No, I’m not rejoycing
1 The day has finally arrived. Barnaby Joyce has become Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. Now we have a Prime Minister who firmly believes in a Republic, equality in marriage and the science of Climate Change and a deputy who does not. The intellectual gap between them is of sagacious proportion.
It is said of Barnaby that he is the best retail salesman in Australia. I would suggest the public sees him as a person of mockery. It’s not so much his ocker image. After all, Hawke and Keating had colourful turns of phrase. It’s the depth of comprehension. The understanding of things beyond politics.
It seems incredible that a man who was one of the principle instigators in 2009 of the downfall of the then opposition leader can now be his deputy.
It also seems implausible that a Senator who has crossed the floor to vote against his party on 19 occasions can now lead it.
Remember what Joyce said about mining Antarctica in 2006. He went there for a month and came back spruiking the beauty of it:
’The vastness of nature itself’.
We staked a claim to a large part of it and signed an agreement not to mine it. Then he suggested on the ABC that we should:
‘We can really realise that [mining’s] the game … or we can stick our head in the snow’.
‘Do I turn my head and allow another country to exploit my resource … or do I position myself in such a way as I’m going to exploit it myself before they get there’ said Barnaby
In the same year Barnaby opposed the new wonder drug Gardasil for the treatment of cervical cancer. The drug is now common place and is administered to boys and girls in their first year of high school.
Barnaby opposed it because of:
‘The psychological implications or the social implications’.
‘There might be an overwhelming (public) backlash from people saying ‘don’t you dare put something out there that gives my 12-year-old daughter a license to be promiscuous’
It gets worse. On Climate Change, when he was a Senator he said, despite all the science, that he had:
‘Serious doubt about our ability to change the climate” and that “the climate change debate is an ongoing debate’.
In 2010 he said he didn’t believe that global warming is as bad as everyone says.
‘Why do I say that … not because I have the factual premise to debunk them on the science’ Barnaby explained.
Then he said that Climate Change was:
‘An indulgent and irrelevant debate because, even if climate changes turns out to exist one day, we will have absolutely no impact on it whatsoever’.
It doesn’t finish there. When he was asked about being identified as a climate denier he answered:
‘The whole terms repugnant. Climate change denier, like Holocaust denier … ’
On the subject of abortion he tends to lecture women. Whatever your view on the subject in Australia the topic is generally treated with caution by politicians.
In 2004 speaking to Mark Colvin he said. He’s:
‘Pro-life, unashamedly pro-life’ and that his ‘personal philosophy is anti-abortion’.
In 2005 he said that his greatest achievement would be to:
‘Stop abortion … The slavery debate of our time’ he was ‘philosophically opposed’ to Medicare paying for abortions.
He said that using the RU486 drug was like an act of murder:
‘So if I shoot a woman in the abdomen and do not kill her but kill the baby, I have not actually committed a crime’ Barnaby argued before the Community Affairs Legislation committee.
The absurdity of this statement was pointed out at the time by Women’s Electoral Lobby ACT convenor Rosyln Dundas who commented:
‘No, you actually have committed a crime by shooting a woman’.
He also gloated about being instrumental in the rolling of the then opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull.
Leadership demands more than just a ‘retail’ personality. It requires, in the sense of leading a country, a deep insightful world view. Anyone who has seen Joyce on a Q&A panel with guests who present an understanding of life in all its variances will acknowledge that he has not the capacity to appreciate life beyond politics. He is like Abbott, caught in a world that the rest of us have left far behind.
And so we have as Deputy PM the man who said a roast would cost $100 under Labor’s Carbon tax and who, when Finance Minister said Australia would default on its debt. The then Reserve bank Governor at the time said he was unfit for the job.
We deserve better.
2 Continuing on from yesterday and I promise you this is true. Greg Hunt, the man some people refer to as the Environment Minister in Opposition advocated for the protection of the Tasmania Tiger, extinct since 1936.
In Government he turned his attention to the Antarctic Walrus – population: zero. Walruses live in the Northern Hemisphere.
Asked where the Paris deal left Australia’s climate change policy, the expert adviser to the former government Professor Ross Garnaut said:
“Exactly where it was before the US-China announcement – up shit creek.”
3 Regardless of whether Stuart Robert resigns, or is forced to won’t make any difference to the dodgy way in which political parties elicit donations and influence law making and policy.
