How do you solve a problem like our Tony
I am a great believer in the value of research and preparation. It leads to the most productive use of resources and the best outcomes. Know your goal, investigate ways to achieve it, then concentrate your efforts.
With this in mind, I have been pondering the best way to rid ourselves of Tony Abbott. I think many members of the Coalition would feel similarly relieved if someone else would do it for them, as would most conservative voters from what I hear.
And we can do it by appealing to a few thousand people in Tony’s seat of Warringah.
On two candidate preferred, Abbott won by 27,421 votes over the Labor candidate. The figures indicate that the Greens preferenced Labor and all other candidates (along with 179 of the Greens voters) preferenced Liberal. Abbott ended up with 3986 votes from people who did not put him as their first choice.
Of a total enrolment of 102,672 the turnout was only 91.95%. Of the 94,405 votes cast, 5,078 were informal. This means that 13,345 enrolled voters did not participate in the result.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission the number of eligible Australians who were not enrolled to vote was 1.4 million at 30 June 2013 (and still 1.2 million at 30 June 2014). Whilst there are no figures specifically for Warringah, it would be reasonable to assume that there may be some constituents who failed to register to vote. If we assume a very low estimate of 1,655 (the average is about 9,000 per electorate) that makes the total number of eligible votes lost grow to approximately 15,000.
If those 15,000 could be shaken from their apathy and enlisted to vote progressive (many of them may be young people whose future depends on doing so), and if those 4,000 who voted against Abbott chose to direct their preferences to Labor ahead of Liberal, we only need to change the minds of a little over 2,200 conservative voters in the Warringah electorate to be rid of Abbott forever.
I realise this is overly optimistic but surely there are enough intelligent people in Warringah who can put aside selfish greed for long enough to recognise that Abbott is leading us down a path to ruin.
To the people of Warringah, your vote is crucial. Enrol, turn up, cast a formal vote and direct your own preferences. The future of the Liberal Party and the country is in your hands.
PS To the member for Dickson, back off turkey! Gillian Triggs has more integrity in her toenail than the entire Cabinet put together. Your bullying only shows up your fear of an intelligent woman whose silence cannot be bought through bribes of job offers or threats of termination or piss weak intimidatory slurs by her intellectual inferiors based on what they have read in the Murdoch press. You, sir, are an ass.
47 comments
Login here Register here-
Margot -
Florence nee Fedup -
aravis1 -
Glenn -
Kaye Lee -
Dame Di Pearton (@peartonjohnson) -
Terry2 -
Kaye Lee -
Kaye Lee -
Terry2 -
Florence nee Fedup -
Keith -
Florence nee Fedup -
Kaye Lee -
diannaart -
Florence nee Fedup -
Kaye Lee -
Florence nee Fedup -
Dame Di Pearton (@peartonjohnson) -
Michael Taylor -
DanDark -
John Kelly -
Terry2 -
Keith -
Graham Houghton -
Möbius Ecko -
Di Pearton -
Andreas Bimba -
totaram -
crypt0 -
king1394 -
Kaye Lee -
Choppa -
Kaye Lee -
Möbius Ecko -
Kaye Lee -
PJS -
Di Pearton -
stephentardrew -
stephentardrew -
mars08 -
mars08 -
crypt0 -
Kaye Lee -
Dandark -
Keith -
Kaye Lee
Return to home pageHow do you solve a problem like Tony Abbott?
Elena Gabrielle
Does one agree with me, that the Human Rights Commission have a limited life. Will they go that far to get rid of her. I wonder if Abbott’s actions over the last few weeks could lead, or maybe should lead to a split in the Liberal Party.
The law community is coming in strongly behind her.
Time for decent Liberals to take back their party.
Inspired idea, Kaye! I’d do anything within my powers to help in this endeavour. And it could be extended to all electorates belonging to MPs in the present Cabinet. I suspect most backbenchers are wanting only to keep their seats at this juncture.
