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Booty call

One of my close friends was a flight attendant. I was staying at her place when, late one night, a high-profile sports celebrity rang to say he was in town overnight and would send over a taxi to pick her up.

The classic booty call.

And this is exactly how our government behaves and expects us to be grateful.

You have a crippling drought? They fly in, have their photo taken, offer you a gift which may or may not eventuate, and then head off into the sunset.

Same with bushfires. Ignore you, then turn up wanting a cuddle, before they move on to their next photo opportunity.

Unemployed? They call you all sorts of names – bludgers, leaners, rorters – and then all of a sudden they double your payment, cancel your debts, and pretend they care…but don’t get used to it.

And what of the promises made to Indigenous Australians? Recognition? Well hold your horses, we can’t agree on the wording of how to recognise you. A Voice? Well that’s tricky too. Self-determination? You are not ready for that. Here, let me take your income and tell you where you must shop and what you must buy because that will teach you to be more responsible. And don’t you worry your pretty little heads about that Closing the Gap stuff – that’s white man’s business.

What about community groups? If there is an election coming up and the government has a chance of winning your seat, then expect a novelty cheque. For those who put countless hours into their grant submissions explaining the community need and business case, silly you. You got all dressed up for nothing when you obviously didn’t understand what the government finds attractive. You know you are a favourite when you are given limited tender contracts or huge grants you didn’t apply for.

Anything to do with the environment – whether it’s global heating, reefs dying, rivers drying up, rampant land-clearing, air pollution from transport, water contamination from mining, waste management, or even the extinction of species – will only get the most cursory nod. Not even enough to pretend interest. A text occasionally maybe.

Whilst the government is flirting with workers at the moment – schoolkids and casual gym staff on $1500 a fortnight all of a sudden, a couple of union women allowed to be at the table with the overwhelming might of employer and industry groups, free childcare (for a bit), and dumping their kazillionth piece of union-busting legislation that was never going to succeed in the Senate anyway – don’t start asking for gifts like the promised increases in the superannuation guarantee, a share of profits through wage rises, security and safety in the workplace, equal pay for women, the restoration of penalty rates, or anything else that might be on your “wish list”.

Every day we hear the government announcing they are giving a diamond bracelet here, a sports car there, maybe even a trip on the private jet.

As for a long term plan … nada. A lot of talk, a lot of deflection, a lot of excuses and buck-passing, lies and time-wasting. A lot of self-indulgence and going out with the mates. A lot of promises but no commitment.

This government doesn’t want to marry us. They just want to use us for short term gratification.

 

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23 comments

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  1. Bronte ALLAN

    Well said, Kaye! Sadly this lying bunch of right wing, flat Earth, climate change denying, happy clapping idiots, obscenely over-paid (the Trumpet is well, under our Slomo’s salary!), “best friend” (?) of the media magnates, mining owners, big business lovers, pastoralists etc will do NOTHING to assist the unemployed, the pensioners, people on Welfare etc once things return to some semblance of “normality”. ALL of this stupid effing COALition could care less about those persons mentioned just above! I do hold fears that the above mentioned scenarios will eventuate, so unfortunately, the status quo will again dictate what the future for we working class/welfare recipients holds.

  2. ajogrady

    The L/NP are the party of wombats.That is, they eat roots and leaves.
    P.s. apologise to wombats for the comparison.

  3. terence mills

    Take care, Trump if fulfilling an obligation he has to Putin to get Russia back into the G7. Whilst he is covering by including Australia, South Korea and India it is Russia to whom he is indebted.

    Is it to thank Putin for interfering with the electoral process in 2016 or is it something to do with a sex tape ??

  4. Jack Cade

    Ajogrady

    Julie Bishop was a wombat. But she arrived in style – the only passenger on an Air Force jet.

  5. Jack Cade

    The Americans seem not to have noticed that Russia is now a capitalist country. Trump’s idea of getting some accord with Putin was actually a good one, but Uncle Sam needs a bogeyman to justify spending enormous amounts on ‘defence’, a word which is now synonymous with ‘attack’, in our lexicon as well as America’s, and now China’s Xi is the 21st Century Ho Chi Minh/Fidel Castro (Maduro having failed to fire the Pentagon imagination). I expect we could have expected a ‘warming’ toward Russia. But as the US is self-destructing it probably won’t matter.

