By Tina Clausen
What is wrong with you? Your behaviour in Parliament is atrocious and unprofessional. You are like a bunch of squabbling children. Each trying to out yell, out do, out blame and desperate to get one-up on the other. I have never been more ashamed of our Australian politicians. You seem to have totally forgotten your reason for being there and what you have been elected to do. To SERVE the Australian PEOPLE and do what is to THEIR advantage and what will advance THEIR well-being.
Do we need to engage a behavioural therapist in order for you to be taught concepts of appropriate behaviour and constructive interactions? Maybe we can borrow some charts from Primary schools and put them up on the walls of Parliament to remind you. Perhaps something along these lines;
- No yelling
- No rude noises
- No interrupting
- No bullying or personal attacks
- No blaming others for your mistakes
With a few exceptions, you seem to have become career politicians. You act in ways that will benefit first yourself and then your party in your goal to amass lurks and perks, a long-term position, fat pension and cultivate big business and company contacts for lucrative post political top-end positions in the private market where you can continue to wield influence and control. Not to mention have access to your prior political colleagues in lobbying for advantages for your new company. A business or company that often seem to have benefitted from your past political maneuverings’.
The point scoring and blaming in parliamentary discussions is disgusting. Everybody jockeying for position and one-upmanship. Instead of Government and Opposition working together collaboratively as a group of adults in joint input of ideas, direction of and how-to for whatever is on the day’s topic list, you have your own set party, political and personal agendas and nothing will get in the way of that. God forbid you should come up with a compromise and a plan of action that is in the best interest of the Australian people and that you could all take joint credit for.
You have traded in your compassion, empathy and basic human decency in your scrambling to meet the expectations and demands of all the vested interest groups, lobbyists, big business and huge global companies that you serve and receive kick-backs from in all sort of manners – Political Party money donations, gifts, trips, invitations to desirable events, future career prospects etc, etc. You have chosen to ignore that it is the Australian PEOPLE that you are here to serve. Instead you have put us aside as a rabble and as the unwanted masses that just get in the way of you getting on with business as you please.
Which brings me to my next point. It seems some of you are finally waking up to the fact that more and more of us ordinary people are getting very angry with you and want to have a say about things that matter to us and our communities. So what do you do? You start discussing legislation that can shut down or limit the influence of citizen advocacy groups, you insist they must align themselves with one political party or the other just to maintain your self-serving status quo. You decide that welfare services must not engage in political advocacy for their various client groups and threaten to cut their funding if they do. You will do anything to silence and hinder making public and loud the voice of the people. Guess what? We don’t want to be silenced and are not going to be.
People join advocacy groups for all sorts of causes and concerns that go across the political spectrum. We may align with one political party on one issue but another political party on a second issue, or no single political party at all for that matter. You have been found wanting and people are looking for a different way of having a say. I get that you don’t like that, you prefer that you remain the elite and only the rich and powerful get to have a say. People like eg Mining billionaire Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest and his vision of and push for a Cashless Welfare Card for Australia’s most vulnerable and poorest people.
The idea started as a way of supporting individuals in some small, mainly indigenous communities where there were endemic levels of alcohol abuse and neglect of children but ended up being applied to everyone on Social Security aged under 65 in the selected communities irrespective of what an individual’s circumstances were. This despite, Andrew Forrest stating in “The Forrest Review – Creating Parity” that; “Income management was widely regarded as very helpful for vulnerable people, enabling them to manage their budgets, save for expenses and stay in stable housing. However, it is complex, it can be considered paternalistic and comes with a cost that renders it unsustainable and unsuitable for broader application. While income management is useful to stabilise an individual’s circumstances, it can make transitions off welfare and into work more difficult. An alternative that provides similar support for welfare recipients but includes them in the country’s mainstream banking and financial services system will do much more to build financial literacy and independence.”
