Day to Day Politics: A dog act in a dog of a week
Saturday 26 May 2018
Introduction
One advantage of taking a rest is that the batteries get a chance to recharge and a new feeling of zest replaces the tiredness of trying to do too much.
A feeling of burnout had told its story. It’s a complicated one where the mind is steadfast, refusing to recognise the inner voice of a lifetime of hard work, saying, “enough is enough.” The mind fights the body’s thoughts saying, “when the bastards are gone” not until then will I sleep the sleep that victory brings.
Which brings me to “A dog act in a dog of a week” The Speaker Tony Smith had been told what to do and do it he did. The decision by the Prime Minister, after dismissing all the authoritative material supplied to him by The Speaker and The Australian Electoral Commission decided that the day of the Labor Party’s National Conference would suit just nicely. A 9-week campaign that would milk Labor dry of funds and he could then call a snap election.
The media isn’t giving this the attention it deserves. The ABC doesn’t even give it space in their Friday online edition.
When you are attacking your opposite about his character it doesn’t sit well to be tacky, deceitful, tricky, sneaky and downright disgraceful at the same time.
This decision does nothing more than put yet another nail in the coffin of our democracy and if our populace was smart enough they would see right through it.
If they do it will reflect badly on the Government, and deservedly so. It is simply not cricket. There are two teams playing one is not playing fair.
The trashing of our conventions and institutions by the conservatives must end. Abbott and Turnbull have done enough damage.
Unfortunately, in this case, Labor is not without fault and Shortens assured cockiness over citizenship has not helped but if Turnbull was half the man he pretended to be he would have made a better fist of it in this instance.
Comment of the Week
In response to my piece – Can you trust them? Pauline and the polls?
Jaquix wrote
“I agree with Peter F and not the author as to why the polls are tightening. There is no evidence whatsoever that Shorten has done anything lately to cause this change in figures. And nothing to show why the Coalitions figures should improve. The common denominator in all this is the MEDIA. Tedious but true. The media do not report properly on the dodgy and downright dangerous policies the Liberals are dealing us into. If they report on Labor at all, it’s negatively.”
The Scandal Sheet
1 “It is time that those with the capacity to change laws that might prevent the mass murder of children and refuse to do so were made to account. After all, they are as guilty or as mad, whatever the case, as the perpetrator himself”. JL
2 “Hanson withdraws from private agreements. However, if they give her what she wants who knows.”
3 “David Muir says we should examine other constitutional reform questions. For instance, introduce a casual vacancy system to fill House of Rep’s vacancies. Reduce the number of Senators. We have 12 per state. The USA has 2 per state.”
4 “What on earth do 12 Senators in Tasmania do?” JL
5 “Ms Downer thinks the minimum wage and penalty rates should be abolished.”
6 “Tax cuts are funded from surpluses that may never happen.”
7 “Tend to agree. The budget was about the next election rather than the future. Combined ideology with vote buying. So disappointing.”
8 “Can’t help but notice just how much Turnbull sounds like Abbott now. So totally negative, blaming Labor for everything and that the sky will fall in if Labor comes to power.”
9 “Mind you I have recently been criticised for being negative towards the LNP but honestly, if I tried I would run out of adjectives in 15 seconds.”
10 “Can anyone help me?”
11 “In the upcoming by-elections, Turnbull would have been campaigning on his tax cuts to big business. What will it be now?”
Who do these words refer to?
“He has worked up a lovely public persona: as cultured as Keating but blessed with a kinder sense of humour; as intelligent as Rudd but far from as malevolent. And somehow, with his green-froth-drinking diet success and his endearing leather jackets and business shirts, his Stephen Fry-like adoration of gadgets and mastery of social media, his raffish smile and mellifluous voice, he has formed the perfect personality for most popular, and probably most trusted politician in the nation”.
The Poll Bludger
“Essential Research: 51-49 to Labor
Essentials two-party gap narrows to its lowest point in 18 months, despite Labor’s tax and budget policies being favoured over the Coalition’s.”
Top Tweets of the week
Paul Karp
“PMC officials say total cost for Ruddock religious freedom review around the $600K mark, a few hundred thousand under budget, of which $119K was remuneration and allowances for panellists. Croucher had no base pay cos she’s AHRC prez already.” #auspol #estimates
Simon Banks
“We believe:
“In the inalienable rights and freedoms of all peoples; and we work towards a lean government that minimises interference in our daily lives and maximises individual and private sector initiative”
- @LiberalAus “Our Beliefs
twitter.com/Bevan Shields/s”
Lefties Troublemaker
“Oh gawd, it’s the Bikies and the CFMEU working together…lol” #auspol #qt
Simon Banks
“LNP’s Michelle Landry to face party review after criticising Jane Prentice dumping.”
