

Peter FMay 19, 2019 at 8:49 pm

A youtube clip of Bob Hawke speaking in 1983 at the Nation Press Club, Tweeted by Sabra Lane is interesting for two facts:

His direct honest reply to questions, with humour; and
The fact that journalists were smoking in the room.

“2” above struck me immediately. It was at a time when big business propaganda had us believe a massive lie: That smoking was acceptable.

We have now witnessed another destructive win by big business propaganda.

Bob Hawke at @PressClubAust #NPC – his leader's address during the 1983 campaign: listen to the first Q&A – would a pollie give an answer like that today? https://t.co/GpJ36CWXxL

— Sabra Lane (@SabraLane) May 16, 2019

Miriam EnglishMay 19, 2019 at 9:11 pm

I don’t understand it.

All the polls showed severe distrust of the LNP. Australians were fed up with 5 or 6 years of nothing except backbiting and infighting and bullying and destruction of our country (ABC, forests, the Reef, the middle class, manufacturing…). Even their own party members were deserting what appeared to be a sinking ship. We had record-breaking enrollment of young people specifically because of the plebicite forced on us by the homophobic LNP. About two thirds of Australians were angered by the plebicite, and the way it was conducted, and emphatically rejected the LNP’s homophobia. Scott Morrison conducted a lackluster campaign alone while his creepy henchmen stayed in the shadows, apparently to avoid reminding people how repellent they are.

People are getting smarter, more moral, more empathetic, and just yesterday I was reading research showing people are becoming less biased, and less bigoted.

Of course the democracy-destroying Murdoch press turned on their spigot, flooding the media with lies, lies, and more outrageous lies. But people — even right-wing people — are starting to become wary of the fakery of the Murdoch press.

Then, against all this… the LNP won? by an absurdly large margin???? How is that possible?

I keep wondering if our election was fiddled the way it was in USA, UK, Brazil, Russia, and a number of countries in Europe. Money is a powerful motive. Then I think, “Nah, it wouldn’t happen here…” but a voice in the back of my mind keeps asking, “Why exactly would it NOT happen here? Trump, BREXIT, Bolsonaro, Putin, Marine Le Pen, Erdogan… Morrison?”

KronomexMay 19, 2019 at 9:26 pm

We must not upset Gina and Clive and Adani and Twiggy and all the rest of the mining, energy, and other assorted pigs the fcking wankers! We might lose donations.

“CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change policy was a major talking point at the 2019 election, and continued to be a divisive point for the Coalition. The party won’t make major changes over the next three years.
The Morrison government have outlined a $2 billion climate solutions package which is being rolled out over 15 years.
There’s no plan to boost renewables — and Mr Morrison has committed to a coal upgrade project in NSW.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/federal-eletion-2019-what-a-coalition-win-means-for-you-major-policies-explained/news-story/cf40fbf4284ef7e36393d1e3627d4091

Corruptio…oops, business as usual. And little leaning peasants, who aren’t the 10%, you’re on the hit shit list as well.

whateverMay 19, 2019 at 9:37 pm

The LNP have become adept at highly localised political stunts and cash splashes.

God knows what favours were being delivered in QLD electorates.

Remember when Barnaby had to re-contest the seat of New England due to citizenship?
During that by-election, Tamworth City Council suddenly decided to have a very public crackdown on boarding houses…specifically those which were housing Chinese abattoir workers. Some good ol’ White Australia nostalgia for you.

“Dukes of Hazzard” politics.

RomeoCharlie29May 19, 2019 at 9:42 pm

Miriam, all of your doubts resonate. I too wonder what happened to the votes of the youth who were, allegedly, energised by the Plebiscite. But look at the campaign run by Morrison, and even though I read no newspapers and watched no commercial TV, I was more than aware that there was a large-scale negative campaign of outright lies being peddled by Scummo and those of his confederates who were actually allowed to speak —/Frydenberg and Birmingham, abetted by the MSM and then those yellow pages — ok so I saw a couple of the Murdoch rags — from the disgraceful Palmer, all peddling outrageous lies about Labor’s $387 billion in new taxes, a lie that was never adequately rebutted by Shorten or his team. At least twice in the third debate, Shorten allowed this claim by Morrison to go unchallenged. Then there were the lies on the Chinese internet and the scurrilous use of AEC lookalike posters telling Chinese voters to put the Libs first. This must surely be investigated by the AEC. We didn’t need foreign interference, when our own organs of propaganda ran their own campaign of fear, appeals to personal greed and personal denigration of Bill Shorten. The people of Australia who returned Morrison and his band of grubs should hang their heads in shame. Not even the defeat of Abbott can penetrate the gloom of this result.

Paul DavisMay 19, 2019 at 9:59 pm

And so it goes ….. check out the guest list for the unbiased Our ABysmal’s Q&A tomorrow night:
Alan Jones Christopher Pyne Alice Workman Ming Long and in the red corner Labor new guardsman and much hyped by the right wing media as their preferred new leader Jim Chalmers.

Wonder how loaded the prepared questions will be. Alan, Alice and Chris will have the informed political journalistic and media view while Ming will bring the business and financial market expertise to bear as the entrails of the election carcass is picked over. Jim will walk the fence between agreeing how cracked their campaign was and how he can be a voice for party unity and healing.

RhondaMay 19, 2019 at 10:03 pm

Hey Miriam, I’ve been having very similar thouthoughts – re a possible corruption of the voting process. That’s how despairing I feel right now – I’d prefer to believe a tragic conspiracy over the knowledge that our Nation has chosen THIS. What a horror the 24 hrs has been. I’m quite broken

Matters NotMay 19, 2019 at 10:15 pm

Yes, there are lots of ‘issues’ in elections but many remain at the level of motherhood and apple pie – attracting nodding agreement from the masses – but never becoming vote changers with profound political consequences.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Adani. Trish Corry knew it and warned about same over a long period of time.

As a political process, Democracy is the best process we have even though it doesn’t always produce good outcomes.

king1394May 19, 2019 at 10:37 pm

Firstly, it is not our political system that needs to be questioned but how our society has produced an educated populace, half of whom have such short attention spans or lack critical thinking to such an extent that they can forget the last few years of ineptitude and downright cruelty, and accept the LNP’s lies on the economy, etc.