So what has our Government done with that idea? They have decided to do the opposite of what was warned against and are now in the process of undertaking a broad application of the Cashless Welfare Card across Australia for Social Security recipients aged under 65 years. They have taken this initiative and turned it into a way of attacking, disempowering and disenfranchising the very people who most need our help in society. They have used it as a weapon to entrench the myth of the ‘welfare bludger’ and turn working people against anyone on Social Security benefits. Forget Robert Menzies – on the establishment of unemployment and sickness benefits 29th March 1944; “People should be able to obtain these benefits AS A MATTER OF RIGHT, with no more loss of their own standards of self-respect than would be involved in collecting from an insurance company the proceeds of an endowment policy on which they have been paying premiums for years.”
Voilà, we now have the Cashless Welfare Card that our Government is trying very hard to force upon ordinary communities all over Australia. Instead of being for individuals who may have problems with alcohol or drugs or who may have been found to neglect or abuse their children, they have in their wisdom decided that ALL people on Social Security benefits obviously engage in destructive addictive behaviours, they ALL neglect or abuse their children, they are ALL welfare bludgers who don’t want to work and every one of them must be subjected to a punitive punishment for their own good. Doesn’t matter if 99% of people targeted don’t have any of the above mentioned issues and manage their meagre Social Security payments as well as they can be and make the most of their finances via the cash market that many communities, small businesses and less financially well-off people rely on.
Suddenly the Cashless Welfare Card is a cure-all for addiction, child neglect or abuse, unemployment, being a single parent, being ill or disabled, being a student, for the very ‘crime’ of being in receipt of a Social Security payment. Our Government particularly seem to want to entrench in the public mind the view that the card will cure unemployment. This despite limited employment options nation-wide (depending on which statistics are being used, only 1 job available for between every 10 to 17 job seekers) and there already being extremely stringent and punitive mutual obligation requirements in place for jobseekers. Managed via the much maligned privatised Job Network Agencies.
It is also interesting to note the following comment. “Welfare must become a good deal for private investors … allow us to SHIFT services from the Government sector to the private sector” – Scott Morrison on Welfare 26 June 2015. Privatisation of Centrelink is slowly creeping in. For example, our Government’s announcement of the outsourcing of Centrelink Call Centre to UK company Serco, private company Indue having the contract for the Cashless Welfare Card where it currently operates. Indue have been receiving up to $10,000 in payment for each person forced on to the card. Indue also takes 1% of each person’s Social Security payment in fees plus keep any interest that people earn on what is supposed to be their money. $10,000 to manage peoples’ Newstart income of around $14,000 – makes no sense financially. The money could be better spent creating jobs. They could even raise Social Security payments by $50 / week to help bring people out of extreme poverty at a quarter of the cost of what Indue currently get paid. But no, privatisation by stealth is alive and well and if it serves to put further controls on people and disempower them, even better.
What has been really disturbing is the recent Senate inquiry into the Cashless Welfare Card and the call for public submissions regarding the impact and operation of the card. I have read the submissions from peak service groups, professionals, academics, business groups, welfare agencies, legal services and individuals etc. The vast majority of submissions had major concerns about the card and only a few were in favour of the card. Yet the four Senators on the committee voted 3 to 1 for the card and recommended to the Senate that the Government go ahead and implement the card in a further roll-out across Australia. Why is that disturbing you ask? Because the three Senators who voted for the card are from political parties who are in favour of the card and the one Senator who voted ‘no’ is from a party that are against a general roll-out of the card. It made me question whether asking for public submissions is just a token gesture of consultation and that no matter what input is received all committee members will just give a recommendation for or against according to party lines rather than listening to and taking into account information, facts and concerns received in submissions. If their Party says that planet earth is a flat square this will garner an agreeing ‘yes’ vote no matter what evidence is presented that proves otherwise.
In conclusion:
You have privatised as many essential services as you can, allowing big companies to make huge profits out of things that should never be open for profit-making resulting in their unaffordability for the general population e.g. electricity, telecommunications, public transport, some medical services, etc. Now even stooping to privatising parts of Social Security for profit making out of our most vulnerable citizens. This is NOT in the best interest of the people of Australia.
You have allowed the housing sector to become an investors paradise via negative gearing and capital gains tax, resulting in too high a cost for buying a home and totally unaffordable rentals for large sections of our society. This is NOT in the best interest of the people of Australia.