4 The Guardian is reporting that the Catholic Church is telling newly appointed bishops that it is ‘not necessarily’ their duty to report accusations of clerical child abuse and that only victims or their families should make the decision to report abuse to police.
What a morally bankrupt institution is the Catholic Church. After many years of constant disclosure of worldwide systemic abuse of children, we now find that they are no further advanced in protecting children. No wonder they are losing parishioners in the tens of thousands worldwide.
5 That’s enough for today. I have to go shopping. I promised my wife a gold Rolex for her birthday. I’m not faking, either.
My thought for the day
Love is when there is an irresistible urge for the need of the affection of another and the irresistibility is of its nature mutual. It has no gender.
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29 comments
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cornlegend
Return to home pageRemember that blog “Barnaby is Right”? It’s defunct now, but was interesting to read what a right-wing nut job actually thought of Barnaby’s sayings.
I also remember how soon he was shifted from the shadow Finance portfolio
What a change…. From a senile old fart to a lying, ignorant scumbag. The Nats certainly know how to pick ’em. Barnaby will forever retain Depp’s description, “a fat sweaty man”.
We (Australia) couldn’t have done any worse if we tried.
As for the actions of the Catholic Church, did anyone expect them to do more? They are without doubt, the second most corrupt organisation in the World. They are cheats, liars and full of……… wait a minute, am I talking about the liberal national party of or the catholic church? Doesn’t matter….. Both condone and support child abuse and try to justify it at every turn.
Federal Politics has become a comedy show.
Unfortunately the humour is very low quality as evidenced by the boredom with which it is received!
‘
Once again the theory that we pay our politicians very well to ensure we get quality representation is blown out of the water.
If Tony Windsor runs again in New England we may be saved from the deep embarrassment of “Barnaby Joyce, Deputy Prime Minister”.
But Barnaby is a great line dancer. 😀
In days of yore, Radio National broadcast a nightly program titled, Australia Talks Back, hosted by Sandy McCutcheon. A self described Barnaby from St George made regular appearances both before and after his political connections were publically known. When he was outed he made the statement he wasn’t in politics for the long term. Indeed just one term would be enough to achieve the outcomes he wanted.
How things have changed. But even then it was previous obvious that Barnaby was a bit ‘slow’.
BTW, Windsor won’t beat Barnaby.
Yesterday I read a few articles announcing Barnaby and Fiona’s elevation, yet not one photo of Fiona! At last I spotted her on ABC this morning, and noticed Barnaby having trouble looking Malcolm in the eye. Then I wondered- why didnt Fiona get the job? She could at least have nominated herself. Anyway, going to be interesting!
I am reliably informed by the cwa Barnaby makes a mean scone and lamo, which will be handy should Obama or Cameron pop in for a cuppa. They could discuss the latest heifer prices whilst watching Landline. I am going outside and may be some time.
So the million dollar ( in entitlements) man has wormed his way into the second top job.
Hold on to your hats, the deficit is about to get much bigger, and it’s sure to be down to Barnaby.
If he could spend so much in his current position, how much more will he feel justified to spend in his new job?
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it suddenly has.
And we will be continuing to fund this monumental leaner until he pops his clogs, or the rising sea levels, he doesn’t believe in, finally drown him.
That’s one good outcome from climate change.
Great summation John, have posted to Twitter
A thought to add to politics of the day. South Australia tried a private health provider running a small part of a hospital for the public, it was a complete disaster, healthscope ran out of money (go figure) very quickly services were cancelled. I had surgery there at the time and was given themoplastic and a few other items to make my own prosthesis, I did make it and here is the insanity they pondered for a moment if someone with no medical training of any relevance could indeed make prosthetics for them. Absolutely disgusting and shows up the immorality of private services. http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansardr%2F2010-02-08%2F0161;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F2010-02-08%2F0019%22
Hope it gives Turdbull a massive headache. But exceedingly sorry for the rest of Australia
What a joke.
The dishonorable mr tudbullshitartist (pm) has shown (again) his complete lack of any fibre whatsoever in accepting the only dickhead in federal parliament with a lower IQ than either ta or c pyne, the minister for parliamentary use of the C-word.
The ONLY way that things could be any worse is for either of these two members of electamoron to become pm.
The sad thing is, neither is an impossibility.
Meanwhile in other news.