Secondly we need to look at ourselves. We enjoy reading and commenting on each other’s articles and throughout the last year or so, far too many of the comments have been about how inadequate Labor/Shorten are. I particularly resent the way the Greens have concentrated on denigrating Labor rather than taking a focused attack to the Liberals and Nationals. There are seats, particularly on the north coast of NSW that could have fallen to an effective Green, in my opinion, but they prefer to harass sitting Labor members in the Inner parts of Sydney and Melbourne. I did not find the Greens’ signs that said “Stop Labor’s Adani mine” at all helpful, for example. Now we will be trying to stop the Liberal’s Adani mine and Palmer’s mine next door as well.

Finally, our Electoral Office needs to get some teeth and crack down on the unauthorised leaflets, posters and deceptive signs. They also would seem to be appropriately placed to censure absolute lies. If it meant disqualification of a candidate or even a new by-election due to malfeasance, so be it.

RosemaryJ36May 20, 2019 at 1:51 am

I have lodged a complaint with the AEC that posters written entirely in Chinese (or any other non-English language) and WITHOUT an English translation can be displayed when our ONLY official language is English. If you feel the same way – particularly as this occurred on Liberal posters, urging voters to put 1 for the Liberal candidate, where the colour of the poster implied it was an official AEC, i.e. government , advice – please forward your complaint.

RosemaryJ36May 20, 2019 at 1:56 am

Special mention from inkl:
Some seriously good climate modelling. This week the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed 415ppm; believe us when we say that’s a lot. Amazingly, a group of savvy climate scientists predicted this eventuality back in 1982. Unfortunately for all of humanity they were in the employ of the American oil and gas giant Exxon which promptly buried their findings. Forearmed with knowledge of a climate apocalypse Exxon went on a years-long campaign to lobby against action on climate change and even funded climate deniers.
Please share.

TerenceMay 20, 2019 at 5:45 am

Well I did tell people on here.

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”

“When in doubt, bet on greed every time.”

That about sums up the election.

Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2019 at 7:42 am

king1394, you can’t blame the Greens for people being pissed at Labor for embracing Adani’s catastrophic coal mine. If Labor wanted to attract people worried about climate change then they needed to actually address that. The Greens were such a massive force too: 1 seat. And all those votes for Greens candidates who did not get elected went to Labor anyway as preferences.

Terence, I don’t think people are really that stupid or greedy. I think there was a lot of manipulation going on… mostly through Murdoch’s infernal noise machine.

Matters Not, I don’t think you can properly call this democracy when people are actively and deliberately and with careful calculation fed vast amounts of disinformation in order to subvert their vote. I met people who described GetUp as a “vicious” organisation. One woman verbally abused the very sweet Labor woman I was chatting with, accusing her of being associated with murder because Christian propagandists had used lies to link Labor (in her mind) with abortion. Another person firmly believed Labor intended to reintroduce death taxes and nothing could disabuse her of that lie. My local LNP politician kept repeating the lie that they had already achieved a surplus, and I kept hearing it elsewhere in the media too. The astounding level of deliberate lies propagated by the LNP and Palmer via Murdoch this election blew me away. It’s like they’ve seen what was done by Putin, Trump, Bolsonaro, Erdogan, Marine Le Pen, and the Brexiteers and thought it was a good thing!!!

Adrianne HaddowMay 20, 2019 at 7:45 am

Hey Miriam….. me too.
My concern is for the 4 million pre-poll votes,,,, their storage security, who had access, how were they counted so quickly?

I have grave concerns for those in insecure employment, those living on the streets, those on Newstart and the state of our environment.

FFS the stupidest man in Australia back in the Senate sitting alongside the stupidest woman in Australia put there by the stupidest voters in Australia. ( I know the grammar is dodgy but they won’t notice, or care, or even know that it is).

The election lobbied by Clive Palmer openly…… in his aim to open up the Galilee Basin to himself and that other denizen of dross, Singapore’s Gina. He had no intention of sitting in Parliament, he couldn’t even attend last time for more than a few days, his big advertising blitz was all about his future business dealings approvals.

So the big question is, What do we do now?

Matters NotMay 20, 2019 at 8:57 am

Adrianne Haddow – enough of the conspiracy speculation. Labor had already ‘lost’ long before lost the pre-polls hit the counting table. And it’s not as though these ballot boxes are opened or counted in secret. Rather there are scrutineers here, there and everywhere.

Miriam English – voters have been receiving bullshit forever – and from both sides of the political aisle. Yes it may have reached new levels but political strategists should (and do) know that.

Personally, I thought the voters had stopped listening and Labor would win in a landslide. But not so. I was wrong! I accept that. As for why they lost, the explanations will be endless but here’s a sample

view is similar to that of outgoing Victorian MP Michael Danby, who said the party’s policy to end tax refunds on franking credits for retirees cost it dearly at the ballot box.

“Before this election I had many, many rusted-on older Labor people come to me and beg me to do something about this,” he said.

“Because they said they wanted to vote for a change of government but they couldn’t because they couldn’t afford the change, it really affected them.”

Much was made of the claim that changes to the policy only affected something like 4-5% BUT no mention was made of the many offspring who didn’t like Grand Ma and Grand Pa being put under pressure at that stage of the their lives.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-20/election-2019-morrison-prepares-front-bench-labor-new-leader/11128442

Then there were the Mexicans who came over the border telling us how to live our lives (as a GetUp volunteer in Dutton’s electorate, I heard the feedback) – sad but true.) Bob Brown didn’t help. Just imagine a massive swing to fat George Christ .. even though he’s the Member for Manilla … and so on.

But I’ve been down this road to disappointment on numerous occasions. And the losses have been much greater (although not as unexpected.) Now I can’t be a bad loser in a political contest that more likely than not will be my last.

Adrianne HaddowMay 20, 2019 at 9:35 am

Matters Not, I am old enough and disillusioned enough to indulge any conspiracy speculation I want……..