  6. OldWomBat

    morrison, the man without a plan – sadly it seems to have worked for him so far

  7. Matters Not

    Re:

    cancel your debts

    And they do! More then once. But why? Perhaps it’s because they (individual Ministers not the government represented by highly paid silks) fear having to personally front Court and face cross examination – including questions from those bedecked with judicial robes.

    In Australia, the doctrine of the Separation of Powers (already bastardised by having individuals who are both part of the Legislature as well as the Executive) is under further attack by the tendency to bestow the equivalent of judicial power(s) upon Ministers via the legislative process. Dutton, in particular, favors this legislative approach. Perhaps because of his time in the police force, he exhibits an undying hatred of all things judicial. Was known to once exclaim in Cabinet re particular legislation – but the judge might find them innocent and let them go. Even caused George Brandis to protest Dutton’s legal ignorance of such basic justice principle(s). And Dutton is not alone.

    Thus Ministers in this government have a fear of ‘payback’. Fear of a verbal tongue lashing (or worse) from a Judge (any Judge) who (universally) have a deep understanding of the Separation of Powers doctrine and guard their judicial role zealously. So it’s just so easy for a Government to just pay up, using the public purse while the vast majority of the citizens will just slumber on.

  8. Wam

    Oh dear, Kaye,
    What an image of these men and their exceptional women.
    Robert and Frydembugs make no apology for cocking up $billions but scream at Queensland for claiming a coved that wasn’t.
    All smile and style till we forget and just lie back with legs spread thinking of England. We will be warm, wet and ready when the next election arrives.
    The unions are lucky to be represented by women because they will run rings around the men and move to a compromise but the reporting will indicate otherwise and the women will be blamed for the collapse of the talks but there is a chance the talks will produce a report and the unions can write a dissenting report and the people will have forgotten why they met in the first place.
    The worst of the sneaky underhand tactics is the cashless card leading to a cashless society then 1984 will be. The banks will be?
    Old big 4 hand a farm eeii eeii oh
    With a big fee here and a late fee there
    Here a fee there a fee
    every where A feefee.
    What happened to all those Royal Commission??

    ps
    Sorry ajo these men all seek shoots with their roots?
    Condoms? ‘not on’

  9. paul walter

    Wry.

    Intro rofl.

  10. Lawrence Roberts

    How did three English speaking nations manage to democratically elect three stooges almost simultaneously who all have unfulfilled agendas from the powers beyond them; who wish to take many of us back to serfdom or even worse.

    While the economy may be collapsing, now is the time, for them to introduce the dreaded welfare card.
    The old country parties version of ‘the company store’. They could issue it to all and sundry and claim it’s the guaranteed minimum living allowance, an idea many left leaning folk will sympathise with.

    Of course, the last Australian election was fraudulently rorted, it is alleged and the 2016 American presidential election was gerrymander, skewed and sold. Maybe the process is defunct.

  11. guest

    So the Coalition government is making promises and declarations which in fact go nowhere. There are “booty calls” about drought, bushfires, the unemployed, Indigenous Australians, community groups, environment, workers…

    Many people and institutions and businesses support the ideology of this government, and of the Tories in the UK and of Trump/Republicans in the USA.

    But what about the media in Australia which seems to be so much in decline, with loss of regional printed news and reductions in staffing.

    What about the ABC, which has had its funding very much reduced over recent years? Fear not. Janet Albrechtsen is offering, theoretically, to help – as we see in her current missive:
    “Let us swap jobs, Ita, there’s so much for you to learn” (The Australian, 3/6/20)

    Albrechtsen begins her missive:

    “Instead of doing its day job better by presenting intellectually curious journalism to Australia, the ABC is full of cosy little cliques that carry on their in-house activism over climate change. Even if some of the protected species walked in the shoes of those who fund them, we might have a public broadcaster that reports on the issues that matter in middle Australia…”

    Of course, Albrechtsen is highly qualified to write about the changing places with Ita Buttrose because Janet is first of all a patriot and has been on the ABC Board. Now Chairman of the IPA, she claims she knows more about what matters to middle Australia, the rightful owners of the ABC, than Ita does.

