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Amanda Vanstone dumps another turd on what passes as the journalistic landscape nowadays

For some reason, the very inept Amanda Vanstone is still appearing in the media. Perhaps she is offered up for comedy value because she is sure as hell is no sort of objective political observer or analyst.

Her latest blatant propaganda piece in the SMH where she asks Will the real Bill Shorten please stand up? is just silly.

“Labor endlessly seeks to create the impression Liberals care more about business than they do people.”

Actually, it’s the Liberals that promote that as their strategy Amanda. They pretend that, if businesses make more profit (helped by paying their employees less and no tax), they will employ more people (as casuals with no entitlements or tenure).

Amanda goes on to explain why “the economy” is so important.

“If the economy goes bung, rich people sell a beach house or some shares. The not-so economically lucky lose their jobs and maybe their house. When the economy crumbles the people on the bottom get crushed. They are the first to fall. The weakest go down first, the strong survive. It’s “the little guy” and the disadvantaged that suffer first when the economy falters.”

OK, I may be a novice at this governing stuff but if we have an economy where the weakest suffer first then we need to reset how our economy works.

Amanda tells us that “A listless economy hurts the lower end of town in sometimes irreparable ways.”

Can you get any more listless than zero inflation, stagnant wages, welfare that has not increased in decades, and living standards going backwards?

She then says “Government can only do good things with revenue. It has to collect taxes. We need the private sector to be doing well in order to have the money to build roads, schools or whatever.”

Someone needs to tell Amanda that companies have been making record profits but that does not equate to revenue because… news flash… they use tax loopholes to avoid paying anything. Have a chat with Angus Taylor about the Caymans.

Amanda tells us that the only reason we survived the GFC was because we had no net debt when it hit.

“Labor claims credit for us coming through the crisis but without inheriting the no-debt situation it would have been a nightmare. They borrowed too much and spent it badly.”

No mention of the last six years of borrowing by the Coalition with no crisis and no ostensible benefit. They have more than doubled the debt during a time of world recovery and unexpectedly high commodity prices.

We are then asked to feel really sorry for the poor miner earning $250,000 who is just trying to get ahead. Then there is the kid who asked Bill Shorten about job losses when coal mines shut which, according to Amanda, left Bill “just blubbering”.

Amanda tells us there is plenty of evidence of Bill Shorten lacking credibility.

“When you actually say that you won’t say what you think because there’s a microphone on (and you say that whilst the mic is on) it just screams out to voters that you’re not the real deal.”

Has she seen the video of Morrison, Abbott and Dutton on stage joking about climate change until Scott points out there’s a boom mike recording them?

“One of Morrison’s greatest attributes is that he makes no pretence at being anything other than what he is. He is the real deal.”

Righto. So he’s a beer-swilling, sheep-shearing, tractor-driving, carrot-picking regular guy who enjoys playing soccer, lawn bowls, rugby, AFL, snooker and tennis in between whipping up strawberry curries for Jen and the girls.  Hallelujah (are the cameras rolling?)

Amanda says that her “experience of Australians is that if you’re straight-up with them they’ll accept you even if they don’t always agree.”

She finishes her article by telling us that Scott’s “Authenticity, confidence and resilience” is “a powerful kit.”

Perhaps had we not just had to pay $185 million for Scott to expose his kit in a moody photo shoot on the jetty at Christmas Island, I could take your opinion a little more seriously Amanda.

Actually, in the interest of authenticity, based on your track record culminating in this latest pile of partisan horseshit, I doubt I could ever take you seriously.

 

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34 comments

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  1. John Hermann

    She could be reasonably described as an economic illiterate. However a more interesting characteristic is her tendency to disengage the brain when opening the mouth.

  2. ChristopherJ

    I think her brain is morbidly obese as well. How humans like her can gravitate to the top and still sway people is beyond me. I can’t stand to even hear or see that pile of useless blubber.

    Thank you Kaye for calling her out and for reading that pile of shit.

  3. Jack Cade

    She is also responsible for Christopher Pyne, who seeped into parliament after being on her staff.
    It is also an appalling fact – it appalls ME, anyway – that she is or was on the board of the Port Power football club. She is about as representative of whaf the Power stands for (‘the Alberton crowd Port Adelaide proud’) as John Howard is of Australian pace bowlers. And, as I’m sick of saying, her sister-in-law oversaw the electoral re-distribution that gifted four seats to the Liberal Party at the last SA state election, ousting Jay Weatherill (to the immense relief of Frydenberg) and giving SA the first somnambulant state premier in Australian history.