Stephen Jones
“Peter Dutton boasts a $650,000 war chest to retain his seat of Dickson. Ali France hasn’t got the money but she has got what it takes to cause a major upset. Follow 👉🏻@alifrance5.”
Alan Koehler
“@ABCaustralia has put a statement today that @albericie was never found to have confused revenue with profit or that largest cos don’t pay tax, responding to yet another feral piece in @australian.”
Geoffery Payne
“Travel costs of Barnaby Joyce’s partner Vikki Campion won’t be released despite Freedom of Information request 🔥😮
Watchdog for parliamentary expenses is refusing to release information about staff travel relating to Vikki Campion 😠
#Auspol #qt”
Best read of the week
The Saturday Paper Paul Bongiorno
“The delay in naming the day – and let’s face it, the Liberal speaker will make sure he does what the Liberal prime minister judges is in the government’s best interests – is baffling. It certainly didn’t take that long for Barnaby Joyce or John Alexander. Speculation is the polls will be in early July, eight weeks away, as if Turnbull has learnt nothing from the interminably long 2016 campaign that he almost lost.”
Tim’s titbits
1 “That issue has arisen. Why does the AEC not vet dual citizens? Does not have the resources to. Or the authority.”
2 “One of the political journalists said he got a call from a Cabinet minister this week. Who said he believed the Coalition could win the election? There is trouble ahead for Labor. Industrial relations. Asylum seekers.”
3 “True. There are too many Liberal politicians in their thirties who used to work for politicians. For instance 10 per cent of Australians are Asians. There are not 10 percent of Asian Australians in the caucus or the Liberal Party room.”
4 “True. In a dual citizenship case (House of Reps) make the politician pay all expenses. Have a recount system like in the Senate to fill the vacancy. Then they might think twice before doing it.”
5 “The ACTU have done some research, which says half of all workers, will soon be casual workers. So not entitled to any protection if they lose their employment.”
6 “Travel costs re Barnaby’s partner are not being disclosed. On grounds it would put her life at risk. Well I don’t see how. And anyway if the taxpayer pays we have a right to know. If she paid or Barnaby paid then it’s their business – not ours.”
7 “Crossbenchers seem to want to support the Federal government’s tax plan in exchange for a tax on digital companies such as Google etc.”
8 “Dual citizenship prohibition puts us at the whims of other nations. Not true.”
9 “There is more hatred for Senator Wong than for any other politician l have observed in 30 years. Her citizenship status is always questioned.”
10 “True. Catholic church could crucify every priest and it would not be enough for some.”
11 “Richo was saying the federal election likely to be in the final 3 months of this year. He said the Libs have a chance to win government in Victoria. But will be trying to hang on in NSW. When considering everything it is likely to be late this year.”
12 “Chatting away about Newstart. Friend said $17 a day is enough to live on. He said food is cheaper today than in 1994. When we were just coming out of a recession. Today – no recession.”
13 “I don’t think $17 a day is enough to live on. He said that is all expenses paid – rent, telephone, electricity etc. Well unsure about that. Does not sound like it.”
My clown of the week
A toss up between Pauline Hansen, Peter Dutton, the Preachers son and the Prime Minister. I had to give it to Dutton who seems to be completely oblivious to the worth of human life.
My thought for the day
“Why is it we find such compelling reasons to treat each other badly.”
24 comments
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Cool Pete
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Terence Mills
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Barry Thompson
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helvityni
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Mick Byron
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helvityni
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Ricardo29
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Kronomex
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Wam
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Bert
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helvityni
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Glenn Barry
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Wam
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helvityni
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helvityni
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king1394
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Kronomex
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Terence Mills
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Glenn Barry
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Carol Taylor
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Carol Taylor
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Glenn Barry
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Kaye Lee
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My say
Return to home pageDutton may have a $650,000 war chest, but he has no capacity for empathy and certainly no capacity for compassion or intelligence. If the public cannot see that he is an evil excuse for a human being whose rise for power is more insidious than that of Adolf Hitler, we are in danger. Hitler did not come to power outlining his plans, and it’s true that the Final Solution did not come until later, but he gradually reduced people’s rights, in much the same way as Dutton. First it was to give the authorities power to check on the grounds of reasonable suspicion, now, he wants the right to search anybody entering an airport on account of not liking the colour of their shirt! That is what it boils down to! Dutton is an evil being who would make this country a dictatorship, should his feared ambition to become Prime Minister one day be realised!