As justification…. IPA, Gina, Rupert, Clive, Barnaby, Angus, Parakeelia, Paladin, GBR Foundation, Adani hanging around like a bad smell waiting for the largesse from the Australian taxpayer, and a whole host of other dodgy dealings flying under the radar.

John BoydMay 20, 2019 at 9:46 am

Matters Not…The franking credits policy itself is a good policy, closing off what is a real rort. The problem was that it was successfully sold as a ‘retiree tax’ by the LNP. Standing in the street for the ALP I was often approached by people worried about their pensions and more generally their retirement income. I nearly all cases, I was able to explain that it did not affect them. If they had to ask what a franking credit is, they had no problem. I think now that a number of these measures are what you do from government, not use them as a campaign issue. They are just too confusing for the average punter. Basically, we were beaten by lies supported by money.

TerenceMay 20, 2019 at 9:46 am

Miriam English

With all due respect, I think you actually contradicted yourself.

You said that you don’t think people are that stupid and then outlined a number of instances of stupidity.

If they are getting manipulated then they are stupid. End of story. We live in a world where we have more information than ever, yet we appear to be the only species on the planet that is actually going backward from an intellectual, evolutionary perspective. There is no excuse for people not to know the facts in this day and age. It’s not rocket science.

Case in point

Despite all their stupidity, corruption, arrogance and greed on display, New England voted back Barnyard and a significant number of people voted for Clive. Honestly if that’s not stupidity on a grand scale then I don’t know what is. Quite frankly, if all those farmers go broke due to a lack of water and those workers at Clive’s refinery don’t see a single cent of their outstanding entitlements (like he was ever going to cough up the coin anyway??), then they bloody well deserve it. Tossers.

I even saw on ABC news on Sunday a reporter in Tasmania who said that they were asking people as they were going into vote, who they would vote for and she said that many didn’t know and that they would make up their mind when they looked at the ballot paper (facepalm). Seriously WTF??? I question whether there is any inbreeding in Tasmania because with that sort of intelligence, they’d be lucky if they even could get their pants off.

Maybe the Libs and their suckhole mates have got the right idea. Many are saying that we have passed the point of no return and that essentially mankind has farked the earth so they’ve all bet on greed and now they are cashing in by raping, pillaging and plundering the joint on the way out.

With that in mind I leave you with this “Never in our history has so few done so much to so many.”

Matters NotMay 20, 2019 at 10:33 am

John Boyd, you’re right the franking arrangements are a rort and should have been addressed as a matter of principle. But pray tell why was this principle subsequently abandoned when it came to pensioners (with some part pensioners able to receive approx $16 000 cash refund via this rort) and some (many) super members able to receive much more via exceptional arrangements re this rort.

Or are principles not important – because they effect too many votes?

And speaking of rorts why do students at some schools (The Kings School is a good example) get assistance from both State and Federal Governments after parents have already paid $36 000 in school fees – and all this under a policy of needs based funding? Will any side of the political aisle address this rort? And if not – then why not?

Lots of rorts out and about if one cares to look. But addressing each comes with political consequences as Bowen et al should have anticipated. Taking from retirees is not a good political move.

Henry RodriguesMay 20, 2019 at 11:10 am

A microcosm of the inexplicability of the way voters think. My neighbour across the road, a fine old gentleman, in his 80’s, very graceful and intelligent, a farm worker in his younger days, sheep shearer, fence repairer, farm equipment mechanic, a real salt of the earth person, yet when he came over to have me witness his postal ballot, when asked how he viewed the choices, replied, that not since Gough had he considered anyone but Liberal. Even when I pointed out to him Labor’s policies for climate change and education and medicare, it made very little impact on him. He accepted that the coalition were less than honest about many policies and had mismanaged taxpayers money with handouts to their business mates like the Great barrier Reef scandal, but he had been so conditioned by the scare campaign that self preservation was his last and only reality. So in essence, Murdoch had won.

randalstellaMay 20, 2019 at 11:19 am

I wish you all many more elections.
There were so many brilliant young people who protested over Adani in Queensland – surely the vast majority of them Queenslanders. You should invite them onto this column. It could do with them.

For them to be cast as an unrealistic goad to bloody-minded reaction indicates that the focus is warped, facing reactively in the wrong direction. Reaction is not a good argument for mollifying reaction. It shows only that it cannot be mollified by such Politics.

People trying to save the planet are to be blamed for provoking voters to support MPs who will destroy the planet?

The focus should be squarely on the rotten dealings of Queensland Labor, the very very insider dealings – eventually going cap-in-hand to beg Adani to honour the State with his filthy destructive mine.
The focus has to be on the mentality inside this Labor Party. It placed so many Federal Labor people in an unwinnable predicament. They wished that the Adani issue would just go away, lapse somewhere and not keep coming back to sit in their lap.
It is exactly because Queensland Labor started petting Adani that the issue was alive and stayed alive. It stayed alive to explode in the lap of Federal Labor. But some of you would prefer to blame Bob Brown for working to save the reef.
The Adani mine has already destroyed three more irredeemable years of absolutely crucial action against climate change. Labor in Queensland could have put out the fuse well back, well before May 2019. It did not, and Australia’s role in global warming with remain on a par with Trump’s.

The way electorates vote across the world shows that the narrow focus on Politics that excludes cultural analysis is determined by that culture to avoid facing the future of reaction – and how to treat it at all. The fights in Politics are derived from the real forces of industrial-scale destruction of the planet and the habitat for progressive thought. The vast danger of the Public Opinion of homo vehicularis is not a Political problem before it is a cultural one.

Meanwhile crusades pitched on fairness can be dudded by any liar. As you know.

KronomexMay 20, 2019 at 11:34 am

And now Scummo will have to make good on all the promises (secret or otherwise) he and his cronies have made to The Rupert, just to name one, and the rest of the big end of town. Little people, we’re screwed! The Blimp will most likely get off for the taxpayer funded $70million and his mine next door to Adani will probably get the go ahead. Little people, we’re well and truly screwed!

