At 10am, Canberra was again the city with the worst air quality in the world. Same as yesterday.
Australia recorded its hottest day on record on Wednesday, 17 December, with an average maximum temperature of 41.9C, beating the previous record by 1C that had been set only 24 hours earlier.
Many thousands of people have had to abandon their holiday plans and are fleeing the danger we have been told to expect on Saturday.
Australia is the worst-performing country on climate change policy, according to a new international ranking of 57 countries. The report also criticises the Morrison government for being a “regressive force” internationally.
Australians have the world’s second-largest household debts, hovering around 120 per cent of GDP.
As at December 20, gross government debt was at a record $561.8 b up from about $274 b when the Coalition came to government in September 2013.
ACOSS reminded us of the following facts during Anti-Poverty Week 2019:
Three million people are living in poverty in Australia (ACOSS & UNSW, 2018) – that’s one in eight adults and almost one in six children.
In the whole country, there were only 2 rentals affordable for a single person on Newstart, according to Anglicare Australia’s 2019 Rental Affordability Snapshot. On any given night in Australia 1 in 200 people are homeless (Homelessness Australia, 2018) and the number is growing every year.
FoodBank’s 2018 Hunger Report found four million people in Australia had experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months.
There is only 1 job available for every 8 people looking for paid work or more hours (ABS, 2018).
There were around one million people in Australia receiving Newstart, Youth Allowance or another allowances at December 2018, with half of Newstart recipients over the age of 45. More than one in four people on Newstart have an illness or disability, but do not receive the Disability Support Pension. More than 100,000 parents are on Newstart, the majority of whom are single women (as their youngest child is aged eight or more and they therefore do not qualify for parenting payment).
The Royal Commission into Aged Care described it as “a sad and shocking system that diminishes Australia as a nation… a shocking tale of neglect”.
“We have uncovered an aged care system that is characterised by an absence of innovation and by rigid conformity. The system lacks transparency in communication, reporting and accountability. It is not built around the people it is supposed to help and support, but around funding mechanisms, processes and procedures.”
And the same story is emerging from the disability royal commission.
The 2019 Closing the Gap report on Indigenous disadvantage shows we are failing to meet targets in five of the seven target areas – child mortality, life expectancy, school attendance, employment, and reading and numeracy. Yet we steadfastly resist letting them advise us on their needs in order to address these areas of continued disadvantage.
But how good is the view of the fireworks from Kirribilli House when knocking back a few coldies with the boys?
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There is now no doubt whatsoever that the Scummo Liarbral Notional$ misgovernment is the least competent dross since 1901 and is preparing Australia to be the WORST THIRD WORLD EXPORT ECONOMY IN THE OECD for the benefit of foreign owned multinational corporations.
How many more years of this do we have to put up with until the facts/details permeate the brains of those who voted for this rabble. Will it ever occur, or are we doomed ?
Where is the leader of our country while it is being reduced to ashes?
Maybe the PMs advisers have told him to go into hiding as every time he opens his mouth he puts foot in it, the right one that is.
It seems the more dedicated a government is to the ” Market ” the worse its climate performance! That should send warming signals, as to the worth of market economies, unbridled by social justice.
Win, capitalism as espoused by our current “government” has no morality. Its the law of the jungle writ large. Thats the major failure of capitalism as an ideology. Unrestrained it eats itself. It takes no account of us as humans nor the environment we need to sustain ourselves. As an added bonus its totally at odds with christianity. So my question is ,is scot really a christian or is it just his shtick? Cause you cant sit on the fence on this one, its at the core of beliefs. I would say, he dont give a shit, its all calculated. Prove to me otherwise.
This country is stuffed…….Up yours morrison you goddam lunatic.
I’d like to know how many of our Test cricketers voted for the evil hologram.They might have this annual tradition to turn up at Kirribilli for a photo op,but it was an opportunity lost to send a powerful message by staying away.If we are to make any progress as a country,Morrison needs to be completely isolated,all day, every day.
