As a companion piece to Rossleigh’s excellent article, I thought it might be useful to have a closer look at our Social Services Minister, Kevin Andrews.
As a backbencher, Andrews authored the Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996 to overrule Northern Territory legislation that legalised euthanasia (the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995).
Andrews also called for an end to trials of the RU-486 drug and voted against a bill that took away the Health Minister’s power to veto applications to allow the drug to be used.
In taking a stance against stem cell research in 2002, he stated that it was the “first time” that “human beings can be treated as a commodity.” He also took a stance against stem cell research during a debate in 2006, which resulted in the overturning of a previous ban on the research.
As the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, he was responsible for introducing the Howard Government’s major changes to industrial relations law in 2005, commonly known as WorkChoices.
Andrews is a member of the Lyons Forum, a socially conservative Christian faction within the Coalition. He has served as the Forum Secretary and is credited with suggesting the name for the faction.
As Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Andrews attracted controversy after he revoked on character grounds the visa of Dr Mohamed Haneef, who had been granted bail on charges of aiding terrorists. After the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped all charges against Haneef, Andrews refused calls to reinstate Haneef’s visa, stating that his personal evidence was still valid. Andrews’ justification of his decision, on the basis that he had a reasonable suspicion that Haneef had associated with suspected terrorists and therefore failed the test of good character that a person must pass to keep a visa, was rejected in the Federal Court, and the revocation of Haneef’s visa was overturned. However in November, e-mails released under the Freedom of Information act appeared to indicate that Andrews’ office had a plan to revoke the visa before the case went to court, in the case that bail was granted.
Following Andrews’ criticism of irregularities discovered in the CV of an Indian doctor working on the Gold Coast, various media organisations carried reports disputing Andrews’ claim on parliamentary and ministerial websites to have co-authored three books, having contributed only a chapter to each. Andrews argued in his own defence that:
“In common, everyday parlance, as one of the authors (of a chapter) I presumed you called yourself a co-author – that’s all I’ve simply done. I wasn’t aware, to be frank, of some publishing convention that someone’s referred to (that suggests otherwise). If that offends people’s sensibilities well so be it, basically.”
Andrews’ 2007 decision to cut Australia’s refugee intake from African nations was branded by some critics as “racist”, and pulling out the race card before the 2007 Australian Federal election. Andrews defended the decision, saying: “Some groups don’t seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope.” Andrews accused Sudanese refugees of fighting in bars and congregating in parks to drink alcoholic beverages, but did not provide statistics to back up his claims.
In 2009, Kevin Andrews declared his candidacy against Malcolm Turnbull in a vote for a leadership spill, in opposition to Turnbull’s support for the government’s emissions trading scheme. He had declared himself a climate change sceptic, saying that ‘the jury is still out’ on human contributions to global warming. The party room however voted down having a leadership spill 41 votes to 35 and the Andrews challenge did not eventuate. After continued leadership speculation, a second Party Room meeting was held, at which point the leadership was declared vacant. Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and Malcolm Turnbull all stood for the leadership, and Tony Abbott was ultimately successful. Following his election as Leader, Abbott promoted Andrews to the Shadow Cabinet as Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services.
A member of the Catholic Pontifical Council for the Laity, Andrews is an Adjunct Lecturer in Politics and in Marriage Education in the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne.
Andrews is an advisor to the Board of Life Decisions International (LDI), a (non-denominational) religious pro-life group that is primarily concerned with opposing the pro-choice Planned Parenthood organisation. LDI campaigns for chastity, boycotts corporations and names individual celebrities who support abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic stem cell experimentation or who, in their opinion, support sexual promiscuity. These include GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Time Warner and Disney.
Andrews made a speech to the Endeavour Forum on 9 April 2003, a group focusing on women’s issues, opposing abortion, equal opportunity and affirmative action.
He has also spoken at the Family Council of Victoria, an organisation which regards homosexuality as the manifestation of a psychiatric disorder. The Family Council of Victoria also opposes sex-education and anti-homophobia policies in public schools, which it claims is “pro-homosexual indoctrination” of students.
In 2011, as a Liberal Shadow Cabinet frontbencher Andrews published a critique of the Greens policy agenda for Quadrant Magazine in which he wrote that the Australian Greens’ “objective involves a radical transformation of the culture that underpins Western civilisation” and that their agenda would threaten the “Judeo-Christian/Enlightenment synthesis that upholds the individual” as well as “the economic system that has resulted in the creation of wealth and prosperity for the most people in human history.”
In December 2013, as Social Services Minister, Andrews introduced to the House of Representatives a bill repealing almost all of the gambling harm-minimisation measures passed by the Gillard Labor government in November 2012.
“This is a straight capitulation to the power of the pokies lobby,” says Tim Costello, chair of the Australian Churches’ Gambling Taskforce.