No political can reasonably expect to be elected to power if they aren’t in the back pockets of the main sleaze media and big business. Polls are a complete waste of time because most, not being kind here, idiots will wait until the actual polling day and just keep voting for whatever party they and their families and dogs and cats, etc, have voted for for decades.

Peter FMay 20, 2019 at 11:47 am

The Blimp will have a tax refund claim on his expenses. That’s correct, we will have funded it 30%. ( If we ever find out the truth)

ajogradyMay 20, 2019 at 1:40 pm

How many more election losses will it take before the Greens understand that they help create L/NP wins by attacking and undermining the Labor party. It is only having Labor in power that their objectives will become reality, all be it in time. The Greens have become the third arm of conservative attacks on Labor. The others being the The Main Stream media and the L/NP itself. If the Greens were really about the environment and not about power they would re think their political agenda and start to attack the real enemy the L/NP and not give ammunition to the L/NP;s corrupt partner in crime the Main Stream Media. Perhaps the Greens could start talking and working with farmers who are also worried about the environment and be a force against the Nationals that would undermine the Coalition rather then splitting Labor votes in inner city seats. When Labor does gain power the Greens will not get a seat at the table if they continue with their attacks and undermining of Labor. They will then become irrelevant as Labor will be the party for the environment. The Greens need to have a good hard look at how they operate.

Henry RodriguesMay 20, 2019 at 1:56 pm

ajogrady…………. I agree with every word you wrote. The Greens, instead of trying to take votes off the LNP and Palmer and ON, were busy trying to prove they are more progressive than Labor. They don’t have the numbers but still imagine they will one day form government either alone or in coalition. I lost any begrudging respect I might have had for them when they opposed Labors ETS, and because of that we still don’t have a national consensus on climate change, which suits the coalition and their miner backers just fine.

KronomexMay 20, 2019 at 2:52 pm

I don’t think I can stand three aeons of that sneering, smirking, and self-righteous scumbag’s face as he and the rest of LNP, drag the country deep into the sewer of the underworld of the Rabid Religious Right Wing Nut Job hell watched over by The Lords of the Dead; The Rupert, The Gina, The Clive, The Twiggy, and other assorted Corporate Demons.

I can almost see the gubmint debt hitting somewhere around a figure of $800 billion in three years as Scummo and his “wonderful and genius economic managers” (nah, crooks will do) keep borrowing more and more money and pounding the little people and privatising just about everything to keep afloat.

And so the LNP continues with their slow but steady destruction of the ABC. They’re about to cop it in the neck again –

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/20/abc-staff-warned-146m-budget-cut-will-take-effect-after-coalitions-re-election

Another couple of years and The Murdoch may well get his wish for the total destruction of the ABC.

KronomexMay 20, 2019 at 3:45 pm

I forgot to mention in my short run of Scummo s words “supercilious”.

Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2019 at 3:48 pm

ajogrady and Henry Rodrigues you can’t blame Labor’s lack of progressive policies on the Greens. You’re doing what the LNP do all the time. How long have the LNP blamed Labor for their own awful policies? You seriously want to go down that road?

Jesus! The “Greens blocked the ETS” bullshit again. Do you people even hear yourselves? For crying out loud… why do you think it happened? That emissions scheme was worse than no scheme at all. Bear in mind that the Greens didn’t just pop up at the last moment and block it; they argued for many months beforehand for a scheme that would actually work, but Labor refused to come to the table. If the Greens had allowed it to pass, it would have locked in useless targets, multi-billion dollar polluter handouts and unlimited overseas offsets, and would have stymied any improvement for years to come.

GrahamMay 20, 2019 at 4:36 pm

Alan Jones will be all smiles tonight jokey and looking to come across as a nice fellow.
Please everyone just don’t watch Q&A tonight?
It will be crap show anyway especially because NUTCASE Jones will be on .

John BoydMay 20, 2019 at 5:35 pm

Matters Not….I agree….I can only think that the number of pensioners in the situation you describe was seen as not affecting the gross outcome in revenue terms. And the rort perpetrated by private schools (i went to one) is outrageous.

Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2019 at 7:45 pm

I have to hand it to Rudd. It was a masterful piece of politicking (even if it was revoltingly immoral).

He wanted to make a toothless emissions trading scheme so he wouldn’t get clobbered by the big corporations, but needed to make it look like he was actually doing something good.

He was very smart about it. He made sure it was a scheme that he knew the Greens would never agree to, then absolutely refused to talk with them about it. Instead, he wanted to do a deal with the LNP on it. This protected him from both sides. If the Greens blocked it he could blame them. If it went through and the public caught on afterward that it was poison he could point to the LNP and say that was their doing. And he would come out smelling like roses either way, because he would pretend he was actually doing what the people wanted.

Brilliant!
Horrible, but brilliant.

That was when this “Greens are evil” stuff started. It was deliberately orchestrated by Labor leadership, and many followers swallowed it. Labor and Greens should be natural allies, but Labor’s move away from progressive policies has put them at odds with the Greens who still stand by the ideals that Labor used to be true to. And weirdly, many Labor people somehow feel justified in condemning the Greens for that.

Unfortunately it was only smart in the short term. By pulling that fast one he shot Labor in the foot. If Labor and Greens had joined in a loose coalition the way the Libs and Nationals did, they might have actually gained office more often. But because of Rudd’s swiftie, Labor will have no chance of gaining office until maybe 2022, leaving them out in the cold for around a decade, but quite likely longer than that. If idiot Morrison can get in on zero policies, racism, homophobia, a succession of chaotic leadership backstabbings, and calling a doubled deficit a zero deficit, then I really doubt Labor will ever see office again… or at least until Murdoch runs out of young virgins that he can drain of blood.

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JohnMay 19, 2019 at 5:51 pm

Yes the victory of the coal-ition is definitely a loss for the environment, and thus all of the living-breathing beings that inhabit the Earth.
The Adani mine will most probably turn out to be a black elephant. It will most certainly be an environmental catastrophe because sooner or later it will destroy the watersheds both at the surface level and underground too.

And of course they have signaled that they are going to remove much of the “green tape” that is holding up “progress”. Just like the great orange circus clown who not haunts the American polity.
whateverMay 19, 2019 at 7:06 pm

Spitefulness, ….that’s the motive force that Scotty exploited.