You have allowed vested interests and big company lobbyists to have their desire for big profits to become more important to you than the needs of ordinary people. Pork-barrelling is rampant, welfare services have been bullied into silence with threats of or actual funding removal. This is NOT in the best interest of the people of Australia and you should be ashamed.
In short, you have forsaken the people of Australia and taken us back hundreds of years to something looking more like a feudal society where only the rich and powerful are catered for.
Don’t be surprised when the pitchforks and guillotine are brought out again.
Further Reading
GetUp Vows To Fights Attacks on Independence
Advocacy Under Threat as NFPs Engage in Self-Silencing
Outsourcing Centrelink calls to Serco may well fail to meet clients’ needs
Parliamentary Submissions
Submit to the Cashless Welfare Senate Inquiry
OPINION: Compassion overdue for our unemployed
2.498 million Australians (18.9%) now unemployed or under-employed
What welfare blow-out? Time to end the vilification of people who are unemployed
The government is trying to sell cliches of welfare bludgers, but voters aren’t buying it
How the Australian government will make billions from the poor
David Webster: ‘Benefit sanctions should be a thing of the past’
Tough love welfare policies are just part of the growing surveillance state
Centrelink cashless welfare card trial costing taxpayers $10,000 per participant
Alan Tudge to be met with protests over ‘welfare card’
Elderly, disabled, jobless or homeless? It’s your fault, according to the Coalition
The human impact of the Cashless Welfare Scheme
Dole bludger myth busted as ABS shows welfare recipients spend less on alcohol
“Them” and “us”: the enduring power of welfare myths
Inequality is not a personal choice – it’s a choice governments make
Rent virtually unaffordable for those on low incomes or welfare, survey finds
Thank you. You’ve said what I’ve been thinking for years. Sadly, I think the situation is far worse than you describe.
ditto, stating what everyone with a brain in the country wants to say.
But how to change it ? Right in our own electorates. TELL your MP what you expect, let them know they won’t receive your vote next time if they don’t do what’s expected. We have just allowed these career politicians to do whatever they want – it may be too late to stop them.
But stop them we must.
Federal politicians elected after 2004 no longer get “fat pensions” … sure their super is higher than most at 15%, but they are essentially on the same system as everybody else … the proportion still on the legacy pension plan must by now be quite small.
NDIS MEDICARE SUPERAÑUATION GONSKI SAFE SCHOOLS DENTAL HEALTH NEGATIVE GEARING BANK COMMISION SSM etc all Labor Policies name some from the Liberal party!
Please do not lump them all into the same basket LIBERAL PARTY IS A FIZZA JUST LIKE the leader turdball.
Oh yeah the refugee crisis it was a process centre only until the poor buggers could eventually come and live in Australia it was never intended to be a prison camp the liberals have got running. I will vote for Labor policies not rupert murdoch proproganda turdball.
I’m so disgusted with the politicians of this country, I honestly believe they are the enemy of the poor and working class and I get so angry about their disregard for the people, they sicken me, their is no amount of suffering they could be in that I could be satisfied with, I hate every single one of them
Interesting article Tina. The condition of the Federal Parliament in general does not augur well for the future of democracy in Australia. But I think that, at the moment, we are in better shape than some other democracies.
The cracks that are appearing around the edges of our democratic system are in a strange sort of way, Australia’s contribution to the decline in democracy which is going on in much of the democratic world.
An excellent article entitled “How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red’”, dated 29-11-16, from the New York Times can be found at
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/world/americas/western-liberal-democracy.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0
The situation in America is certainly worse than what we are experiencing, see article,
“Is Democracy Itself in Danger?” dated 31-11-17 at
https://www.alternet.org/election-2016/democracy-itself-danger
and
“Populism and immigration pose major threat to global democracy, study says” from The Guardian dated 16-11-17 at
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/nov/15/populism-immigration-major-threat-global-democracy-study-international-idea
and
“The Great Democracy Meltdown” from New Republic from New Republic dated 19-5-11 (so this is not an altogether recent phenomenon) at
https://newrepublic.com/article/88632/failing-democracy-venezuela-arab-spring
I have probably posted too many links here. Unfortunately, they are so easy to find.
Like you Tina, when you say,
“Don’t be surprised when the pitchforks and guillotine are brought out again.”