I live in Tony’s electorate and it drives me nuts how many of my neighbors just blindly think it’s the Liberals that make the Northern Beaches great. I’m doing my bit to educate my neighbors. Has made for a few interesting dinner parties and BBQ’s. 🙂
I must be cursed because my home in Canada is in Harper’s electorate…….
Good onya Glenn. Perhaps we should sponsor your BBQs. Free booze accompanied by ideas for a better Australia – an evening on the northern beaches. I find it easy to solve the world’s problems after a champers or three.
Kaye, you’ve hit on an increasing problem in Australia, the increasing numbers of people not participating in our democracy. This is what Abbott and the LNP have counted on, and their policies are directly impacting, the disillusioned and disinterested. I think that in Australia we have been spoilt by good government, not necessarily great government, (I’m excepting Whitlam, and Swan’s GFC brilliance), but good enough, conservative enough that we could basically leave them to it, and enjoy a very nice lifestyle, thank you.
And then along came these vandals.
But I’m afraid Abbott is not the only creepy, crazy loon in the LNP village. Who would replace him?
I applaud Gillian Triggs for standing up to these thugs – many of us in her position would have buckled under and kept our heads below the parapet.
Ms Triggs cannot win this battle, those who oppose her so stridently are too powerful at the present time. She will, however win the moral victory and she deserves our support.
Di, that is the question. I am trying to think of a Coalition member that I respect. Sharman Stone has been impressive on occasion and she certainly fought hard for her electorate when she stood up to Abbott and Hockey over SPC Ardmona.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-04/nrn-lies-on-spc/5236284
Despite his involvement with ICAC, Arthur Sinodinis sometimes speaks sense (in a conservative kind of way) but can he be trusted?
Josh Frydenberg has sold out to the dark side and has become duplicitous in perpetuating the lies.
Anyone have any suggestions as to who has any integrity on the government benches?
Imagine if we had someone like Gillian Triggs as Speaker – no fear no favour and follow the rule of law.
I doubt she would waste her time on such an unconstructive fiasco – she is too busy making a real difference. Our politicians seem so petty in comparison. She is a true leader.
Kaye
Both Malcolm T and Julie B are still miles ahead of the incumbent !
(Now I’d better get my head below the parapet……I’m expecting enemy fire )
Terry2,I hope you are wrong. For Abbott to beat her, remover her, he would have to dismantle the Human Rights Commission, which I know he is capable of. Not sure the more level headed in his party would go along with him. We have the legal fraternity coming strongly behind the Commissioner today. Would be messy.
I have a feeling, Turnbull was genuine in his outburst. Even Brandis raised concerns, To no avail.
The truth is, we cannot afford to lose this one.
Article that is worth a read.
“But the most significant number is the two-party-preferred result, which has Labor leading 52 per cent to 48. Abbott believes that puts him on course to an election victory. He told journalists at his Easter drinks he would beat Shorten if he got the Coalition back to within four points. The prime minister is convinced his focus on national security, with a relentless ratcheting up of threat-level talk over the need to do even more draconian things to counter the danger, is the key to his success. This may go a long way to explaining why he was so bold as to try to railroad his cabinet on a contentious security policy two weeks ago. Designed to wedge Labor, it blew up spectacularly.
That miscalculation has exposed deep mistrust at the heart of the government. At the beginning of the week Abbott dismissed the detailed reporting of the cabinet revolt as “false”. By midweek, cabinet minister Ian Macfarlane described it as “very accurate”. Indeed, it’s clear there has been a ferocious campaign of tit-for-tat leaks designed to damage putative rivals. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was certainly not amused by The Sunday Telegraph suggesting she was out of touch with the backbench and left “high and dry”. A minister was quoted saying Bishop had a “complete glass jaw” ”
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2015/06/06/pm-tony-abbott-calls-out-the-cabinet-judases/14335128001964#.VXIoA2cw92E
Bowen has announced this morning he will reluctantly allow some tax cuts tied to CEF go through. He did raise concerns that it would mean less revenue.
Abbott believes he can win.
The member for Dickson is none other than Dutton, the Minister for Broken Arms.