Also, the SMH was running this strange mantra about ‘OMG House Prices are Falling!’ for at least 6 months before the election.
helvityniMay 19, 2019 at 7:30 pm

With a smirk on his face and one hand nonchalantly in his pocket, Scomo demanded Shorten to show his hand….
Shorten obeyed and did what was asked of him…

Why not ask what Scomo’s policies were and/or if he had any….
Peter FMay 19, 2019 at 8:49 pm

A youtube clip of Bob Hawke speaking in 1983 at the Nation Press Club, Tweeted by Sabra Lane is interesting for two facts:

His direct honest reply to questions, with humour; and
The fact that journalists were smoking in the room.

“2” above struck me immediately. It was at a time when big business propaganda had us believe a massive lie: That smoking was acceptable.

We have now witnessed another destructive win by big business propaganda.

Bob Hawke at @PressClubAust #NPC – his leader's address during the 1983 campaign: listen to the first Q&A – would a pollie give an answer like that today? https://t.co/GpJ36CWXxL

— Sabra Lane (@SabraLane) May 16, 2019
Miriam EnglishMay 19, 2019 at 9:11 pm

I don’t understand it.

All the polls showed severe distrust of the LNP. Australians were fed up with 5 or 6 years of nothing except backbiting and infighting and bullying and destruction of our country (ABC, forests, the Reef, the middle class, manufacturing…). Even their own party members were deserting what appeared to be a sinking ship. We had record-breaking enrollment of young people specifically because of the plebicite forced on us by the homophobic LNP. About two thirds of Australians were angered by the plebicite, and the way it was conducted, and emphatically rejected the LNP’s homophobia. Scott Morrison conducted a lackluster campaign alone while his creepy henchmen stayed in the shadows, apparently to avoid reminding people how repellent they are.

People are getting smarter, more moral, more empathetic, and just yesterday I was reading research showing people are becoming less biased, and less bigoted.

Of course the democracy-destroying Murdoch press turned on their spigot, flooding the media with lies, lies, and more outrageous lies. But people — even right-wing people — are starting to become wary of the fakery of the Murdoch press.

Then, against all this… the LNP won? by an absurdly large margin???? How is that possible?

I keep wondering if our election was fiddled the way it was in USA, UK, Brazil, Russia, and a number of countries in Europe. Money is a powerful motive. Then I think, “Nah, it wouldn’t happen here…” but a voice in the back of my mind keeps asking, “Why exactly would it NOT happen here? Trump, BREXIT, Bolsonaro, Putin, Marine Le Pen, Erdogan… Morrison?”
KronomexMay 19, 2019 at 9:26 pm

We must not upset Gina and Clive and Adani and Twiggy and all the rest of the mining, energy, and other assorted pigs the fcking wankers! We might lose donations.

“CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change policy was a major talking point at the 2019 election, and continued to be a divisive point for the Coalition. The party won’t make major changes over the next three years.
The Morrison government have outlined a $2 billion climate solutions package which is being rolled out over 15 years.
There’s no plan to boost renewables — and Mr Morrison has committed to a coal upgrade project in NSW.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/federal-eletion-2019-what-a-coalition-win-means-for-you-major-policies-explained/news-story/cf40fbf4284ef7e36393d1e3627d4091

Corruptio…oops, business as usual. And little leaning peasants, who aren’t the 10%, you’re on the hit shit list as well.
whateverMay 19, 2019 at 9:37 pm

The LNP have become adept at highly localised political stunts and cash splashes.

God knows what favours were being delivered in QLD electorates.

Remember when Barnaby had to re-contest the seat of New England due to citizenship?
During that by-election, Tamworth City Council suddenly decided to have a very public crackdown on boarding houses…specifically those which were housing Chinese abattoir workers. Some good ol’ White Australia nostalgia for you.

“Dukes of Hazzard” politics.
RomeoCharlie29May 19, 2019 at 9:42 pm

Miriam, all of your doubts resonate. I too wonder what happened to the votes of the youth who were, allegedly, energised by the Plebiscite. But look at the campaign run by Morrison, and even though I read no newspapers and watched no commercial TV, I was more than aware that there was a large-scale negative campaign of outright lies being peddled by Scummo and those of his confederates who were actually allowed to speak —/Frydenberg and Birmingham, abetted by the MSM and then those yellow pages — ok so I saw a couple of the Murdoch rags — from the disgraceful Palmer, all peddling outrageous lies about Labor’s $387 billion in new taxes, a lie that was never adequately rebutted by Shorten or his team. At least twice in the third debate, Shorten allowed this claim by Morrison to go unchallenged. Then there were the lies on the Chinese internet and the scurrilous use of AEC lookalike posters telling Chinese voters to put the Libs first. This must surely be investigated by the AEC. We didn’t need foreign interference, when our own organs of propaganda ran their own campaign of fear, appeals to personal greed and personal denigration of Bill Shorten. The people of Australia who returned Morrison and his band of grubs should hang their heads in shame. Not even the defeat of Abbott can penetrate the gloom of this result.
Paul DavisMay 19, 2019 at 9:59 pm

And so it goes ….. check out the guest list for the unbiased Our ABysmal’s Q&A tomorrow night:
Alan Jones Christopher Pyne Alice Workman Ming Long and in the red corner Labor new guardsman and much hyped by the right wing media as their preferred new leader Jim Chalmers.

Wonder how loaded the prepared questions will be. Alan, Alice and Chris will have the informed political journalistic and media view while Ming will bring the business and financial market expertise to bear as the entrails of the election carcass is picked over. Jim will walk the fence between agreeing how cracked their campaign was and how he can be a voice for party unity and healing.
RhondaMay 19, 2019 at 10:03 pm

Hey Miriam, I’ve been having very similar thouthoughts – re a possible corruption of the voting process. That’s how despairing I feel right now – I’d prefer to believe a tragic conspiracy over the knowledge that our Nation has chosen THIS. What a horror the 24 hrs has been. I’m quite broken
Matters NotMay 19, 2019 at 10:15 pm

Yes, there are lots of ‘issues’ in elections but many remain at the level of motherhood and apple pie – attracting nodding agreement from the masses – but never becoming vote changers with profound political consequences.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Adani. Trish Corry knew it and warned about same over a long period of time.