I do not think that this is going to end well.
Neo-liberalism is the disease and it appears that pitchforks and guillotines may be the only remedy.
Medicare levy on gross income ergo no health funding worries
As many properties as you can afford but only one negatively geared.
Sadly I have a facebook full of friends who agree with the card. indeed the majority support subsistence for the dole bludgers and food stamps for working families.
So they think it is in the best interest of Australians and cannot wait till the young bludgers next door get the cashless card. Not unexpectedly they voted no.
Why just the gov/opp? The loonie left and loonie right deserve a serve at least as much???
Please send a copy of this to your Federal parliamentarians. I am printing copies for mine.
If it’s such a great idea, why hasn’t the cashless card been extended to Aged Pensioners who are noted for their gambling habits?
I see them lined up outside waiting for the clubs to open on pension day and often line up behind them while in Newsagents while they play their traditional Lotto and Powerball Systems.
Better still, let politicians pay their (tax free) Travelling Allowance expenses via a Corporate Credit Card as they now do for many employees in companies such as Telstra. It would eliminate much of the paperwork and eliminate rorting. No more cash advances would be required and expenses would be logged.
Of course neither of those options will ever happen. Self-interest will see to that. They have to be careful which voters they victimise.
It’s quite easy to exploit the card. Get the bearer to buy say $50 of groceries with it at the Supermarket and pay them $40 cash in exchange, but of course that sort of thing would never happen, would it?
The card is just a punitive measure aimed at satisfying taxpayers.
flogga yes what you say is quite true, however their 15% on a proportion of the $200,000 per annum that they receive, compared to the 9% on the ordinary workers $43,000 per annum which is roughly the median Australian workers pay leaves a huge gap between them and us.
Zathras, this of course is the other side of the coin that we rarely hear about, Sam Dastiyari wanted the Chinese businessman to pay for his travel expenses because he had run out of entitlement is my guess. This is the measure that saves them having to spend money and compensates them for most of what they do spend. For example The foreign Minister Bishop plans her many holidays around speaking engagements so she can holiday as well as “work.” Which the ordinary Australian worker does not get, and puts these people at a much further advantage. Hockey’s pronouncement that “the age of entitlement is dead” should have continued “for the Australian working person, and for those who lose their jobs because of our policies” see the car industry as an example.
Zathras, aged pensioners are next on the hit list.
No-one should be under the illusion that the Indue card rollout is the last throw of the dice.
The LNP don’t care for the wider community.
And the MSM don’t have a problem with that.
Why are they deliberately punishing the most vulnerable in the community?
Self-punishment sits at the core this issue.
I might be a learned attitude but that makes it amenable to correction.
But what do we see instead? Rather than address societal problems through compassionate action, we see them project their own sense of personal pain onto others.
Great writing Tina.
Agree, behavioural therapy to help politicians outgrow their way of interacting like children.
Parliament could become a place of debate rather than a place to throw tantrums.
I have a dream: Parliament House filled with Jungian psychologists and Ikea couches.
Regarding Hockey’s “Age of Entitlement”.
It didn’t seem to count when he would take his family to inspect his Queensland Hobby Farm and have a little holiday at taxpayers expense, trying to disguise it by hiring a private car for the last leg of the trip.
Likewise, Jewellery Bishop’s traditional taxpayer-funded excursions to watch her local footy team play also seemed to slip under the Government’s critical gaze.
Dastiyari was stupid and naive to take money for personal use but Barnaby Joyce seems happy to take whatever Gina Reinhardt throws his way, although the last donation was reluctantly handed back when it didn’t meet “the pub test”. I’m sure she’ll get it to him somehow,
Sorry Joe, politicians always have entitlements but it’s only taxpayers who indulge in rorts.
“Indue also takes 1% of each person’s Social Security payment in fees plus keep any interest that people earn on what is supposed to be their money.” I can’t find any information to support this claim (although I wouldn’t be in the least little bit surprised), can you back it up with a bit more evidence please.
Can we for once just blame the Government for once, without implicating the opposition (Labor) as if they are also the Government?
