This morning, Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge outdid even himself in the stupidity stakes when he admitted that he had released the private data of a Centrelink client to “a small number of journalists,” and that the information “was not released more widely” than that “small number of journalists.”
One hardly knows where to begin unpacking this utterly facile statement, and perhaps one won’t bother wasting one’s valuable life trying.
Perhaps it is more useful to reflect on the fact that it issued forth from the mouth of a Minister of the Crown and a member of our government, not that old wag One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts, from whom one might more likely expect such codswallop.
Then we have Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who yesterday took to the airwaves to lacerate Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for “permitting the closure of the Hazelwood power station.”
.@TurnbullMalcolm has lashed the state government for letting the Hazelwood Power Station close down. #7News https://t.co/rjQGNztDd1
— 7NEWS Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) April 1, 2017
Everybody knows Hazelwood was closed by its owners Engie and Mitsui & Co (who bought it from the Kennett government, by the way). Turnbull is cogniscent of this minor detail, as he demonstrated just a few days ago with this observation:
This is what @TurnbullMalcolm said on 3aw 8 days ago, contradicting his ridiculous rant today. Clearly a very desperate man #springst pic.twitter.com/UPdb1TOvTY
— Lily D'Ambrosio MP (@LilyDAmbrosioMP) April 1, 2017
Perhaps one ought not to blame the government for assuming its citizens are equals in stupidity: after all, it was elected, albeit with a majority of one.
I can’t decide if Turnbull and his gang of foot-shooters are attempting bad imitations of US President Donald Trump, or if they’ve attained a state of collective desperation in which they no longer care what they say because the swamp water has risen to their necks & there’s nothing left for them to lose: they’re going under.
If the former, someone should tell them it is not possible to do a bad imitation of President Trump. President Trump has the market cornered. Unless you’re Alec Baldwin, you should leave imitating Trump alone because you can only ever sound like a loser wannabe.
Oh, wait! It’s the Turnbull government I’m talking about (laughs like Samantha Bee).
Meanwhile, it was revealed this morning that the proposed Adani coal mine intends to send only high ash/low quality coal to India,and that’s fine, according to Minister for Resources, Matt Canavan, as the Indians are used to crap coal and anyway, if we don’t sell it to them somebody else will. Plus, our soot is superior to the soot India currently breathes so what’s the problem?
We are a wonderful country. It’s a tribute to us that we keep on keeping on, despite our farcical overlords.
But wait. I understand British Prime Minister Theresa May today threatened to start a war with Spain, so take heart. It could be worse.
This article was originally published on No Place For Sheep.
Yes, think you are right, Turnbull and Co. attempting to out Trump Trump and it won’t work. Though you have to give them some credit, they are making passable efforts at being completely wacky …..
Listened to Morrison crapping on earlier, apparently the growing deficit is still all labors fault… Lord spare me.
Where’s the governor general? Surely a government can be sacked for constant lies and incompetence.
Not sure I can stand another two years listening to these idiots.
The Governor General is in their pockets too…..
It wouldn’t be quite so bad, MichaelW, if they were just stupid.
They are also corrupt and cruel.
Totally unfit for the serious responsibility with which they are charged.
‘It wouldn’t be so bad…’ what worries me is the colossal damage they are doing, economically, environmentally, socially. An incoming Labor government will have an uphill long term task to rebuild the system, and will probably be subject to the same sorts of attacks from the vested interests as was Rudd and co, which for some reason resonate with enough swinging voters to end up with the sort of thing we saw with Abbott.
After looking at the photo at the top of the article I have come to the conclusion that Mal Content is all four main characters in the LNP’s production of The Wizard of D’ohz. See Mal journey to the Gold Pedestal City and ask The Wizard to give him a brain, heart, courage and ruby slippers to help him on his way the sewer of history. Barnaby is his little yappy dog Bozo. The rest of his cronies could be the Flying Turdies.
The Mad Monk as The Wizard?
Hanson as the Wicked Witch?
They have lied so often that they don’t know their facts from their fictions anymore…oh wait, forgot the one true fact…”It’s all Labor’s fault.”
Unfortunately our Lib/ National government was in full flight of stupid well before Trump was in charge of the US. Just a case of parallel evolution rather than copying.