Peter Dutton has said that he is willing to consider the New Zealand offer to resettle some refugees held in offshore detention, but only if they are banned from ever coming to Australia.
The home affairs minister has floated the prospect in a bid to pressure Labor into supporting stalled discriminatory legislation which would stop anybody who arrived by boat from ever reaching Australia’s shores (even if one of them subsequently became an NZ citizen and even an All Black).
So what Dutton wants to achieve is forever to have a black mark on the character of people who came to Australia by boat seeking asylum and who were held in detention offshore. What he is asking is for New Zealand, when these people ultimately gain NZ citizenship, to mark their passports never to enter Australia something that is unheard of in international law in circumstances where a person has committed no crime.
It means that New Zealand would have to discriminate against some of their own citizens based on the whim of an Australian government minister who is eaten up with ideological hatred.
As somebody said of Dutton recently, he is gaining confidence for his distorted views and believes that he is gaining in popularity : a very dangerous sign !
I really dislike the term “Dog Act’. Dogs are intelligent and loyal.
C… act is more appropriate.
The above picture is meant to show us the man from Snowy River…?
Real men have Jack Russells , Kelpies, Cattle Dogs, and maybe Border Collies, no little fluffy yabbers….
It’s been a spiteful week from the Fizza and the LNP this week {then again,every week is} but we must have a little sympathy.
I can just imagine Fizz and Lucy curled up at Point Piper watching Harry and Meg get married and they are stuck in the colony sipping their g&ts and cursing the world for not getting an invite.
One the other side of town Tony would be wondering why,after Knighting Harrys grandpa he is stuck at home too.
The rest of the forelock tuggers like Downer and co. fared no better.
How dare those bloody Royals.!!!!!
Would that be why we as a country gave Harry and Meghan a bloody Akubra hat each as a wedding gift?
…better to do the correction before someone else will: ‘yappers’.
OK, JR, I’ll put my boots on and off we go….
JL, first I am sorry for yourmeltdown issues but at the same time wonder why you put yourself under the pressure of maintaining a daily column? mate you are the same age as me and you are entitled to take it a bit easy. Cut down on the columns and keep them to the important issues. That said, like you I won’t be happy until the bastards are gone, and agree with everything that’s said about Mr potatohead. He is Avery dangerous, ideologically driven individual and the best thing would be for the people of Oxley to allow him to go back to the family company.
Re Tim’s titbits, I don5 agree with his contention about dual citizenship putting us at the whims of other nations. Perhaps he would like to think about how a person can make known their desire to relinquish foreign citizenship, as the Labor members did, but have to wait for however long it takes that country to confirm. I think it should be sufficient for a person to demonstrably show they have initiated that attempt.
This from Frydenberg leaves me thinking that there is more than just a whiff of an election sometime later this year and he doesn’t want to find in favour of big business and farmers because it might make things a little awkward for the LNP –
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/25/frydenberg-again-delays-giving-protection-to-threatened-woodlands
“Who do these words refer to?” Making me feel violently ill sums it up.
helvityni, the fluffy yabbers is Trembles. He just happens to be holding a couple of fluffy yappers who look like they wish they were somewhere else.
The high court judges were recalcitrant in their judgement but labor was just plain stupid in their arrogance. An obsevation confirmed by a report of the labor candidate fiasco in WA. Those labor candidates were idiots before canberra.
We are rich and selfish??
Can everyone please stop banging on about the Labor citizenship fiasco. Labor were relying (as are the L/NP and every other party I suppose) on a high court ruling some years ago on reasonable steps to get rid of dual citizenship but the latest high court ruling has blown that out of the water. The facts are that Labor followed the advice from years past and the L/NP didn’t even bother to check. If indeed the high court had upheld the past ruling there wouldn’t of been this problem.
Yes Kronomex, real dogs have an innate ability to suss out the good men from the bad, the wheat out of the chaff…( the fried onions and the green peas are left uneaten in the doggie dish)
Bert, I’m with you 100% – and I am totally fed up with listening to the dishonest tripe coming out of Turnbull’s mouth on this very question at every available opportunity.
Is it just me, or does Turnbull look like he’s posing in every damn photo – he’s worse than a reality TV contestant trying not to be self conscious but pointing himself at every damn camera and posing the entire time.
I sincerely hope this elongation of the by-election campaigns backfires, because the electorate will discover that when LNP have no narrative worth listening to, it can only be re-told so many different ways before it eventually cancels itself out with nary a sound.