As a political process, Democracy is the best process we have even though it doesn’t always produce good outcomes.
king1394May 19, 2019 at 10:37 pm

Firstly, it is not our political system that needs to be questioned but how our society has produced an educated populace, half of whom have such short attention spans or lack critical thinking to such an extent that they can forget the last few years of ineptitude and downright cruelty, and accept the LNP’s lies on the economy, etc.

Secondly we need to look at ourselves. We enjoy reading and commenting on each other’s articles and throughout the last year or so, far too many of the comments have been about how inadequate Labor/Shorten are. I particularly resent the way the Greens have concentrated on denigrating Labor rather than taking a focused attack to the Liberals and Nationals. There are seats, particularly on the north coast of NSW that could have fallen to an effective Green, in my opinion, but they prefer to harass sitting Labor members in the Inner parts of Sydney and Melbourne. I did not find the Greens’ signs that said “Stop Labor’s Adani mine” at all helpful, for example. Now we will be trying to stop the Liberal’s Adani mine and Palmer’s mine next door as well.

Finally, our Electoral Office needs to get some teeth and crack down on the unauthorised leaflets, posters and deceptive signs. They also would seem to be appropriately placed to censure absolute lies. If it meant disqualification of a candidate or even a new by-election due to malfeasance, so be it.
RosemaryJ36May 20, 2019 at 1:51 am

I have lodged a complaint with the AEC that posters written entirely in Chinese (or any other non-English language) and WITHOUT an English translation can be displayed when our ONLY official language is English. If you feel the same way – particularly as this occurred on Liberal posters, urging voters to put 1 for the Liberal candidate, where the colour of the poster implied it was an official AEC, i.e. government , advice – please forward your complaint.
RosemaryJ36May 20, 2019 at 1:56 am

Special mention from inkl:
Some seriously good climate modelling. This week the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed 415ppm; believe us when we say that’s a lot. Amazingly, a group of savvy climate scientists predicted this eventuality back in 1982. Unfortunately for all of humanity they were in the employ of the American oil and gas giant Exxon which promptly buried their findings. Forearmed with knowledge of a climate apocalypse Exxon went on a years-long campaign to lobby against action on climate change and even funded climate deniers.
Please share.
TerenceMay 20, 2019 at 5:45 am

Well I did tell people on here.

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”

“When in doubt, bet on greed every time.”

That about sums up the election.
Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2019 at 7:42 am

king1394, you can’t blame the Greens for people being pissed at Labor for embracing Adani’s catastrophic coal mine. If Labor wanted to attract people worried about climate change then they needed to actually address that. The Greens were such a massive force too: 1 seat. And all those votes for Greens candidates who did not get elected went to Labor anyway as preferences.

Terence, I don’t think people are really that stupid or greedy. I think there was a lot of manipulation going on… mostly through Murdoch’s infernal noise machine.

Matters Not, I don’t think you can properly call this democracy when people are actively and deliberately and with careful calculation fed vast amounts of disinformation in order to subvert their vote. I met people who described GetUp as a “vicious” organisation. One woman verbally abused the very sweet Labor woman I was chatting with, accusing her of being associated with murder because Christian propagandists had used lies to link Labor (in her mind) with abortion. Another person firmly believed Labor intended to reintroduce death taxes and nothing could disabuse her of that lie. My local LNP politician kept repeating the lie that they had already achieved a surplus, and I kept hearing it elsewhere in the media too. The astounding level of deliberate lies propagated by the LNP and Palmer via Murdoch this election blew me away. It’s like they’ve seen what was done by Putin, Trump, Bolsonaro, Erdogan, Marine Le Pen, and the Brexiteers and thought it was a good thing!!!
Adrianne HaddowMay 20, 2019 at 7:45 am

Hey Miriam….. me too.
My concern is for the 4 million pre-poll votes,,,, their storage security, who had access, how were they counted so quickly?

I have grave concerns for those in insecure employment, those living on the streets, those on Newstart and the state of our environment.

FFS the stupidest man in Australia back in the Senate sitting alongside the stupidest woman in Australia put there by the stupidest voters in Australia. ( I know the grammar is dodgy but they won’t notice, or care, or even know that it is).

The election lobbied by Clive Palmer openly…… in his aim to open up the Galilee Basin to himself and that other denizen of dross, Singapore’s Gina. He had no intention of sitting in Parliament, he couldn’t even attend last time for more than a few days, his big advertising blitz was all about his future business dealings approvals.

So the big question is, What do we do now?
Matters NotMay 20, 2019 at 8:57 am

Adrianne Haddow – enough of the conspiracy speculation. Labor had already ‘lost’ long before lost the pre-polls hit the counting table. And it’s not as though these ballot boxes are opened or counted in secret. Rather there are scrutineers here, there and everywhere.

Miriam English – voters have been receiving bullshit forever – and from both sides of the political aisle. Yes it may have reached new levels but political strategists should (and do) know that.

Personally, I thought the voters had stopped listening and Labor would win in a landslide. But not so. I was wrong! I accept that. As for why they lost, the explanations will be endless but here’s a sample

view is similar to that of outgoing Victorian MP Michael Danby, who said the party’s policy to end tax refunds on franking credits for retirees cost it dearly at the ballot box.

“Before this election I had many, many rusted-on older Labor people come to me and beg me to do something about this,” he said.

“Because they said they wanted to vote for a change of government but they couldn’t because they couldn’t afford the change, it really affected them.”

Much was made of the claim that changes to the policy only affected something like 4-5% BUT no mention was made of the many offspring who didn’t like Grand Ma and Grand Pa being put under pressure at that stage of the their lives.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-20/election-2019-morrison-prepares-front-bench-labor-new-leader/11128442

Then there were the Mexicans who came over the border telling us how to live our lives (as a GetUp volunteer in Dutton’s electorate, I heard the feedback) – sad but true.) Bob Brown didn’t help. Just imagine a massive swing to fat George Christ .. even though he’s the Member for Manilla … and so on.