A sink hole opening up under parliament house should do the job. What a bunch of dumb f**k wits.
Utterly and sadly agree with article and commentaries asunder. For this very reason and so many articles written recently by the AIM Network about the stupidity, inhumanity and corruption of our Neoliberal National government and Ministers involved, I wrote this 21 verse satirical poem (limerick form) in February, depicting many of the current ministers, one verse each, and ending in a plea to return to a national election. The verse below relates three debacles under Alan Tudge’s administration: The breaking of the law in releasing the private confidential records of an Australian citizen to Fairfax Media, the Centrelink auto debt recovery scam, and the $3billion Welfare Card contract with Indue Ltd Pty. For the rest click on the poem link. Any chance AIM Network could publish this too for posterity? 😛
Trust not where Alan will trudge,
the rorts and bills he can fudge,
welfare whimsicals
and Fairfax farcicals,
Orwellian supper and sludge.
Malco Turbo and the Twelve Apostles https://allpoetry.com/poem/13161632-Malco-Turbo-and-The-Twelve-Apostles-by-Barddylbach
LNP was up to its collective armpits in “wacky stupid” well before the (still impossible to really believe) election of Trump as President.
PS
Love Samantha Bee – watch her for much needed respite from the weirdness.
I have been following both the Aust and UK politics for some time. At first glance it seems that both conservative parties suffer the same malaise. For this discussion I will just mention 2 similarities. 1: The utter disregard for everyone except the 1% superrich plus the Corporations who have made a goal of being tax free in as many countries as possible in the shortest time possible. (The top 20 pay no tax in UK AUST or USA some even get a payback in the USA for paying no tax. (Thats another story)) The kowtowing is sickening to watch and listen to. not to mention the tax givaways. 2:The ability of utterly inane statements, positions taken on issues designed to beggar the poor, unemployed, underemployed, pensioners, disabled, now parents as well is done to please the few at the expense of the many at the same rate that the IQ level of politicians is declining to the temperature of warm bathwater.
No KamNam, the IQ level of the electorate is declining, the politician are doing what it is in their agenda.
Their interest and of those at the upper class are above all.
They are and holding power by dividing the people by using the ignorance and selfishness of those that vote for them worried that the material things that they have and the addiction to consume will be lost with the alternative parties and policies.
The insidious LNP are deliberately wrecking the country, leaving Labor with a virtually impossible situation to achieve a successful rescue from the LNP incompetence, before the next election, at which time the Lazy Nogood Parasites will then attack Labor for it’s inability to govern in the interests of the Australian people.
Should Labor win the next election (which I’m confident will be the case) they should be vicious in pursuing those in the LNP who gave absolutely no thought to the wellbeing of their fellow Australians. Labor should also hound the AFP for it’s tardiness in following up on the numerous obvious abuses of power by the LNP.
Morrison got on my wick as he worked himself up into a paroxysm of angst-ridden wankery about Labor ruining the country through not agreeing to wave through the corporate tax cuts in full. It was a coal performance all over again. All unemployment and all budget problems will be their fault. Well that’s all right then. I do hope Labor fire straight back and say they’ll reinstate the pre-tax regime. There was a good letter in the SMH today showing that the effective corporate tax rate is lower than it appears and lower than US and UK on that basis. I don’t care. What I’m sick of is the constant cherry-picking by neo-cons of overseas tax regimes and selectively choosing the most advantageous of each to maximise low taxes for the rich in each category in Oz. These are the same guys who routinely tell us how well the US has recovered in the stock market but carefully ignore how Joe Average does compared with the stock market which is… nowhere. These are Trump’s forgotten people. The penny hasn’t dropped yet for them. Tax cuts have been going on for the rich in US for years but the ordinary person sees no trickle down. I’m now waiting to see how Labor counter-punches or if it embraces small-target head-under-the-blankets-hope-it-goes-away. If they do the latter they can look forward to having a poor counter-narrative against the Libs. And ignore odious comparisons with overseas.
Turnbull’s effort is straight from Howard’s Handbook; say a falsehood or distortion often enough, then it becomes “a fact”. Abbott was better, one could excuse his effort as just plain ignorance and he’d just bulldoze his way through, but Turnbull..he’s expected to know the truth and if he lies, then he’s lying.