We just had a State election and this rhetoric feeds into the “Flick ‘em” mentality which IS a great risk of parties like Hanson’s One Nation being elected. Please don’t think they are not a threat because they only won one seat. They are a threat and gather up the people in droves who are captured by headlines and TLDR.
Not sure if anyone has noticed but it is not Labor’s policies that are being put up or signed off on.
Once Bill is Prime Minister, hold him to account all you want. Until then, the Government is the anti-worker, Anti-welfare Liberal National Coalition.
The Government led by Malcolm Turnbull should be held to account relentlessly. By lumping in Labor, you are giving the Government a free pass and watering down scrutiny.
How many times have you seen “So what, as if Labor would be any different?” If Labor had coalition policies, they would not have a support base and the unions would destroy a Labor party who was anti worker like LNP are.
Labor is NOT the coalition and opposition is a very different job to Government. Labor’s policies at the last election were very different to the LNP pamphlet.
Unless that is recognised parties such as PHON (who actually support LNP policies) are given a free run in the “Two majors are untrustworthy” rhetoric and they ARE a real threat to holding enough seats to hold a Govt who would be supportive of the working class and welfare, to ransom.
Hi Kronomex. Indue charges 50cent in account fees per every $50 a person spends, this adds up to an equivalent of 1% of a person’s Social Security payment. They have been very sneaky in how they tried to hide that.
Hi Trish, I ‘lumped’ the Opposition in to head off inevitable comments of ‘Labor are exactly the same’ and my thoughts then being dismissed because I was seen to only ‘attack’ the conservatives.
Thanks Tina. Jesus, not only do they get up to $10k percard but they then have to rip off the welfare recipients themselves. Pig trough heaven. I wonder how much of a cut the LNP gets from all this…oh wait, I forgot they are as pure as the driven snow. Will Labor get rid of it when they take over? At a rough guess, no.
Kronomex re:
Perhaps they get zero? Haven’t seen any evidence they get a cut in any shape or form. Until then I assume they don’t.
Yes there’s been claims – but no figures have been produced. Not even a link.
Matters Not. Larry Anthony gets paid from profits of Indue which enables him to undertake work for the LNP. In other words, his income, or the fee he obtains from Indue, subsidizes, or makes possible, his work for the LNP. That is one aspect of political corruption in Australia. The same way as KPMG get huge fees as consultants for the LNP gov then donate part of that profit back to the LNP in order to secure new consultancy contracts and that donation is also tax deductible. If you think that means that the Gov doesn’t receive a benefit from its decisions to award contracts and the programmes it implements, then, as I have long suspected, you are surely deluded. In fact, KPMG are one of the LNP’s most consistent and biggest donors in recent history. Enough said.
PS. Good one Tina.
KPMG contracts with LNP Gov. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/ey-kpmg-pwc-deloitte-federal-government-consultant-contracts-more-than-double-20170803-gxobjh.html
KPMG donations to LNP. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-01/political-donations-parties-data-search/7129064
http://www.afr.com/business/accounting/kpmgs-political-contributions-dwarf-pwc-ey-20160131-gmidv5
Thanks for your response OTMP. So you claim Anthony gets monies from Indue even though his connection to Indue ended in 2013. Further Anthony denies owning any shares in Indue. Surely Anthony isn’t deliberately misleading the ASX because the penalties there are quite severe.
That a great deal of difference between Indue and KPMG whose donations to political parties are part of the public record. Perhaps you have a link to Indue’s donations? I can’t find one. Fact is – Indue is a minnow worth about $6 million and is currently Chaired by a gentleman who connection to the ALP goes back decades.
To Matters Not.
LNP connection and Indue have previously been written about.
https://theaimn.com/lnp-welfare-card-true-facts-exposed-corruption-disguised-philanthropy/
Hi Trish, I ‘lumped’ the Opposition in to head off inevitable comments of ‘Labor are exactly the same’ and my thoughts then being dismissed because I was seen to only ‘attack’ the conservatives.
Readers will dismiss you no matter what you write. Please don’t change your writing to suit the readership.