But I’ve been down this road to disappointment on numerous occasions. And the losses have been much greater (although not as unexpected.) Now I can’t be a bad loser in a political contest that more likely than not will be my last.
Adrianne HaddowMay 20, 2019 at 9:35 am

Matters Not, I am old enough and disillusioned enough to indulge any conspiracy speculation I want……..

As justification…. IPA, Gina, Rupert, Clive, Barnaby, Angus, Parakeelia, Paladin, GBR Foundation, Adani hanging around like a bad smell waiting for the largesse from the Australian taxpayer, and a whole host of other dodgy dealings flying under the radar.
John BoydMay 20, 2019 at 9:46 am

Matters Not…The franking credits policy itself is a good policy, closing off what is a real rort. The problem was that it was successfully sold as a ‘retiree tax’ by the LNP. Standing in the street for the ALP I was often approached by people worried about their pensions and more generally their retirement income. I nearly all cases, I was able to explain that it did not affect them. If they had to ask what a franking credit is, they had no problem. I think now that a number of these measures are what you do from government, not use them as a campaign issue. They are just too confusing for the average punter. Basically, we were beaten by lies supported by money.
TerenceMay 20, 2019 at 9:46 am

Miriam English

With all due respect, I think you actually contradicted yourself.

You said that you don’t think people are that stupid and then outlined a number of instances of stupidity.

If they are getting manipulated then they are stupid. End of story. We live in a world where we have more information than ever, yet we appear to be the only species on the planet that is actually going backward from an intellectual, evolutionary perspective. There is no excuse for people not to know the facts in this day and age. It’s not rocket science.

Case in point

Despite all their stupidity, corruption, arrogance and greed on display, New England voted back Barnyard and a significant number of people voted for Clive. Honestly if that’s not stupidity on a grand scale then I don’t know what is. Quite frankly, if all those farmers go broke due to a lack of water and those workers at Clive’s refinery don’t see a single cent of their outstanding entitlements (like he was ever going to cough up the coin anyway??), then they bloody well deserve it. Tossers.

I even saw on ABC news on Sunday a reporter in Tasmania who said that they were asking people as they were going into vote, who they would vote for and she said that many didn’t know and that they would make up their mind when they looked at the ballot paper (facepalm). Seriously WTF??? I question whether there is any inbreeding in Tasmania because with that sort of intelligence, they’d be lucky if they even could get their pants off.

Maybe the Libs and their suckhole mates have got the right idea. Many are saying that we have passed the point of no return and that essentially mankind has farked the earth so they’ve all bet on greed and now they are cashing in by raping, pillaging and plundering the joint on the way out.

With that in mind I leave you with this “Never in our history has so few done so much to so many.”
Matters NotMay 20, 2019 at 10:33 am

John Boyd, you’re right the franking arrangements are a rort and should have been addressed as a matter of principle. But pray tell why was this principle subsequently abandoned when it came to pensioners (with some part pensioners able to receive approx $16 000 cash refund via this rort) and some (many) super members able to receive much more via exceptional arrangements re this rort.

Or are principles not important – because they effect too many votes?

And speaking of rorts why do students at some schools (The Kings School is a good example) get assistance from both State and Federal Governments after parents have already paid $36 000 in school fees – and all this under a policy of needs based funding? Will any side of the political aisle address this rort? And if not – then why not?

Lots of rorts out and about if one cares to look. But addressing each comes with political consequences as Bowen et al should have anticipated. Taking from retirees is not a good political move.
Henry RodriguesMay 20, 2019 at 11:10 am

A microcosm of the inexplicability of the way voters think. My neighbour across the road, a fine old gentleman, in his 80’s, very graceful and intelligent, a farm worker in his younger days, sheep shearer, fence repairer, farm equipment mechanic, a real salt of the earth person, yet when he came over to have me witness his postal ballot, when asked how he viewed the choices, replied, that not since Gough had he considered anyone but Liberal. Even when I pointed out to him Labor’s policies for climate change and education and medicare, it made very little impact on him. He accepted that the coalition were less than honest about many policies and had mismanaged taxpayers money with handouts to their business mates like the Great barrier Reef scandal, but he had been so conditioned by the scare campaign that self preservation was his last and only reality. So in essence, Murdoch had won.
randalstellaMay 20, 2019 at 11:19 am

I wish you all many more elections.
There were so many brilliant young people who protested over Adani in Queensland – surely the vast majority of them Queenslanders. You should invite them onto this column. It could do with them.

For them to be cast as an unrealistic goad to bloody-minded reaction indicates that the focus is warped, facing reactively in the wrong direction. Reaction is not a good argument for mollifying reaction. It shows only that it cannot be mollified by such Politics.

People trying to save the planet are to be blamed for provoking voters to support MPs who will destroy the planet?

The focus should be squarely on the rotten dealings of Queensland Labor, the very very insider dealings – eventually going cap-in-hand to beg Adani to honour the State with his filthy destructive mine.
The focus has to be on the mentality inside this Labor Party. It placed so many Federal Labor people in an unwinnable predicament. They wished that the Adani issue would just go away, lapse somewhere and not keep coming back to sit in their lap.
It is exactly because Queensland Labor started petting Adani that the issue was alive and stayed alive. It stayed alive to explode in the lap of Federal Labor. But some of you would prefer to blame Bob Brown for working to save the reef.
The Adani mine has already destroyed three more irredeemable years of absolutely crucial action against climate change. Labor in Queensland could have put out the fuse well back, well before May 2019. It did not, and Australia’s role in global warming with remain on a par with Trump’s.

The way electorates vote across the world shows that the narrow focus on Politics that excludes cultural analysis is determined by that culture to avoid facing the future of reaction – and how to treat it at all. The fights in Politics are derived from the real forces of industrial-scale destruction of the planet and the habitat for progressive thought. The vast danger of the Public Opinion of homo vehicularis is not a Political problem before it is a cultural one.