“For Abbott, it may have already served its practical purpose. He has posed as “instinctively” tough on terrorism, tougher indeed than his leadership rivals. He has issued a veiled threat to cabinet ministers that leaking has “political and personal consequences”. He has rallied backbenchers around him and forced Labor to pre-emptively declare “in-principle” support for laws it is yet to see.
Talking terrorism makes Abbott feel secure and it’s a theme on which he will continue to focus. But he still has to deal with a deeply divided cabinet.
”
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2015/06/06/citizenship-stripping-and-abbotts-jihad-civil-rights/14335128001974#.VXIxpWcw92E
Could that deeply divided cabinet be a reflection of a deeply divided party?
Terry2,
My pet rabbit is miles ahead of the incumbent. Bishop presents well but when you scratch under the veneer she doesn’t have what it takes. I have lost respect for turnaround Turnbull with his capitulation on so many issues – carbon pricing, the NBN, metadata retention etc.
Less than a year before he took office Turnbull said…
“Without wanting to pre-empt the conclusions of the Parliamentary Committee, I must record my very grave misgivings about the (metadata retention) proposal,” Turnbull told the audience. “It seems to be heading in precisely the wrong direction. Surely as we reflect on the consequences of the digital shift from a default of forgetting to one of perpetual memory we should be seeking to restore as far as possible the individual’s right not simply to their privacy but to having the right to delete that which they have created in the same way as can be done in the analogue world.”
….some Liberal backbenchers are stridently opposed to the package, including Liberal MP Steve Ciobo, who has described as including tactics similar to those used by the Gestapo — the Nazi secret police.
Turnbull said out of the package’s many proposals (PDF), it was the data retention issue which was the most far-reaching, but “least clearly explained”. “Internet companies will apparently be required to store parts of everyone’s data, although there is no clarity as to which material will be kept or why,” said Turnbull.
“While the purported intent is that only metadata – data about data – will be available to law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies, there is no explanation of how metadata will be distinguished from data (the two are often commingled, as in the ‘subject’ line of emails), why both would not be readily available once a message has been handed over and decrypted, and indeed how readily in an IP world it is possible to keep a record of the time, date, size, sender, receiver and possibly subject of an email without also retaining the contents.”
Neither, said Turnbull, had there been any explanation given by the policy’s backers (principally the Attorney-General’s Department and law enforcement agencies) as to what costs and benefits have been estimated for what the Liberal MP said was a “sweeping and intrusive new power”, or how such costs and benefits were arrived at, what (if any) cost was ascribed to “its chilling effect on free speech”, and whether any gains in national security or law enforcement outcomes would be monitored and verified, should the proposal be enacted.
“The German Federal Constitutional Court has recently struck down a similar data retention law noting that “meta-data” may be used to draw conclusions about not simply the content of the messages, but the social and political affiliations, personal preferences, inclinations and weaknesses of the individual concerned,” said Turnbull.
“Leaving aside the central issue of the right to privacy, there are formidable practical objections. The carriers, including Telstra, have argued that the cost of complying with a new data retention regime would be very considerable with the consequence of higher charges for their customers.”
Turnbull is looking out for Turnbull
Thought I’d take a quick (admittedly) look at Warringah. What issues ails such a wealthy community? Perhaps a significant disparity between rich or poor – but that’s hardly news, it is the fault of poor people (sarcasm alert) not to find high paying work, after all.
What this shire does have are issues with road congestion (quelle surprise). This may well explain part of Abbott’s obsession with roads, but nothing will ever completely explain Tony Abbott. Even in the rarefied air of Warringah – Public Transport needs to be a significant part of the solution – but not if you are the Warringah Council, public transport gets passing mention in their Sustainable Transport Strategory 2013:
http://yoursaywarringah.com.au/sustainable-transport
Like many conservatives these days, the Shire of Warringah has difficulties with the meaning of ‘sustainable’. Now, If I was a Greens or even a Labor political hopeful, I would be using this situation for all its worth.
http://shoroc.com/public-transport-roads/
But then what do I know?