Centerlink staff were happy to see me on Wednesday. some of them were clearing their desks in readiness, just in case.
I couldn’t have reported on line anyway because my mobile carrier uses telstra, and someone there broke something by pushing the wrong red button, but don’t say anything about how fragile our major network is, the terrorists might get some ideas.
A friend of mine is working at Incompetence International, the global services corporation that has picked up the contract to look after our tax affairs since most of the front line Tax Office staff were let go last year as a cost saving exercise. He is being paid the massive sum of $18.40 per hr(+25% casual loading). He was supposed to be on the phones as of yesterday, but the 1and1/2-2 weeks of set training has taken nearly 3, so he might be live on Monday. (In 1993 I was earning $25 as the supervisor of a team of 4 screenprinters, so when (ok, if) I am accepted into the next intake I will be over the moon, but I guess it’s better than Newstart. It all depends on whether I have been too naughty in my previous lives.)
I have been keeping a very vague ear on the us elections, and am absolutely horrified at the thought that trump might get to be “el presidente” after all. What a disaster. I just can’t see the septics voting for a woman. Sadly.
A question for you all.
Considering that the us is of the opinion that they won both world wars single handed, when in fact they only just joined in WW1 at the end so that they could make more money from being part of the BIG4 peace treaty signing, and if the Japanese hadn’t been dumb enough to bomb pear harbour in 1941 there was as much chance of the us joining WW2 on the German side, my pondering for today is,
” In what condition would Earth be if the Iceberg had struck the Mayflower, not the Titanic? ”
Bye for now. I have to go and meet with my mindbender. I’m out of medication again.
barnaby joyce as deputy pm. I hope nothing happens to turdbull. joyce would be pm until the libs sort out a new figurehead for their rudderless ship. What a debacle.
But then, imagine the blood-spatter patterns for the forensic teams.
Thanks John Very good appreciation. As usual.
but but but,…. he’s an ACCOUNTANT for gods’ sakes. He knows things like how to add up big columns of figures with DECIMAL POINTS! That’s why he can talk an’ talk about macroeconomics an’ quantum theory an’ stuff like that.
And anyhow, in the land of the blind. the one-eyed man is king, so there.
Pilot you left word “gutted” out of comment. Has Joyce explained how those small dogs got passed Border Force?
Richard this shambolic, chaotic, inept, clueless, lying and useless government is nothing more than a farce.
When Abbott makes his comeback this dynamic duo will sink Australia for decades.
Can’t wait. Nor can I think of another country that deserves it more.
So Tony is regurgitated in the me-too party, to gum up society still further . Barnaby Barnacle will slow down anything useful and embarrass us in Tony’s style . A bonus for the Opposition surely !
I wonder if Malcom will be happy to see the village idiot as deputy after all it makes him look good distracts attention from him, leaving him to get on with whatever hopes he has to enrich the deserving further.
Stephen
I’m sure Turnbull is regretting the existence of the Coalition convention that the National’s Leader will always be the deputy PM. Luckily for the rest of us the “acting” PM never really gets to do anything more than “act” as though they mattered. I’m not expecting Turnbull to leave the country anytime soon, however.
Bob, I actually agree with you on that one. Let us hope that Turnbull doesn’t leave the country for a while. Ironic, isn’t it?
It kind of is. Turnbull is in a world of political hurt at the moment and I have a feeling the pain is only going to increase over the next couple of weeks. There are signs he is standing in the middle of a political sink-hole. How deep it’ll be remains to be seen, as is the timing of the collapse.
Despite his millions, I’m sure he still doesn’t sleep well at nights.
If I had $125M I’d sleep well at nights, but then I wouldn’t be in politics.
Hey, maybe that’s why I don’t sleep well at nights. I don’t have $125M. 🙁
But I don’t need it anyway. I have everything I want. 🙂
> Now we have a Prime Minister who firmly believes in a Republic, equality in marriage and the science of Climate Change
………………….
Do we really?
Or is it wishful thinking?
Are we sure these aren’t “whatever it takes” sound bites that suited Malcolm’s interest way back when?
That sort of money buys an awful lot of sedatives, including ones not on the PBS.
Michael TaylorFebruary 12, 2016 at 9:51 pm
“Despite his millions, I’m sure he still doesn’t sleep well at nights.”
Tucked up in the Lodge having sweet dreams of the Caymans, the bastard probably sleeps like a log