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Confusion in the Turnbull Government

Much about the Turnbull Government confuses me. Either I don’t know what they’re talking about, or they themselves have no idea what they’re talking about.

I’m convinced it’s the latter.

They say one thing while clearly meaning something else. I could write a book about the subject, but for the sake of a talking point I’ll limit it to the few examples below:

Shortly after being installed as our new you-beaut Treasurer, Scott Morrison says “we had a spending problem, not a revenue problem, and that he wanted to cut taxes further”. Yet his boss Malcolm Turnbull wants to raise the GST by five percentage points (effectively raising it 50 per cent). Malcolm Turnbull also wants to raise the revenue the government needed to provide services but it in a manner that “backs Australians rather than holds them back”.

One of them has no idea what they’re talking about. One of them is lying.

But of course we have an unfair tax system. That’s why Malcolm Turnbull has money invested in the Cayman Islands, where companies and individuals pay no direct tax.

If only our tax system was fair. No wonder he wants a tax reform that “backs Australians rather than holds them back”. Don’t hold back, Malcolm.

Speaking of Malcolm, and speaking of investments, it was he who was the most vocal critic of Labor’s fibre to the home NBN yet “it was revealed … that Mr Turnbull owns shares in France Telecom, which plans to connect 60 per cent of French households to fibre by 2020”. Yet he still tells us that Labor got it wrong. So he destroyed it. Fortunately the French have a good NBN.

We are told ad-nausem by the proud and boastful government that they have stopped the boats. So why has Transfield – who operate the Manus Island and Nauru detention centres – had their contract renewed for another five years? One would expect that if the boats had stopped then all of the detainees would shortly be either settled in Australia (unlikely) or sent to some miserable hell-hole elsewhere in the world. (Oh, I know, if Labor wins the next election then all the boats will start again. Good forward-thinking by the government).
And of course there’s the obvious: if the boats have stopped then why have detention centres!

Confusion reigns supreme in the Turnbull Government, and the Turnbull Government confuses me.

19 comments

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  1. roddy666

    Right wingers in general are confused and don’t know what they are talking about. They have their ideology, and that’s it. They get confused by science, fact, knowledge, common sense, and when they don’t have a conservative politician or media mouthpiece to spoonfeed them. They see things purely in the most shallow, black and white, ‘goodies vs baddies’, ‘lifters vs leaners’ (gee where have I heard those before?) ways.
    It’s the essence of being conservative I suppose, an inability and unwillingness to think in a forward manner, or to think outside their tiny square, or get their minds around concepts.
    As soon as anything goes outside of their black and white little worlds, they get confused and react with anger and vitriol.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2095549/Right-wingers-intelligent-left-wingers-says-controversial-study–conservative-politics-lead-people-racist.html

  2. Carol Taylor

    Turnbull currently boasts messianic popularity mostly due to the fact that he isn’t Tony Abbott however if he continues to let the far right wing of his party either rule or give the appearance of dominating the agenda (think of the current emphasis on the GST and little else by way of tax reform) then Turnbull is going to look weak. Currently is Turnbull coming in as an also-ran to do a little tweaking but little else hence giving the impression that he’s weakening by the moment.

  3. Roswell

    I agree. He’s looking weaker by the day.

  4. Matters Not

    He’s looking weaker by the day.

    Not according to the polls.

    Perhaps it’s a case of ‘wishing and hoping’?

  5. Roswell

    Polls or not. I still think he’s looking weaker as a leader.

  6. Roswell

    Polling well against Shorten doesn’t make a bloke a good leader.

  7. Matters Not

    Roswell, I don’t think we should be focussed on the ‘leader’. Sure the ‘pig’ has new lipstick but the policies (the pig) are essentially the same.

    But I despair. The punters think the ‘leader’ is what really matters. (And I always draw a conceptual distinction between leaders and leadership).

    And from what I read here and elsewhere, that view is reinforced, despite recent evidence that it’s the ‘policies’ that really count, not the ‘seller’.

    But my views matter not.

  8. Jexpat

    So, can we take this as an indication that at least some of the symptoms of Abbott derangement syndome are starting to wane?

    It’s closing in on 60 days now.

    In 90 days, we’ll be well and truly into the silly season.

  9. Trevr

    Belled the Cat there Roswell!

  10. Chris the Greatly Dismayed

    As far as the Transfield contract…..I’m sure the Liberal fascist wing still has many Australian residents it wants to deport. And the boats haven’t really stopped. I heard reports that there had been at least two interceptions in 2015. There was this one in July http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-21/suspected-asylum-seeker-boat-intercepted-by-wa-police/6635342
    And this one in June http://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-officials-paid-people-smugglers-to-turn-back-to-indonesia-says-police-chief-20150609-ghk63g.html
    I suspect there is a number more than those.

  11. Chris the Greatly Dismayed

    This speech was pure arrogant idiocy if I’ve ever heard it… ““Rather, it should be seen as a change of political culture that sees us like the sailor, surrounded by the uncertainty of the sea and the wind, who knows only two things for sure — where she needs to go and that she has the skill to get there. Sometimes, the sailor reaches the mark with rapid ease, her sails big bellied in a following wind; sometimes with slow and deliberate tenacity, sails close hauled, tacking into the teeth of a gale. But her vision is as clear as her destination is certain. How to get there and how quickly is the measure of her skill.”
    Even the Herald Scum was not amused http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi/all-at-sea-as-malcolm-turnbull-channels-kevin-rudd/news-story/71ecec0e36980ef5b44384f53b9be304
    No one has to look if they don’t want to but it is very harsh on the dear leader. ; )

  12. Möbius Ecko

    It’s not just the government that is sending mixed and confused messages, let’s face it this is just a continuation from Abbott, but the business information being presented is also all over the shop at the moment and totally contradictory.