You know what Trish, you’re absolutely right. -:)
This expresses the rage and torture I feel about what our federal government, indeed whole of parliament are doing to the ordinary and most vulnerable every day man, woman, child and family in Australia. Of course I would not dream of plotting to put a ton of fireworks and gunpowder underneath Parliament House, certainly not if we could bring back public flogging and guillotine just for parliamentarians, senior advisors and public servants who chose to flout our laws and steal our lives, livelihoods, health, salaries and pensions. How bloody dare they! Rage rage against the scandals and all parliamentarians, but especially corrupt ministers who are raping us and pillaging this land. And I don’t mean Dastyari. I mean you Turdball, Potatohead, Pyne, Morrison, Cash, Cormann, Tudge, Birmingham, Abetz, Joyce – my god the list is endless but you know exactly who you are.
Tina I know only too well that Indue ‘has been written about‘ before. There were so many inaccuracies then which unfortunately took root and are still being repeated today. Again I ask for the connections between Indue and the LNP.
Where is the money trail? Amounts of donations? When? Why did Anthony leave the Board if it was so financially rewarding. Fact is Fake News tends to hang around. Ever wondered why the ALP won’t go within a mile of this so called scandal?
You do check claims made I hope? Just shake my head.
If I thought it would do any good and provide a solution, I would oppose both major parties… although come to think of it I think I already do but especially the Monks, Turdballs and Toadstools (if you are wondering about the last one… think of New England but not what you can do for them! We have to do something and Tina Clausen you have hit the nail on the head, no no no yes so here is my bumbe humble suggestion:
THE THIRD CHOICE – WITH OXYGEN AND REASON IN OUR VEINS WE CAN MAKE IT WORK
TURNBULL’S BIGGEST FEAR – WHAT WOULD END THE CURRENT LNP CORRUPT AND ABUSIVE REGIME IN AUSTRALIA AND GET US BACK ON TRACK – REALISTICALLY?
The third choice! Labor alone are mostly a hypocritical bunch and far too party institutional and bipartisan (with LNP their polar opposites) on too many issues, but they are far less threat to the common good than Liberal and the Nationals. The only reasons the Liberals get in is because of that blessed coalition front which stacks the electoral system (not votes per se) in their favour. Liberals alone are not only a corrupt and thoroughly divided force but have always been a minority, and this is their electoral burden, their achilles heel which they have strategically hidden and protected themselves from by 1) combining forces; 2) controlling the flow of information and media plus secrecy; 3) putting out fabulously outrageous and persistent lies, deception and propaganda to support what is essentially a mean cold and minority populist front, and a totally lost cause morally, consciously, subconsciously, constitutionally and democratically. But their corruption and of our electoral system is huge. They are a grossly spent destructive force in Australian politics, a leviathan and this period of pain and politics must end.
So what is the third choice? A new coalition that needs to be brokered to bring this abuse to an end. A Labor – Greens Alliance, where for the first time the Australian Labor Party are forced to genuinely share power and harness the moral sensibility and future of the Australian Greens Party, which lets face it, has the moral responsibility, the humanism, the integrity, the public recognition, good and will, and potential popularity to clean up Labor’s institutional and public weakness and neglect, make and keep them honest, get over the spent past deals and makeovers, look astern to the future.
There is no potential to clean up LNP or Nationals for years to come, they are a thoroughly spent force, arrogant, ignorant, self righteous, ‘desperate’ ruling class in bed with feudal overlords and elitists who refuse to let go, remove their fangs from the life blood of Australian constitutional democracy. Labor must share power with the Greens, offer up at least 4-5 ministries including deputy PM. This is the only realistic constructive way forward for Australia, for ‘all Australians’ at this time. We need a robust, resilient and visionary partnership, shared and humble leadership to weather the storms no doubt Murdoch, corrupt media, big business and mishappy misspent Liberals will throw at it. We need a longer term future to reform and re-build genuine participatory, collaborative, inclusive democracy for all. A genuine informed public with friendly oxygen in our veins and clarity of reason, global authenticity and membership of UN. A connection and partnership that can and will work for everyone!
‘Then the wild horses proudly rode these open plains
and mountain castles whistled through their veins’.