Meanwhile crusades pitched on fairness can be dudded by any liar. As you know.
KronomexMay 20, 2019 at 11:34 am

And now Scummo will have to make good on all the promises (secret or otherwise) he and his cronies have made to The Rupert, just to name one, and the rest of the big end of town. Little people, we’re screwed! The Blimp will most likely get off for the taxpayer funded $70million and his mine next door to Adani will probably get the go ahead. Little people, we’re well and truly screwed!

No political can reasonably expect to be elected to power if they aren’t in the back pockets of the main sleaze media and big business. Polls are a complete waste of time because most, not being kind here, idiots will wait until the actual polling day and just keep voting for whatever party they and their families and dogs and cats, etc, have voted for for decades.
Peter FMay 20, 2019 at 11:47 am

The Blimp will have a tax refund claim on his expenses. That’s correct, we will have funded it 30%. ( If we ever find out the truth)
ajogradyMay 20, 2019 at 1:40 pm

How many more election losses will it take before the Greens understand that they help create L/NP wins by attacking and undermining the Labor party. It is only having Labor in power that their objectives will become reality, all be it in time. The Greens have become the third arm of conservative attacks on Labor. The others being the The Main Stream media and the L/NP itself. If the Greens were really about the environment and not about power they would re think their political agenda and start to attack the real enemy the L/NP and not give ammunition to the L/NP;s corrupt partner in crime the Main Stream Media. Perhaps the Greens could start talking and working with farmers who are also worried about the environment and be a force against the Nationals that would undermine the Coalition rather then splitting Labor votes in inner city seats. When Labor does gain power the Greens will not get a seat at the table if they continue with their attacks and undermining of Labor. They will then become irrelevant as Labor will be the party for the environment. The Greens need to have a good hard look at how they operate.
Henry RodriguesMay 20, 2019 at 1:56 pm

ajogrady…………. I agree with every word you wrote. The Greens, instead of trying to take votes off the LNP and Palmer and ON, were busy trying to prove they are more progressive than Labor. They don’t have the numbers but still imagine they will one day form government either alone or in coalition. I lost any begrudging respect I might have had for them when they opposed Labors ETS, and because of that we still don’t have a national consensus on climate change, which suits the coalition and their miner backers just fine.
KronomexMay 20, 2019 at 2:52 pm

I don’t think I can stand three aeons of that sneering, smirking, and self-righteous scumbag’s face as he and the rest of LNP, drag the country deep into the sewer of the underworld of the Rabid Religious Right Wing Nut Job hell watched over by The Lords of the Dead; The Rupert, The Gina, The Clive, The Twiggy, and other assorted Corporate Demons.

I can almost see the gubmint debt hitting somewhere around a figure of $800 billion in three years as Scummo and his “wonderful and genius economic managers” (nah, crooks will do) keep borrowing more and more money and pounding the little people and privatising just about everything to keep afloat.

And so the LNP continues with their slow but steady destruction of the ABC. They’re about to cop it in the neck again –

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/20/abc-staff-warned-146m-budget-cut-will-take-effect-after-coalitions-re-election

Another couple of years and The Murdoch may well get his wish for the total destruction of the ABC.
KronomexMay 20, 2019 at 3:45 pm

I forgot to mention in my short run of Scummo s words “supercilious”.
Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2019 at 3:48 pm

ajogrady and Henry Rodrigues you can’t blame Labor’s lack of progressive policies on the Greens. You’re doing what the LNP do all the time. How long have the LNP blamed Labor for their own awful policies? You seriously want to go down that road?

Jesus! The “Greens blocked the ETS” bullshit again. Do you people even hear yourselves? For crying out loud… why do you think it happened? That emissions scheme was worse than no scheme at all. Bear in mind that the Greens didn’t just pop up at the last moment and block it; they argued for many months beforehand for a scheme that would actually work, but Labor refused to come to the table. If the Greens had allowed it to pass, it would have locked in useless targets, multi-billion dollar polluter handouts and unlimited overseas offsets, and would have stymied any improvement for years to come.
GrahamMay 20, 2019 at 4:36 pm

Alan Jones will be all smiles tonight jokey and looking to come across as a nice fellow.
Please everyone just don’t watch Q&A tonight?
It will be crap show anyway especially because NUTCASE Jones will be on .
John BoydMay 20, 2019 at 5:35 pm

Matters Not….I agree….I can only think that the number of pensioners in the situation you describe was seen as not affecting the gross outcome in revenue terms. And the rort perpetrated by private schools (i went to one) is outrageous.
Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2019 at 7:45 pm

I have to hand it to Rudd. It was a masterful piece of politicking (even if it was revoltingly immoral).

He wanted to make a toothless emissions trading scheme so he wouldn’t get clobbered by the big corporations, but needed to make it look like he was actually doing something good.

He was very smart about it. He made sure it was a scheme that he knew the Greens would never agree to, then absolutely refused to talk with them about it. Instead, he wanted to do a deal with the LNP on it. This protected him from both sides. If the Greens blocked it he could blame them. If it went through and the public caught on afterward that it was poison he could point to the LNP and say that was their doing. And he would come out smelling like roses either way, because he would pretend he was actually doing what the people wanted.

Brilliant!
Horrible, but brilliant.

That was when this “Greens are evil” stuff started. It was deliberately orchestrated by Labor leadership, and many followers swallowed it. Labor and Greens should be natural allies, but Labor’s move away from progressive policies has put them at odds with the Greens who still stand by the ideals that Labor used to be true to. And weirdly, many Labor people somehow feel justified in condemning the Greens for that.

Unfortunately it was only smart in the short term. By pulling that fast one he shot Labor in the foot. If Labor and Greens had joined in a loose coalition the way the Libs and Nationals did, they might have actually gained office more often. But because of Rudd’s swiftie, Labor will have no chance of gaining office until maybe 2022, leaving them out in the cold for around a decade, but quite likely longer than that. If idiot Morrison can get in on zero policies, racism, homophobia, a succession of chaotic leadership backstabbings, and calling a doubled deficit a zero deficit, then I really doubt Labor will ever see office again… or at least until Murdoch runs out of young virgins that he can drain of blood.

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