Keith, that little boy broke the two bones in his arm back in May. The two bones have not knitted. Looking at x-ray are inches a part, hanging in space. No chance healing even badly. The boy is in pain. First sending him to India. Dutton said the medical teams on the Island could handle it. The authorities there are asking for a medical team. Dutton seems reluctant to agree, saying they have the ability to deal with the boy. Would not be surprised, that Dutton has decided just a broken arm, mum and doctors over reacting. That it is only a scram to get to Australia.
That man with a small cut died on Manus because of similar reaction from this government.
A damn sight more than our Prime Minister for Infrastructure I would say dianna.
What Abbott needs in his electorate is bridges and public transport. Narrow peninsular that ends up at the harbour, Streamed over the Harbour Bridge and Tunnel. More roads not the answer.
Terry2 I don’t know about Malcolm T. I think that he has been an enormous disappointment, gutless and without conviction. I know I’m not the most objective person to discuss religion, but isn’t it just a little weird to convert to Catholicism?
Julie Bishop really is the stand-out for the LNP. I can’t stand her, but then, would I like any conservative MP? I don’t even…….
A HUGE disappointment. Maybe we expected too much of him. When he first appeared on the scene he was quite a moderate and this appealed to most Labor voters. It was often suggested that he could easily be mistaken for a Labor politician. But then, and quickly too, the typical Liberal characteristic emerged – around about the time of the election.
Since the election he has been noticeably gutless. It’s obvious that his ideals differ from Abbott’s, but he seems to be under Abbott’s spell.
You can tell Dutton is an ex cop, he speaks like a thug and acts like one, a leopard dosnt change its spots
Once a cop always a cop, they think they are above the law like Dutton the half baked piece of old mutton,
He hates smart, educated, articulate women.
the old dudster is as dumb as dog shit, when someone knocks someone down publicly to boost their own selves, ego or actions it’s a sign of a very insecure weak dumb male.
Perhaps a road sign hoarding in Warringah displaying his big gawky smile with a caption that reads,
“Only idiots vote for idiots”.
“Have we thought about the consequences of pushing people back to our neighbours Indonesia? Is it any wonder that Indonesia will not engage with us on other issues we care about like the death penalty?”
Gillian Triggs has dared to speak the truth and the Abbott acolytes are enraged.
I wonder how many of us were disturbed when the Indonesian President refused to take the phone calls of our Prime Minister at a time when the lives of two young men were hanging in the balance. I wonder how many of us thought this boat turnback policy without Indonesian consent or agreement is fouling our diplomatic channels : I know I did.
I dips me lid to you Ms Triggs
Yes, Florence, I’m very aware that the young boy broke his arm some time ago with no proper medical attention accorded to him.
If an Australian parent were to treat their child in such a way they would be in front of a Magistrate. Totally reprehensible and neglectful.
Thing is, he’s there illegally but no one has the guts to do anything about it. Goodbye Australia.
Totally reprehensible and neglectful.
Yes Keith, it was and the government should be held to account for it. It’s child abuse on their behalf plain and simple and I’m glad you agree with that.
I can’t help but think that there will be enormous consequences (as there should be) for our behaviour regarding refugees, as there are for our illegal invasion of Iraq. The resultant destabilisation of the region is one of the causes of the refugee ‘problem’. It saddens me that the ALP seems happy to ‘me too’ on this issue, and someone like Senator Hanson-Young attracts so much hatred for representing the Green’s position, which is the position of many many on the Labor left, that I talk to at any rate.
I feel as if, if the ALP came up with a compassionate alternative, many Australian voters might see a difference between the ALP and LNP? I’m not saying that there isn’t a wide chasm separating the two major parties, but that the average voter does not see it.
A multi party system that has a political party for each segment of our diverse society. For example green left, green right, progressive, left pro business, right pro business, rural left, rural right, labour left, labour right, right wing nutter, left wing nutter etc. These parties then coalesce and negotiate coalition governments on ideological lines after each election. Proportional representation voting is necessary however so that small parties are fairly represented in all lower houses of parliament. The Tasmanian Hare-Clark system is probably best.