We spend four times as much on fossil fuel subsidies as on early childhood education and care. That is what you get from a conservative bunch of sluts for money and posing, ignorant superstitious idiots, greedy careerists, amoral anuses and B Joyce, S Morrison, A Abbott, P Hanson and their voters, donors, supporters, patrons, controllers. One might comment also on the sleaze, crime, filth, swindling, larceny of water thieving, banking, aged care, etc. Thanks so much, Merde, effing -och…
I’m with you, Harry Lime. Thought we might have discovered a bit of courage with the ” not my PM” woman who unfortunately turned out to be British and therefore telling the literal truth. We need a few good people to show their disgust publicly – and who can sustain their position under the abuse that would inevitably come from the LNPs stenographers in the media. At least people in the US can and do boo their President and ‘take the knee’ to express their opposition. The French and Hong Kong people are taking to the streets. Aussies do nothing. Are we inhibited by our previously undiscovered good manners??? Lack of guts? Absence of the Eureka spirit? Or just stunned to discover the cost we are paying for voting to live in the warm and comfortable fairyland of denial for yet another electoral cycle?
Gee the MSM is good at their job NOT!
So it’s only just been made public. While one can’t quibble with what the NSW police did, we should be outraged that it’s taken this long to be informed. First question should be – how often have journalists asked ‘where the matter was at’? Or were the NSW police asked – and lied to in response OR even failed to respond? ETC. Surely this hot button issue was to the forefront of many media minds.
As for Angus, he probably feeling rather uncomfortable right now (Not a Happy New Year to date), even if his mate is the Minister responsible for the AFP. Not that Dutton has any real mates and besides this might be an opportune time to put crap all over a potential rival. Will watch with interest.
Will Morrison throw the Taylor dead cat on the table?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/02/nsw-police-refer-angus-taylor-doctored-documents-investigation-to-afp
Matters Not,
I like how, in the la-la-land of scomo-spin, a referral of evidence to federal law enforcement is seen as an absolution.
I also like how NSW top-cop (and occasional ministerial bin-man) Mick mKelly stating, in a no-way prejudicial remark, that he thought it would all be done with within a week and was, quite frankly, below his usual paygrade.
“To be honest with you, I actually don’t feel as though the allegations themselves are serious, in terms of the things that I would normally stand up and talk about the types of crimes,” he said.
Agreed. normally the current commissioner only fronts the mics to defend his underlings actions when they have illegally detained, felt-up then stripped and ogled pre-adults under the pretext of false-positive drug searches, and occasionally to bellow opposition to coronial findings.
When did the L/NP say that good government was going to start or is it like the $550 Abbott promised or the $1080 promised by Morrison. When will Australians stop falling for bribes and being conned by the L/NP.
Cool and normal!
Ps, the current NSW Police Commissioner is Mick Fuller, not ‘Mick mKelly’.
Please excuse my bird-brained feather-fingers.
Good government started in 2013, aj. It just keeps getting better.
NOT!
The PM is getting the attention he deserves
Currently angry resident are hurling abuse , Cobargo far south coast NSW
“Angry Cobargo residents explode at Scott Morrison as PM tours fire-ravaged towns”
Angry Cobargo residents explode at Scott Morrison as PM tours fire-ravaged towns
Rock on Cobargo !!
Miriam Positani.
I just watched that interview Phillip Williams did with Morrison!
OMG! He really is the Canberra bubble!
He has no bloody idea and continues to believe his own spin.
We really are in Trumpworld now.
Heaven help us cause Scott from marketing won’t.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-02/scott-morrison-responds-to-unwelcome-reception-in-cobargo/11838218
Miriam and Kerri, it gladdened my heart to see Morrison treated the way he deserved to be.
Roswell,
I half expect my partner,a retired wharfie to pop up at one of these explosions of outrage by far south coast residents.
Silly old fool {my partner} went down the coast with friends to buy and supply food drinks etc for those at the frontlines. but he never can stay away from a good protest.
My fear now is we are out of communication as the mobile phone network is stuffed, towns are isolated, highways blocked and the powers that be ordering tourists {I’d include him in that } to get out of the joint.and he is IN MY CAR !
Dog help him if he brings it back fire damaged
He’ll know first hand how Morrison must feel, fronting the protesters
A friend of mine lost his house near Cobargo. His property is the full bush block and with consecutive low annual rainfalls the bush will burn very very easily. The low rainfall has been an ongoing trend so Scotty has his work cut out praying for rain.
Our property in South Oz is dry as and summer has only just started. Unless we get some summer soaks we generally don’t see rain until April. A long time between drinks for the bush.
My son was part of a team of computer engineers at Cisco Australia who developed a mobile telephone system that would operate when the towers were out of commission like during this present emergency. It won the international Annual Cisco Chairman’s Award for the Best Innovation that year. Perhaps the RFS and other emergency services could check it out after this emergency is over.