    Albrechtsen knows that the ABC is funded by the government – which is a galling fact raised by Murdoch media almost daily.

    She also resents the ABC making mention of climate change, or of the Coalition employing a lefty solution to the pandemic, the authoritarian nature of the lockdown taking away our freedoms, or of Dr Norman Swan reporting on pandemic matters. And there are other grievances.

    The matter of ABC reports on climate change is annoying for Albrechtsen because the IPA has its own published view on climate change in “Climate Change:The Facts” (2017) in which a “clique” of deniers try to persuade “informed readers” and watchers of Murdoch media that climate change is still debatable. It is a publication which is full of what she might call “intellectually curious journalism” where “curious” is the operative word.

    She claims later in the article:

    “Ita [if she hypothetically becomes chairman of the IPA] will learn that you can be an environmentalist and also understand that cheap, reliable energy is how we build industries, create jobs and send taxes to Canberra to build schools and hospitals.”

    By “cheap, reliable energy Albrechtsen does not mean renewables – she means coal! Her mention of taxes is also interesting when the IPA supports lower and lower taxation.

    Albrehtsen’s advice to ABC staff is switching to jobs such as running a cafe, or a gym, or a beauty salon…”for anyone on the public teat so they can do their job properly”.

    One can only wonder how much small business Albrechtsen has been involved in – and does being on the public teat include those businesses which are subsidised by government?

    Is Albrechtsen merely doing, so obviously, what Murdoch media calls “virtue signalling”?

    Or is the whole suggestion of exchanging not really an offer to “marry”, but rather using the ABC for “short term gratification?

  12. Trevor

    The Liar from the Shire MorriSCUM, single handedly resurrected Australia’s economy by creating Robodebt, stopped the boats, and as PM creates narratives as official Govt policy.

    How good is make believe.

  13. JudithW

    Josh freydenberg is now implying the fires, drought and floods had something to do with the recession – as if he didn’t have enough warning to factor them into his budget.

  14. New England Cocky

    From this time on, never let it be said that “The COALition Liarbral Nazional$ misgovernments are the most competent financial managers of the Australian economy”.

  15. Kaye Lee

    The Grattan Institute is pretty categorical about the government’s Homebuilder scheme.

    Is it a well constructed package?

    “No, I think this is a case of where classic retail politics has got in the way of the economics,” Grattan’s Brendan Coates tells Patricia Karvelas.

    Same old same old….announce something then think about it….or not as appears the case with this government.

    They rubbished Labor for the one off $900 cheque – yet they doubled Newstart, hugely increased many part-time workers wages with Jobkeeper, and handed out $750 to everyone receiving a government payment plus $10,000 so far (I think it is $20,000 all up) handout to all small businesses. They rubbished Labor for building school halls and paying for home insulation but want to gift people who can afford $150,000 to renovate their home a 25 grand refund. But it won’t apply to owner builders and there is nothing so far for public housing. Just like the small business instant asset write-off. If you are struggling due to lack of customers, you are hardly likely to buy more equipment.

    These guys live in the fairyland of announcables dictated by either the aging Young Liberals at the IPA, Rupert and Gina, Crosby Textor, the image kids in the office, or lobbyists representing their donors.

    Now that they have given up the pretence of spending wisely, they have gone mad, throwing money around with no thought about its efficacy.

    What will the next election be about? We stopped the virus?

  16. Kaye Lee

    If they wanted to stimulate construction, they should adopt Labor’s policy of limiting negative gearing to new constructions. (grandfathered of course)

  17. andy56

    Kaye, your on the money about Housebuilder. Its just a continuation of the LNP supporting Supply instead of focusing on the real issue, declining DEMAND. Call it trickle down if you want but to me its clearly about supply support. They have a fixation that government is only there to prop up the status quo. Only business has the were with all to get the economy going. Yea well , that plan was working well before the virus. ( vomit, vomit). I just dont understand how when your sinking in a f*cking hole, you would dig more.