Totally agree that those not registered on the electoral role should be seeked out.
The mass media owners and the money men (loobyists) that have corrupted the major political parties, Liberal, National and the ALP are a major problem and these organisations should be exposed and boycotted by the citizens that they have disenfranchised from our democratic process.
Andreas Bimba:”The mass media owners and the money men (loobyists) that have corrupted the major political parties,”
That is precisely why getting rid of Tony Abbot will not solve anything. We got rid of John Howard and the liberal party emerged more right wing than before. Even labor is filled with people who have swallowed the neo-liberal economics Kool-Aid :Deficits= bad, surplus= good, without regard to whether the economy is running at full capacity or whether it is a state budget or a federal one. We are in deep trouble.
“who has any integrity on the government benches?”
I can’t nominate one …
If there were such an individual , they sure won’t be found on the front bench.
And if they had the temerity to speak out like someone with integrity, they would be silenced and un-endorsed
before you could say “abbott’s an Olympic class liar.”
Regardless, it’s not just abbott, it’s the whole damn lot of them.
Look at how John Howard lost Benelong. He upset a lot of his (multi-cultural) constituency. He was getting old (68 I think in 2007) and it was well past time for him to retire. There was not a lot of faith that he would see out the term and might well resign halfway through, leading to a by-election. He also had disappointed plenty of the locals with policies such as Work Choices. He was only holding the seat by a small margin. He was opposed by a very high profile candidate in Maxine McKew.
Abbot’s hold on Warringah is still strong. The seat has never had other than a Conservative member (since 1922). Abbot won pre-selection for the seat after the sitting member (McKellar) resigned. The nearest Abbot has come to losing the seat was back in 2001 when Peter McDonald, formerly the independent member for Manly came within 6%.The people of Warringah have tolerated MPs with scandals including McKellar, who was famed for benefiting from an overseas trip by bringing in a colour TV without the proper paperwork – he served a further twelve years as local member, and Edward St John, who caused the resignation of Sir John Gorton from the Prime Ministership
Short of a scandal enveloping Abbot causing him to resign, the best hope for toppling him from Warringah would be the emergence of another Liberal with greater popularity (unlikely) or an opponent with a very high profile and reputation, such as a Mayor from a large local council area. Perhaps a campaign such as the one led by Cathy McGowan in Indi, which saw the defeat of Sophie Mirabella would also be effective
WANTED
A person of integrity who has some vision about the future of Warringah, Australia, and the world.
A high-profile would be desirable but not essential.
Hurry someone
Many thanks
Sincerely,
Jane and Michael Banks
(Hey it worked for them)
This looks an absurd analysis of votes. How did you exactly come up with these numbers Kaye Lee? If going by who voted who no. 1 – abbot had 61% of the votes, Labor had 19% and the greens 15% (or a total of 34%). After preferences – Abbot had 65%, Labor had 35%. So preferences barely helped Labor/greens, but had the Libs going up.
So “only” 91% of the people turned up to see Abbott win 61% of the votes vs Labor’s 19%. Only 60% turned up to Ireland’s gay marriage vote and only 60% voted yes. It’s all relevant.
The numbers came from here Choppa
http://results.aec.gov.au/17496/Website/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-17496-151.htm
After preferences Abbott won by 27,421 votes. If the 15,000 or so eligible voters who didn’t cast a valid vote all voted progressive (unlikely I know) then that margin is reduced to about 12,000. If the 4,000 who didn’t put Tony as their first choice preferenced Labor in front of Liberal that makes a diff of 8,000 (4 off Tony and 4 to Labor). That leaves us with 4,000 margin and we only have to convince half of them to change their vote.
That’s where the numbers came from. I am not suggesting this is likely to happen but personally I cannot understand how anyone could vote for this turkey and we have seen with both Howard and Newman that it is possible. It would be a good way for the Liberal party to get rid of him without having to have a leadership spill.