Poetical Landscape by Barddylbach: I found 俳文 at the bottom of My Green Garden https://allpoetry.com/poem/13586302-I-found-at-the-bottom-of-My-Green-Garden-by-Barddylbach
Yes Matters Not, you just keep on shaking your head. I see you on here all the time. Always ignoring the main points and gist of what writers are trying to convey. Instead nitpicking, asking for proof of this or that (do your own research btw) and trying to come across as intellectually superior to ordinary people on here who are not professional writers but just want an opportunity to have a say and state their opinion.
You don’t even make comments under your own name.
Why don’t you spend more time and effort on writing your own articles given that you apparently know so much, or isn’t anybody interested I what you have to say?
Thank you for your reply TC which completely ignores the points I raised. I do engage in my own research that’s why I believe that so many claims made about Indue and its (so called) connection to the LNP are just so much bullshit. Fact is Indue has stronger connections to the ALP than it has to the LNP – even though those connections are also somewhat tenuous.
But I see I am again wasting my time. The story is just so attractive even though it’s wrong re important details.
Matters Not, my article above did not deal with the link between LNP and Indue, which is why I gave you the link to an article that specifically addresses this. If you have concerns about that article and its content then address your comments about that issue there. I am sure they will be interested in all your ‘facts’.
TC – certainly correct in asserting that this article doesn’t address the link between LNP and Indue but you did respond to points that emerged in ‘discussion’ by linking to an article that did exactly that.
Just for the record. I am completely opposed to any system or CARD that attempts to limit or control the spending habits of any adult (I don’t care if they gamble the lot. Drink themselves stupid. Engage prostitutes. Donate to the LNP. Or whatever – because that’s their choice. And none of my business.)
However, I become concerned when such people abrogate their responsibilities to children by neglecting or abusing same. As you point out, the intention was about the:
Yes there was (and still is) endemic levels of alcohol abuse and neglect of children . That’s my main and only concern. It’s why I support the very selective use of a cashless welfare card. Not based on location nor race or whatever – but based on a demonstrated need to respond to children in need.
iMatters Not. this is evidence of your rank hypocracy. is it only welfare recipients who spend the family budget on alcohol, drugs and that abuse children? If not, then why arent family benefit recipients also included in the card program? You sir are a bigot and what the great sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called a ‘class rascist’. Your the type of middle class petite bourgsoise crap that genuine class conscious enlightened people scape from the bottom of their shoes everyday. The french invented the guiotine for lightweights like you. Go drown in ur chardonay and leave the revolution to be fought by tbose with a spine. for the record the article Tina refers to is the most single effort that has brought a nations atrention to the welfare card. By the way u still dont understand the connection between Anthony, his lobbying firms, the LNP and Indue. Shows how thick u really are. Truth is irrelevant in war.
Anthonys lobbying business counts Indue as one of its clients. Anthony is President of the National Party who are in coalition with the LP and who make up the gov. If that is not clear enough for you you should desist from further exercising any grey matter at all.
hey matters not why cant we control the incomes of non welffare recipients who piss the family budget up against the wall, spend it on expensive wines or who gamble it away in pokies or who rack up massive credit card debt? what u want is as TC points out ‘economic apartheid ‘ to keep the poor from public spaces. u r a dh matey.
In the manifest document that Star Group, the new “owners” of Indue, and thus the profits from the CWC, have allowed investors to review, it is stated that the CWC will be rolled out to include all government funding that goes to citizens including age pension, tax returns, government wages, with each card issued earning between $5000 and $10000 per year. Eventually everybody of age to receive any government money will have a card, right now, if this was to happen, some 15 million cards would be in circulation. Even at the low end of cost, that would be some $75 billion in earnings for Indue and its ownership. Per year. Right now it is looking at some 5 million cards, which equates to $25 billion per year, over and above the current cost of welfare and social funding and its administration. The card allows a private company to harvest information about the spending habits of users. The company then relays that information onto government agencies, who can use that information to manipulate people into desired purchases and activities. It’s no overreach to say, the CWC is will be the undoing of small business as we know it. Not only will users of the card have to pay a stipend, but so will merchants, so the card earns Indue money from four revenue streams; government, business, users and interest. Projections estimate that the card will eventually earn well north of $100 billion per year for Star Group and its shareholders…