Bert,
Early this century, a pommie lnp senator flew to england to make certain of his citizenship.
The judges could have decided that a foreign government decision could not over the fact of turn born in Australia but this would have had consequences for asylum/refugee children. (QED covert interference in the judicial system?) Similarly the parliament could have decided that dual citizenship required some action by an Australian born citizen, above succession from mum or dad.
Facts are they were dual citizens. Facts are they knew they were dual citizens.
Facts are shorten allowed the media to tag him a having a gold guarantee in Labor procedures.
Facts are labor has oops had urban and yates.
ps only for well fed dogs, Helevetyni.
Glenn Barry,
‘…Is it just me, or does Turnbull look like he’s posing in every damn photo….
I agree with you, but disagree with whoever said/wrote those above words as describing our PM… I have not detected any sense of humour, or kindness.
I’m also thinking that why on earth is Dutton fantasizing that the asylum seekers would want to leave NZ, and come back to the country which treated them so inhumanely for years…
Some of my Aussie friends are just about move to NZ
Turnbull et al have become arrogant to the extreme. It’s hard to fathom why, but they clearly continue to consider themselves as born to rule. This effort to cheat on the By-elections by aligning them with the long-known date of the ALP Conference is not only mean and tricky but transparently a school boy trick, which unfortunately may be admired by some. Among other things, forcing the deferral of the Conference damages Labor’s policy-making systems. Labor probably had no option but to defer the Conference to next year but they’d better be careful not to pick the date of the up-coming Federal election. Since footy finals are sacrosanct, perhaps the next ALP conference will have to be lined up for that weekend.
To give Pauline Hansen her due, I understand the reason she is withdrawing support for the big tax cut is mainly that she thought she had an agreement from the Liberal Government on Apprenticeships, but when she looked at the Budget, she saw no funding was allocated. Therefore she considered herself/her party to have been reneged upon. It is fashionable (and tempting) to regard Hansen and her people as fools, but to try to deceive her was just typical arrogance on the part of the Liberals.
Aw, poor ickle Barnaby, now he’s only down to about (with extra goodies added in) 15 times what I get a year rather than the pig trough 30+ he was used to raking in. Waah, waah…
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/barnaby-joyce-and-vikki-campion-seal-interview-deal-with-seven-20180526-p4zhow.html
I’m certainly going to be not upset by missing his cheque book enhancing interview. I put my television set out on the nature strip about 8 years ago and don’t miss it in the least.
king 1394
The Hanson deal on apprentices was really just crumbs for the table as the scheme would provide only 1000 places for young people across the country and would cost only $60 million which is the scheme of things is not a lot of money.
I think she realized that she had done a dud deal and that Cormann had conned her and importantly that she was being seen as a supporter of big tax cuts to the top-end of town and that doesn’t play well to her base.
king1394 & Terence I think you’re both on the money – without truly knowing the intricacies of the deal it seems there was an expectation from Pauline for funding.
Truth or fiction?
It is easy enough to speculate, however if Hanson had truly expected action on the apprenticeship positions in the budget, perhaps her demands were unknown to the LNP, else if they were truly ignored as a result of LNP arrogance then her displeasure is genuine.
That then begets the question of what would have been the motivation driving deliberately ignoring Hanson’s expectations – a graceful end to an ignominious policy.
It’s all laced with disingenuous and dishonest actors and the truth with the LNP is much like the hypothetical dark matter and dark energy – supposedly everywhere but thoroughly unprovable…
John, apologies for interrupting your topic. For those who may not know, Michael has spent the past three days in Intensive Care following 5 x heart bypass surgery. As you can imagine, this has been an incredibly stressful time but the good news is that Michael, and I’m sure due to his resilience and determination as much as anything, is now recovering in the Cardiac Unit of Epworth Hospital, Box Hill. I would like to make a special mention of Michael’s cardiac specialists Dr. Yii and Dr. Du Ploy both top professionals as well as the wonderful doctors and nurses at the ICU. And our family and friends who have lent us invaluable and much appreciated support during this most challenging of times.
I know that Michael would like to add a special thank you to the writers and behind the scenes Admin who have keeping the site going during Michael’s absence.
Michael, get well soon
Best wishes for a speedy recovery and a good rest for both of you. Be well. Health comes first.
I really hope that the people voting in the by elections show the same contempt for this government ,as he has shown to them
For the disgraceful treatment he has shown them ,the sneaky ,under handed way he has went about it is appalling,
The government cannot be given anymore power they are killing Australia ,