  4. Henry Rodrigues

    This decidedly useless mass of blubber gets the publicity thanks to that gutless failed treasurer Peter ‘arsewipe’ Costello who is now the ostensible editor in chief of both the SMH and the Age. She could hardly be termed ‘intellectual’ in any forum.

    And elsewhere the lying rodent is being trotted out by Scummo to help save his arse.

  5. Perkin Warbeck

    And the disinterment of the cadaverous Howard appears, if today’s Newspoll can be trusted, to be working, because 49% of this benighted nation suddenly likes the cut of the Coalition’s jib.
    Lying, cheating, stealing.
    National heritage.
    Haven’t come very far since the First Fleet, have we?

  6. Kronomex

    HAHAHAHAHA…that piece of satire from Immense Vaststump was brill…oh shit, just realised she was being serious. Horror, oh horror.

  7. RomeoCharlie29

    Nice one Kaye Lee, and I see the odious lump is on “you can’t ask that” on Wed. Well, that’s an excellent program to give a miss this week.

  8. Jack Cade

    But she’s the same size sitting or standing. You can’t tell!

  9. Josephus

    Think that comments about personal physique are less relevant (ad hominem) than that people need to concentrate on issues, on a person’s political literacy and honesty.

  10. Kaye Lee

    And over on Our ABC they tell us that “Bill Shorten is a man under pressure.”

    “Murmurings among the travelling press pack that Mr Shorten’s campaign appears to lack the dynamism of the Prime Minister’s have only grown louder during the last week.

    Scott Morrison is constantly captured “doing things” — playing sport, picking carrots, going on a ride at the Royal Easter Show and even shearing a sheep.

    Labor is proposing a bold new policy agenda, a risky move which will pay off if it can convince enough voters of its vision for the future.

    But it leaves the leader open to heavy scrutiny about the details of his plans, and any mistakes that might be considered small in the grand scheme of things are amplified by the intensity of the campaign.”

    Journalism in this country is a disgrace! How about pointing out that photo shoots don’t make up for having no policies. We aren’t electing a spokesmodel.

  11. Jack Cade

    Josephus.
    I entirely agree, and I’d rather I had not made my last post. It is the absolute hypocrisy of Vanstone and her ‘moderate’ Liberal bullshit that irks me. Genuine ‘moderates’ would surely be repulsed by the awful RW positions adopted by the Liberals and say so. Vanstone does not. She is ‘one of them’, totally. And has no right masquerading as a neutral pundit.

  12. Henry Rodrigues

    Bill Shorten is a man of courage, unlike that dickhead who’s keeps, posing smiling but saying nothing. But the venerable ABC with mouth pieces like the toothy Trioli with her aggressive manner, seem to think otherwise. And no doubt the 7.30 report with half price Sales will take over the evening shift. Independent ABC ???? Yea thanks Ita ‘Buttered, on both sides.

    Total bastards, every single one of them.

  13. Grumpy Geezer

    Vanstone is worth reading if only because she is a Lib moderate. If her opinions are moderate what does that say about their wing-nuts?

  14. NewBruce

    The whole lot of them make me vomit.
    The thought of that lying scheming maggot of a pm ,little johnny, back in front of the cameras for political gain is plainly offensive to anyone with more than one braincell.
    And the moodily lit “art-shot” of scooter moronscum at the top of the piece brought Derek and Clive to mind.
    “Jump, you flucker, jump. Throw your happy-clapping, boot licking, greedy pathetic “I’ll take whatever I can get and so will my mates and screw the rest of you” arse into these shark infested waters and you will be all right because god in his infinite wisdom will save you from a fate worse than electoral annihilation because that’s what he does.”

    Go on, sco-mo. Jump. I dare you. I bet He doesn’t.

  15. Jack Cade

    Henry.
    Morrison let the cat out yesterday when he said he’d be happy to have a debate on the ABC. ‘I’d welcome it: Leigh Sales, myself and Bill Shorten.’ Can’t get more naked evidence of where he believes ABC current affairs is aimed than that.

  16. Vikingduk

    Journalism in this country is a disgrace . . . says it all, really. I can’t understand why so many of these typists and talking heads so willingly prostitute themselves. To become legends in their own headspace? Cheap whores with power. The parrot, that thing caught out in a public toilet in the UK, sets the agenda, encourages the agenda for these traitors. The repulsive rupert and news corpse . . . Where the truth goes to die, so blatantly biased with their insanity. Barking mad batshit crazy traitorous scum. The stench of corruption permeates the atmosphere created by these rotten to the core turds.