    Think about this, the two things that have kept any form of economy ticking along have also been a reason why its stalled. Super sucks $130b out of the economy every year and mortgage repayments $250b a year. Can anyone tell me what’s wrong right here? Wage rises for most of us have stalled for over ten years. You can draw a straight line that correlates with super and mortgage repayments against retail and manufacturing. Let me guess, its a flat line. If one goes up, the other will go down. But hey, thats too intelligent for most economics experts.
    UBI is the best way forward. Supply support or trickle down is a dead end. A $130b dead end.

  18. Kaye Lee

    I dunno about the link between super and mortgage repayments and retail and manufacturing. They are all going down at the moment.

    But I do agree about the government’s fixation on supply side economics. I own a retail business. A tax cut or a cash flow boost does not make me employ more people. More people with money to spend makes a far greater difference than any tax concession.

  19. John Lord

    Even after having almost 7 years on the practice court they still haven’t come up with a game plan.

  20. Matters Not

    Actually, there is a Plan and in Australia it dates from the Hawke/Keating years. It’s a Plan for government(s) to have no Plan other than to leave it to the market and its so-called invisible hand. It’s labelled Neo-Liberalism which might be defined thus:

    “Neoliberalism” is contemporarily used to refer to market-oriented reform policies such as “eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets, lowering trade barriers” and reducing state influence in the economy, especially through privatization and austerity.

    These days it’s, more often than not, used as a swear word – with many having no understanding of what they’re cursing and why. Here’s a primer.

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot

  21. Jack Cade

    They are hoping for a ‘tradie-led’ recovery. You know, the tradies they created by inducing employee tradesmen to become entrepreneurs and forgo worker’s compensation, holiday pay, long service leave etc., to be their own boss.
    The tradies that spear-headed the Pink Batts scheme…
    Need I go on?

  22. Matters Not

    ‘Tradies’, as a demographic, have long been in the sights of Morrison et al. In days of yore, the majority of ‘tradies’ were viewed as being from the ‘working class’, were ‘union members’, who ‘worked with their hands’, who aligned with the ALP because of their backgrounds, income levels and the like. But times have changed. So many ‘tradies’ can now be reasonably conceptualised as being in class transition akin to Marx’s petite bourgeoisie. Small-scale capitalists with big aspirations.

    Notice how often Morrison, Cash (with her reference to utes in ‘grabs’ – not electric vehicles etc) give due recognition to this group. As a political class, more and more are there for the taking. And Morrison is not letting this chance go by. Hence, the millions on the table for ‘renovations’. Needless to say the cost of which will rise significantly.

  23. Mrs Wobbly

    Our so called government leadership in Australia act like spoiled private school boys, never lived in the real world grown up with the belief that they better humans, because of privileged and wealth. Say it to yourself “ Scummo and compassion, not in your demographic , and no concern for the common people, let alone the poorest Australians. This liberals and national fascism government only has compassionate behaviours towards wealth, greed and self interest which benefits them, no concerned for humanity or the planets betterment, it’s all about that little gold coin, and what your “worth” is to them for them to benefit them. In my opinion recession was happening before Cov-19 was an health issue. “Business as usual for the LNP fascists government it had got out of fiscal managerial “Jail“ so to speak with COVID-19, then blame this pandemic for recession. Not bad management and the dying fossil fuel industries, they refuse to let go of, with no vision for the future, just more lies to the Australian people. They continue with the “better” financial managers line, as they’re forever telling the population. Liberals good Labor bad !, with msm in bat for the cause. Remember Joe hockey’s proudly stated on television that poor people didn’t drive cars as they couldn’t afford to. This is the fascists ideology that they alone “the wealthy“ rule, and then dictate to the people (worker ants) by what demographics they fit into, with our tax payers money that benefits them and the rich mates and masters in the club. We the Australian tax payers pay them to do so, they gladly rip off Australia and Australians by cheating the system. Australia’s governed by leadership of Lying Nasty Party of fascism!

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