When Australia is recognised as having perhaps the worst gambling problem in the world, with 41 per cent of poker machine revenue coming from problem gamblers, one must wonder about Andrew’s motivation. Could it have something to do with the sudden upsurge in gambling-industry donations to Australia’s major parties, which coincided with a deal between independent MP Andrew Wilkie and then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard?
Fittingly, Andrews’ amendment will also change the name of the law passed in 2012 – from the National Gambling Reform Act, to the National Gambling Measures Act. For now, meaningful gambling reform is quite literally off parliament’s books.
Andrews is a member of the Credlin-led decision-making Star Chamber which includes federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane – Ms Credlin’s husband – along with John Howard’s former chief of staff, Tony Nutt, and minister Michael Ronaldson.
He also has his gun sights set on the ABC. Speaking at Canberra airport on his way to a cabinet meeting, the Social Services Minister said that in a robust democracy, the media should be scrutinised as much as anybody else. ”I think the ABC should be open to constructive criticism about its performance as it would be about the performance of other people and other institutions in Australia,” he said. ”What goes around comes around.”
We then hear from our Social Services minister that the nation’s welfare system is “unsustainable” and large, urgent changes must be made to the disability pension and the general unemployment benefit.
He said the government was reviewing all welfare rules to see what could be done to decrease the number of unemployed on the dole, including the possibility of eliminating the ability of those on welfare to refuse to take a job if it was more than 90 minutes from their home and keep their income support payments.
Mr Andrews has already revealed the government is looking at changes that would see more people under the age of 40 on the DSP checked to see whether they could work and temporary payments for potentially impermanent conditions to prevent the number of those in the system from ballooning to one million.
Under Mr Andrews’ mooted change, disability pensioners who were assessed by their family doctors – before Labor tightened the system in 2011 – would be re-examined by medical experts at the Department of Human Services.
The minister is also considering giving a fixed higher payment for the most disabled pensioners, with lower payments for people with less restrictive disabilities, who might be able to work part time.
Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said the Abbott government was “punishing some of the most vulnerable people in society” by tightening checks on the disability pension.
Regarding the minister’s idea to reassess recipients, Mr Innes said: “To effectively move the test back a few years, it just seems a cruel way of penalising people who’ve been in receipt of a benefit. Introducing a quarterly or six-monthly check is just adding more complexity both for the Centrelink system and for people with disabilities,” he said.
Andrews is pushing the idea that pensioners suffering “episodic” illnesses such as depression should be given monthly or quarterly medical certificates rather than getting two-year “set and forget” pensions. This idea, he said, was particularly important given there were now more disability pensioners suffering from psychological conditions than suffering musculoskeletal problems.
Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie said she would support any measures by the government to “invest” in disability pensioners to help them return to the workforce.
But she was concerned that subjecting disability pensioners to more regular assessments could end up “exacerbating their mental health condition”.
“We don’t have a welfare crisis in this area, we have a jobs crisis,” Dr Goldie said. “We all want to work on decent reforms which will improve people’s pathways back to being well and getting paid work.”
Despite the financial crisis that apparently makes it necessary for us to send people suffering from depression ‘down pit’, Mr Andrews was able to find $20 million for marriage guidance counselling vouchers. This of course has nothing to do with the fact that he and his wife are/were involved in the marriage counselling business.
I have tried to remain factual in this snapshot biography of our Social Services Minister but hells, bells and cockle shells, it would be hard to find someone less suitable for the job.
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You have not even scratched the surface, I am afraid.
No doubt Fed up. The trouble is, my articles tend to turn into epics so I have to stop myself from rambling on sooner or later. What do you say about a homophobic racist Christian that panders to the gambling industry while denying women and terminally ill people choice, and insisting that people with disabilities are frauds and unemployed people are bludgers.
Thankyou for a most comprehensive article on this extreme conservative who now seems to have as much power, if not more, than when he had portfolios in the, Howard Government.
And this is the best Australia can throw up to lead us into the 21st C. What a miserable bunch of mean spirited wowsers. Never felt ashamed to be Australian before. The Convicts and their guards on the first fleet had more generosity of spirit
he’s a religious fanatic, just like abbortt, pyne, hockey, the 2 bishops, and on and on and on. the royal commission into child abuse would not have gotten off the ground if this lot of sicko’s were in power.
KL …he’s not a homophobic Xtian… he’s a homophobic Catholic …..whose interpretations of his saviour’s dictum, “Love one another…” show just how conflicted, repressed and faithfully wide-of-the-mark he is.
I can only imagine the sort of unsure, pursed-lipped, frowning immature types who would approach this quality of person for marriage counselling.
My view untainted as it is by xtianity is the ministry would have originally been an excellent candidate for abortion under choice legislation and now he is a great candidate for euthanasia.
Thoughts anyone?
I fail to understand why a government (regardless of it’s propaganda spin on “un-sustainability”) would treat it’s own citizens with such disregard and disrespect. People cannot help their disabilities; some disabilities make gaining employment difficult, especially if speed in “productivity” is a benchmark by which employers measure their capital gains.