    For example on ABC radio this week alone at one stage I heard that consumer confidence had marginally risen, but wasn’t flash and business confidence was in the doldrums. Didn’t pick up where that info came from.

    Two days later there was a bank spokesman spruiking their survey and business confidence has had a Turnbull poll bounce whilst consumer confidence has risen sharply with Xmas spending predicted to be the best in seven years. Hang on!

    The day before on ABC News TV they interviewed a spokesperson from the Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) who said spending over Xmas was expected to be flat or only marginally better than last year. He wasn’t upbeat at all.

    Time and again if you surf the various news outlets you will see conspicuous contradictions like this. The way I see it is that rarely is a good data story followed up by a contradictory bad data story, it’s nearly always the other way round.

    Conspiracy theory. Are the government spin merchants marshalling their right wing media forces whenever bad economic news comes out and spinning contradictory propaganda to counter that bad news?

  13. June M Bullivant OAM

    The problem is they want to run with the same policies as Abbott and hope no one notices, like cutting pain killers of the PBS, taxing poor and sick people that make it a health system for the rich, this makes them heart less and cruel. On the other hand they want us to think that they are kind cute and cuddly so that we will vote them back in. That is why you think they deliver mixed messages, have you hear the old saying “Wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

  14. donwreford

    The fact that Turnbull terminated labors policy on fibre for lying to the public on cost cutting and installing the present liberal policy as a condemnation of labors policy to point score made me think this individual will compromise truth for executive power? the use of language in parliament is sub standard and in many ways is so perverse it seems as if the direction of our country has be come lost?
    Whilst I speak of lost direction I refer to comment by Shorten to Gough Whitlam’s as Prime minister, stating he was 8 years old and other than that had nothing to say? the significance of Whitlam’s as a policy is to me the ideology of buying back the farm? I suggest perhaps this is one of the most relevant policies of Australia in the past century, what this means to me is he wanted to control the sovereign status of Australia rather than being a controlled appendix of a exterior power including Britain and America? as a result of the failure not only to shake off the British colonial power as one can see in WW2 Britain had no intention to protect Australia and expected Australia to come to Britain’s aid? also America as a dominating power has no interest in Australia other than having Pine Gap here as a outpost and looks to Australia as a insignificant country and its welfare not only that regards this country as a exploitable resource for its profiteering and as you can see with Gough the CIA were all part of the destruction of this Prime Minister, the head of both major parties have nothing of value regarding the Whitlam political era, the problem with Australia today is having failed to become a sovereign country this is in the face of China and Russia becoming world powers that will over shadow America and Britain, considering America and Britain’s policies since WW2, they have a track record of being both a lost cause principally because both having failed as a moral force but having maintained a history of a police and militaristic state of violence within there own borders and destruction of oversea resources and cultures, a direction that is incumbent against the interests of our ecology and our planet.
    It imperative that individuals take a stand against corruption of world governments and work towards seeing the powers that are governing us as being what they are? evil.

  15. Douglas Pye

    ….. polls …moles … coal …hole … pharma … farmer … drama …intrusion … confusion … mixed messages in profusion .. triviality … ‘reality’ does not exist in our current legislative climate !!

    …. $$$$ is calling the tune … and we Australians are “dancing to it ” ! … and being sold the full Crock !

    … whilst I certainly do not have a ‘solution’ to offer here – I certainly encourage more of us to Wake Up !

    ….. Look around ! …we are a Unique Society (compared to much of the developed world) … is it time we created our Place on the Planet ??

    ….I’m an old man now, so I could easily settle back in my chair, draw my old age pension and pass on … BUT … I have children and grandchildren …!!

    …..

  16. Adrianne Haddow

    I believe the mixed messages are a result of this government dancing to the tune of so many different paymasters that it’s difficult for them to know which tune they are dancing to at any one time.
    But you can rest easy in the knowledge that it won’t be any tune anyone in the electorate would dance to if they weren’t conned by ruthless rupert’s propaganda.

  17. stephengb2014

    Can I emplore all of you to learn about how our money works in reality
    AIMN has throgh John B Kelly tried to get people interested in the e 8no ic realities oc our country and indeed most oc the world.

    We are all being lied to – sold a realy big big untruth about the state of our national economic situation and we need to call our so called leaders on these lies – including the Labor party.

  18. stephengb2014

    Oops sorry about the spelling – its my dislexit index finger’s fault

  19. madeleinekingston

    Well exactly. Absolutely Fabulous. Stopped the Bloody Boats. What a Bloody manipulative stance. Must think the general voting public absolute goons. Serves them right to suffer. Since those who indulge in presumptive conclusions; deserve all they get; dont’ you think?

    You know I could go on and on; but given the general audience parameters; all across the board; would it be worth my time?

    Yes or No?

    Kindly do not mistake my meaning

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