There’s always hope of an incumbent Party or member spill no matter how entrenched. Alberta in Canada proved that by ousting a 44 year well entrenched conservative party in a landslide. Here the ousting of a conservative government with a massive majority in the Newman government also illustrates this, and that was despite a considerable media campaign against Labor and for the LNP.
It seems it takes a Labor party imploding along with a massive media anti-Labor/pro-Liberal campaign to oust them, but there are no voters more feral than those who turn against the Liberals who have let them down.
“A US think tank has labelled Prime Minister Tony Abbott “shockingly incompetent”, comparing him with “unhinged” leaders like North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
An article written by the Council of Foreign Relations titled Tony Abbott Has To Go posed the question: “is he the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy”.
Council of Foreign Relations southeast Asia fellow Joshua Kurlantzick said Mr Abbott was “incapable of clear policy thinking” and “also looked completely baffled on climate change issues”.
“Abbott’s policies have been all over the map, and the lack of coherence has often made the prime minister seem ill-informed and incapable of understanding complex policy issues,” Mr Kurlantzick wrote.
“Abbott has offered mixed public messages about some of the health care reforms that were at the centre of his agenda, and sometimes has seemed unsure himself of what health legislation has actually been passed on his watch.”
“There are world leaders who appear dangerously unhinged, making policy based on whims, advice from a tiny handful of advisers, or some other highly unscientific formula. Argentina’s president, Christina Fernandez de Kirchner, comes to mind, as does Ecuador President Rafael Correa, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, or Russia’s Vladimir Putin. But none of these leaders run a rich and powerful democracy.”
Mr Kurlantzick criticised Mr Abbott for his decision to knight Prince Philip and cutting ABC funding after promising not to do so.
He compared Mr Abbott with leaders like US President Barack Obama and French President Francoise Hollande, despite being unpopular, have proven to be effective leaders and policy-makers.
“A country that for decades has punched above its weight on nearly every international issue surely can do much better for a prime minister than Tony Abbott,” he wrote.”
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2015/02/12/incompetent-leader-industrialised-world/
The vast majority of non-Indigenous Australians take their enormously privileged lifestyle for granted, with the conservatives taking the further step of an unshakeable belief that they have the right to lord it over others and make draconian decisions that extend their personal privilege, no matter what negative results flow on to the wider community. Believing that you have the right to make such overreaching judgements and decisions about how others live their lives is specifically defined as Fascism. Since his election Abbott has continually espoused policy that can only be described as socially retarded. Anyone who would vote for such a narrow minded, self-obsessed, intellectually bankrupt, loud-mouth bully and moral coward confirms their alignment with ideas and attitudes that can best be described as archaic bigotry. That such a blatant racist and fool can become Prime Minister is a sad inditement of our entire nation.
PJS- a great piece of writing. Can I quote you on FB please?
In the long run the focus needs to be on the whole party because they have all been complicit in this madness and should not be allowed to avoid responsibility. I fear Labor’s approach of waiting for Abbott to self-destruct is a very bad strategy.
Our problem is supply side neo-conservative economics and an underlying ideology based upon magical and mythical thinking which needs to be attacked front on. As noted Howard was thrown out only for the conservatives to become even more right-wing dictatorial supporters of inequity and injustice.
Not many are hearing the left simply because Labor is no longer the left so we need to keep on keeping on and attack the doyens of social injustice and rampant oligarchic greed.
For heavens sake the environment is in serious trouble while these idiots maintain a political framework that should have changed thirty years ago to avoid the mess we are in now.
Obama has certainly been a failure as another two corrupt powerful dynasties wait in the wings to be gifted the Presidency.
Meanwhile a decent person like Bernie Sanders has to struggle with financing his bid while competing against the money machine of the elites.
Meanwhile Australians live in ignorance of the seriousness of the failures of our political system.
Don’t kid yourselves progressives are in for the fight of their lives in making the whole political establishment responsible for decades of failure. Yet left and right want more of the same with a few tweaks to make it appear like we are progressing.
A society with a death wish born of brute ignorance and rampant greed.