    How I would love to see these lying, corrupt hypocrites held to account. Perhaps a fed icac and several royal commissions might consign some of these fckers to the dank dungeons they deserve.

    Once again, thank you all at AIMN for the quality of articles and Alcibiades for in depth comments, all really help when despair creeps in and all commenters, you help to keep hope alive. Cheers.

  17. DrakeN

    Jack, Ms Trioli would change his mind if she were to be suggested as moderator 😉

  18. DrakeN

    Lawrence S. Roberts,

    Ms. Vanstone has to stand up to speak.
    When she sits her voice gets muffled.

  19. Kaye Lee

    On a different matter….

    “Kathy Jackson’s trial is expected to begin on April 29, depending on the outcome of her Legal Aid application.”

    No mention of anything today? Does she just get to delay this forever?

  20. Wat Tyler

    A better question, Kate, Is ‘how could this creature qualify legal aid? She was Abbott’s pet unionist, and apparently sucked union funds out like a swimming pool pump.

  21. guest

    Morrison is a loudmouth in perpetual motion. His avalanche of words is no better than Abbott’s three word slogans, his activities are like Abbott’s bike-riding, just colour and movement, while he wears a rugby hat instead of budgie-smugglers.

    “Authenticity, confidence and resilience”? No, he betrays a nervous, garrulous attempt at cover-up for his lack of real policy.

    So what is the “economy” Vanstone and the Coalition talk about? It seems to be mainly something about digging up coal and iron ore with a bit of agriculture thrown in the mix. It is not much better than a banana republic economy. After that it is mainly paper-shuffling. We have to sell off the country so we can buy from overseas what we really need.

    And so wages stagnate, so many people are homeless and in poverty, while the big end of town stores its cash in tax havens.

    So we see why the conservatives want to keep things business-as-usual; that is, coal and a Clayton’s policy on carbon abatement. When Morrison et al. rattle on about jobs, they do not think about the consequences of burning fossil fuels. They would prefer to cook the planet because attending to climate change costs too much. They pretend that they are being practical, pragmatic.

    We see how the conservative side tries to “virtue signal” their approach. In the words of Chris Kenny (27-28/4/19):
    “For all sorts of practical reasons including sensible environmental caution (giving the planet benefit of doubt), responsible global citizenship and adjusting to possible worldwide technological shifts, Australia needs to play a part.”

    “environmental caution” = care of water, care of the environment, tree clearing, pollution, Great Barrier Reef,etc ?

    “responsible global citizenship” = adherence to the Paris agreement, to the Refugee Convention, etc ?

    “possible worldwide technological shifts” = renewable energy ?

    Kenny, your crowd are not playing a part. Time will catch up with you, if it has not already.

  22. Kaye Lee

    Speaking of global citizenship, in his first speech in parliament, Morrison said….

    “As global citizens, we must also recognise that our freedom will always be diminished by the denial of those same freedoms elsewhere, whether in Australia or overseas.

    Our attention in this area cannot be limited only to areas of strategic self-interest. It must be pursued as the responsibility of our common humanity. In Africa, 6,500 people die every day from preventable and treatable diseases. [It] is a humanitarian tragedy on an unimaginable scale. It is a true moral crisis that eclipses all others. The African tragedy is driven by war, poverty, disease, famine, corruption, injustice and an evil that is robbing generations of Africans, our fellow human beings, of their future.

    … when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for … what we did—or did not do to put the fire out …

    We must engage as individuals and communities to confront these issues—not just as governments. We have all heard the call to make poverty history. Let us do this by first making poverty our own personal business.

    The Howard government increased annual spending on foreign aid to $3.2 billion. The new government has committed to continue to increase this investment and I commend it for doing so. However, we still must go further. If we doubt the need, let us note that in 2007 the total world budget for global aid accounted for only one-third of basic global needs in areas such as education, general health, HIV-AIDS, water treatment and sanitation. This leaves a sizeable gap. The need is not diminishing, nor can our support. It is the Australian thing to do.”

    In Morrison’s first budget, foreign aid was cut by $200 million. Morrison said it was Labor’s fault for blowing the surplus, ignoring the fact that it was the Coalition’s third budget.