Freethinker: Thanks. You have said what needs to be said.
David Somerville: The AFP have been compromised for a long time. Perhaps, Labor needs to follow in the footsteps of the coalition. Didn’t they sack the entire top management of the NBN so they could install their own liars? A similar process needs to be followed in all the organisations now infiltrated by IPA-following goons. The ABC, the AFP, the NBN, CSIRO, Treasury, etc. etc. There is a very long list. It will be hard to find the people to fill those positions.
It really is time for us to be out in the streets!
Rosemary, I couldn’t agree more.
People had their chance in the recent March in March. But sadly, across a nation of disenchanted Australians, a mere 2,000 turned up nationwide.
@RosemaryJ36 Many are Rosemary they’re sleeping in them.You can fight for those also.
@Rosemaryj36
It really is time for us to be out in the streets!
Ditto Roswell
Some people tried that a few weeks ago for the march in march. The turn out was f*cking dismal to say the least. So far aussies can’t be bothered.
RosemaryJ36, It will need a lot of suffering for people to do massive street protests.
People will need go loose their job and possessions and when they will have nothing more to loose then they will rebel.
Politically people in Australia are no involved or have a passion for it.
When I come to Australia I cannot believe that the celebration of a party that won an election was taken place in a hall, hotel or enclosed site when I was used to see 500000 in the streets celebrating their party win in a city with only a population of 2 million.
Johno – I don’t think it is that people can’t be bothered, I think it’s more they think it doesn’t make any difference. No matter how or where people protest the government doesn’t change.
vicki, put a march of 1/2 million people in each city and stop work to participate on it and you will see that the legs of the back benches will start shaking.
People power rules if there is unity, I can telling you that by OS personal experience.
If someone organised an Australia-wide rally to save the Patagonian Pink-eyed Three-legged Tree Frog … they’ll probably get a better turnout than the one that protested the most corrupt, deceitful, cruelest government we’ve ever had.
Sad.
Roswell I agree with you, it is incredible that the NSW government nearly when down because the greyhound racing issues but not because other more important issues that affect human life.
Freethinker, I was pleased when Baird came up with the idea to ban greyhound racing; sadly it was not going to happen….After that it was all downhill for him…
When it comes to protesting, going to the streets , the South-Koreans are pretty good at it as well…
Back in the 80’s New Zealand was split over their Rugby and Apartheid in South Africa. The whole country was divided and the marches were huge. Rugby stadiums were cordoned off with barbed wire, containers and police. Yep, people will get uppity if the situation demands it.
Same thing in Australia, Johno. The Springbocks (or whatever they call themselves) tour in the early 70s saw massive demonstrations in the Eastern states.
Perhaps we only go to the streets if our racing or sporting events are somehow threatened, maybe also if our pubs and grog shops close too early, or don’t open their doors at all…. 🙂
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/federal-budget-to-tackle-illegal-cash-economy-costing-up-to-15b-in-lost-revenue-20170404-gvdfkr.html
Weren’t these cretins going to do something about the “black economy” last year and the year before that and the year before that?
Kronomex, the cretins told us as far back as 2000 that the introduction of the GST would end the black economy entirely. So much for those “good economic managers” Howard and Costello.
It really IS time for us to be out in the streets …
However we had our opportunity a couple of weeks ago in March in March …
Some 2000 (yes, two thousand ! ) Australians felt sufficiently affronted by this LieNP “government” to go take a walk in the street !!!
Australia wide, as I understand it !
Viva la revolution ! Haha ! Any revolution in Oz wouldn’t even make it to the Twittersphere !
No wonder this lying deceitful corrupt “government” continues on it’s lying deceitful corrupt way, totally unfazed by any adverse reaction from the peasants.
That is the bottom line.
crypt0 IMO the only hope for Australian people to do something is a financial collapse.
If interest rates come up 2% before the election the amount of default home loans will be catastrophic.
If it happens after the election and the ALP win it will be Labor fault and the coalition will be elected again.
National ICAC
Don’t forget to write a submission to the 2017 Select Committee on the establishment of a National Integrity Commission. You can do it via Getup if you wish. Submissions close on Friday so I guess the senators are obviously not keen to get too swamped by public outrage. Swamp away I say, particularly as Sen. Abetz is involved.