There is some sort of twisted thinking and parallels between Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize and our Chief Loony giving a Knighthood to Phil the Dill in hope of a return favour.
The symbolism of Obama’s peace prize cannot be overstated nor the groveling of Abbot to be awarded a knighthood which is equally dystopian.
The thing is this madness is an attempt by the privileged to re-wright the future and avoid criticism for blatant nepotism through servitude to the powers that be.
These guys are not trying to re-wright the past but to shape the future in their own image.
Good old Orwell knew a thing or two.
PJS:
I totally agree. These days Australians are, in general, a spoilt, distracted, self-absorbed bunch. But, good grief… try putting that opinion out in a public forum…. and you will get massacred!
@stephentardrew…. oh… so “blatant nepotism”, you say…. “a political framework that should have changed thirty years ago”, you say… empty “symbolism” you say… uncaring wealthy “elites”, you say… what gives you that idea?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-harry/11652874/Queen-gives-Prince-Harry-a-knighthood.html
…vast majority of non-Indigenous Australians take their enormously privileged lifestyle for granted… and … try putting that opinion out in a public forum…. and you will get massacred!
No doubt about that … you have grievously insulted about 47% – 50% of the Australian population for a start … the real figure is obviously much higher … as in vast majority.
There is a selfishness in this country that wasn’t there when I was a kid. My memories are of finding food left outside the door by a kind neighbour, kids from poor families putting a few cents into the charity collection at school each week, those knights in shining armour who always stopped when your car had broken down, everyone pitching in to help at working bees, and a basic honesty about contributing what you could. Maybe I didn’t know rich people?
These things still go on at a community level but global corporations and governments seem to have forgotten that they are there to serve society rather than the other way round. Helping those who are less fortunate is very rewarding. As the Buddhists say, one small act of kindness reverberates around the world. The rampant greed of the rich is being reflected in a society who is being encouraged to look out for number one and bugger the rest of you.
There are two types of people in the world, contributors and contaminators, lovers and haters, givers and takers,
there are no shades of grey.
This has always been the case, I remember selfish people when I was a kid there were plenty around, but they have over the decades been given the power by politicians for the politicians, multi corporates, big business, big coal the media and others to be able to rule with this mentality that they are better people, they know all and how dare anyone question their Selfishness/Greed….
We are also generating more narcissists than ever, and they tend to rise to the top like Phony Tony and his band of crooks…
When Howard was PM there was a leaked document published in the Liberal “journal” in relation to conspicuous conscience, or something similar. It condemned those who have a sense of justice and sanctioned the mean spirited actions of the conservatives. A few times I have tried to google the actual article but had only come up with newspaper interpretations.
I think it can now be said that some COALition Parliamentarians have become ferral.
Since voting 45 years ago, in my opinion, there has never been a more ugly and incompetent “government”.
The attacks on Gillian Triggs by that Dutton illustrate my above comments.
Has the young lad had proper treatment for his broken arm yet? How have the allegations of sexual assault been dealt with at the Concentration Camps, or have they been swept under the carpet?
AUSTRALIAN entrepreneur Dick Smith says he is considering running against Tony Abbott at the next federal election.
“I am thinking of having a go in Tony Abbott’s seat, mainly to communicate that when you’re a government and you say you are going to do things you have to do them,” Mr Smith told ABC radio.
Mr Smith, who was awarded the 1986 Australian of the Year award, also raised concerns over the current debate around stripping citizenship from those suspected of terrorism activity.
“I think we’ve gone a bit berserk,” Mr Smith said.
He said the number of people who would die from terrorism activity was much less than those who would die in a car accident and so the issue needed to be deflated.
Mr Smith also weighed into the same-sex marriage debate and called for an end to the “pathetic political strutting” on the issue.
“I just turn off with the pathetic political strutting,” Mr Smith said.
“I wish the prime minister would just do it. Show some leadership and get on with it.”
http://www.news.com.au/national/dick-smith-says-he-is-considering-running-against-tony-abbott-at-the-next-election/story-fncynjr2-1227387738646