  23. Henry Rodrigues

    Never before in any election since Howard, has almost the entire media, print, radio and TV, been so blatantly biased against Labor. Even the ABC and SBS have been corrupted. As for Sales and Trioli and the rest of the stable mates, they area bloody disgrace.

  24. Jon

    I often listen to Radio National when in the car. Without fail amanda vanstone (yes the lower case is intended) irritates me so badly within 5 minutes of hearing her idiotic rubbish i have to turn it off. I enjoy every other part of RN (well except the religious bit). She is just soooooooo irritating.

  25. Jack Cade

    I have a terrible sense of foreboding. The traducing of the ABC is well-nigh complete, the Age has been castrated, and as soon as Katherine Murphy got over her crush on Shallow Mal the Guardian engages people who are indistiguishablr from Neescorpse.
    AND…
    A survey in Christensen’s electorate suggests that shagging his way around Manila at $500 a day – our $500 – doesn’t concern FNQ voters one iota. 14% of whom, it seems, would welcome Palmer back into parliament.
    Australia deserves the Coaliton.
    Is it REALLY possible for an entire country to have Stockholm Syndrome?

  26. David Tyler

    Always get upset on Monday’s when I forget that Philip Adams isn’t on RN and instead hear the tones of Amanda Vanstone. Once she was having a gripe – I’m certain it’s a pet bugbear – about how she was working for Myer and doing important work. Then some demonstrators held her up. Imagine that. You have important work today and a group who may have no work at all or who may be seriously underpaid and underemployed hold you up. Life is so unfair.

    Can’t forgive Vanstone for her willing complicity in Abbott’s ditch the witch and the other forms of ugly misogyny associated with his toxic and corrosive regime. In fact, we’ve never really recovered the damage her mob did.

  27. David Bruce

    I think most Australians see Scumo as the pretend emperor with no clothes as he prances around the Empire claiming inflation is under control, when we can see it out of control, everywhere.

    I don’t know what world the government is living in where they put out monthly reports saying inflation is zero. These people are not paying health insurance premiums. They are not paying school or university fees. They are not paying taxes. They are not going to the grocery store and seeing prices rise monthly and, of course, they are not noticing the inflation that has manifested itself in the stock market…

    How many homeless Australians and children living in poverty do we have to tolerate under this Australian Government?

    No matter who dumps it, you can’t polish a turd!

  28. holmes

    “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity.”

    H. S. Thompson

    That goes for all them pressitutes/stenos at the ipABC, the Fraudian, the whole of Farce Fux & of course the Hurled Spew merdok cesspool & them crim right wing shock jawk extremists.

  29. Phil

    Ah Vanstone. What a star. The last time I saw an arse that big it was pulling a plough.

  30. Paul Davis

    There is movement at the station, and the regret will be ours …. apologies Banjo …. as our Abysmal Aunty is now almost completely in the sway of the IPA.

    The following hacks are being rewarded as Faine and Cassidy step down…..

    Virginia Trioli gets her wish to take over RN mornings in Melbourne.
    Lisa Millar is the favourite to take over from Trioli on TVs News Breakfast,.
    Michael Rowland is tipped to take over from Barrie Cassidy on Insiders.
    Popular presenter Paul Kennedy may be offered the Rowland breakfast chair… but is he ‘politically correct’

    No word yet on faithful servants Fran Kelly and Patricia Karvelas.

  31. Jack Cade

    Rowland is an ineffectual clown. Kennedy is ‘okay’, but one of the promoted people are in the same league as Cassidy.
    Karvelas fell foul of the Coalition with her badgering of Barney Beetroot last week.

  32. Paul Davis

    Yep Mr Cassidy and his partner Heather Ewart (Back Roads) have made outstanding contributions in their respective fields. With respect to Barrie, ‘no one is bigger than the game’, but who has the acumen reputation and chutzpah to follow competently in his footsteps. Rather than let the program retire with Barry, I’m sure the ABC Board enthusiastically assisted by Buttrose, the IPA and NewsCorp, could compile a shortlist…. or maybe have a permanent panel of expert political commentators such as Kenny (no the othe one), Sheridan, Roskam, Henderson, Kemp, Sloane. Tim Wilson’s never busy on Sunday, he would be a perfect moderator. Would need a whopping budget increase though…

  33. wam

    I love vanstone because she reminds me of just how had the howard costello years were.when she and downer were the south australian stars.
    ps Mr Hermann. I disagree, her brain is definitely behind her statements

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