As much as Australia wants to be seen as tackling disability in the most intelligent way possible, it lacks a “real” understanding and a real empathy of the issues suffered by people with disabilities; let alone get a job. This government has NO heart!
There are many reasons why Christians may go into politics. However, I’ve never heard any of them decide to leave because what they’ve been asked to do offends their Christian principles.
Including breaking that commandment about false witness…
It incenses me that this sort of rubbish be proposed in the same week as a Premier resigns for being on the periphery of corruption and a month after the revelation that his colleague Sinodinis was to take twenty million dollars for wrecking NSW essential infrastructure, consorting with gangsters behind closed doors.
I must be going mad.
Mr Opus Dei, The Minister for Dr Haneef. I think he is a nutcase in a cabinet full of nutcases.
” LDI campaigns for chastity, boycotts corporations and names individual celebrities who support abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic stem cell experimentation or who, in their opinion, support sexual promiscuity. ”
May I put my hand up and my name down as one of these ‘dreadful’ people?
I shall proudly give my full (real) name and address and even phone number to be counted amongst those who these Lowest common Denominator Idiots ( LDI) want to ‘boycott’ and ‘viify’.
I support a woman’s right to choose. I want the right to choose when I shuffle off. I believe in Medical Science and want all kinds of diseases and disabilities wiped off the face of the earth with the help of embryonic stem cell research and I support the ‘try before you buy’ ( safely…condoms freely given) maxim.
That little black haired Catholic Duck is a shitty person who doesn’t have the right to hold my foot let alone a position in MY parliament.
abbie,
I consider myself a tolerant person. But this lot are really pissing me off. I have people for whom I have NO respect making laws that restrict the choices I can make about my own life. Who the HELL do they think they are. F* off indeed! My father died in my arms. I wish I could have helped make it easier for him.
Over the years I have come to detest this heartless bureaucrat of the Catholic hypocrisy. That such vileness is acceptable to any religion is appalling. Any church worth its salt would have shown Andrews the door. His lack of compassion demonstrates a dislocation between facts and his hide bound political and economic prejudices. Everything he touches is, in his mind, corrupt and inefficient as he considers himself the purveyor of all wisdom. Justice that’s for left wing socialist wimps. Saving the rich money; decrying science; screwing the atmosphere; denying choice to the those who are suffering intolerable futures: using the disabled as slave labour and unemployed as political pawns now that’s a good Christian calling.
Where the hell do they find these emotionally eviscerated fools.
Andrews? One more underachieving cretin using the power gifted him to disrupt and devastate the lives of the weak and defenceless. He sits surrounded by other petty minded, overpaid, self seekers spreading his pathetic amoral embrace over anyone who falls within his purview. Disgusting individual.
I’m pretty smart. My husband is even smarter, and more educated. But neither of us understand what “Judeo-Christian/Enlightenment synthesis that upholds the individual,” means? I’m thinking he’s trying to skirt around declaring that Australian Greens are “commies”?
This is a scary description; made so much worse by the fact that he currently has some power over people’s lives.
Reblogged this on contriteshadow.
Yes, it is not good, when ones love ones die, and you can only feel relief. Relief that the suffering is over
I think previous commentators have said it all. I cannot believe how awful this Government is, driven by right-wing ideology , neanderthals as far as science goes regarding climate change, scientifically illiterate at a time when we need to transition into a green economy, which by the way, will create lots of wealth and jobs. Not taking money out of C.S.I.R.O. and having a science minister would help too. Andrews is a creature of a past reality – we need a D.D. asap.
Kevin Andrews a great case for long term mental health institutionalization.
“Judeo-Christian/Enlightenment synthesis ”
Do some Googling. You will be shocked. Nothing to do with religion or reality. Came out of the far right in the USA. Not good at all.
Kevin Andrews: Darth Vader reincarnated. The black hole which sucks up and destroys compassion, tolerance and love of humanity. How he calls himself a “Christian” is beyond me as his actions are totally unchristian.
Its so scary that People like this are running (Ruining ) our Country , There is not one Member of the Cabinet that can be called a Decent Person, If there is really a God then Please Big fella send down a Few Bolts of Lightening
The biggest danger to good honest citizens in Australia are Abbott, Andrews et al. I have a belief that everybody deserves respect except for those who are corrupt, those that lie, or those that try to con us. The Abbott gang are an insult to Christianity, they have set themselves up as Robin Hoods in reverse, they are the Pharisees of our time .The parable of the good Samaritan and the beatitudes have been taken out of their Bibles. Some of them have forgotten the Commandment “9. You shall not bear false witness “
My brother ruined his life through a gambling addiction to poker machines. He stole from work and lost the job he had had for almost 30 years, his wife divorced him and his children lost all respect for him. He used his superannuation to pay back what he had stolen. He then spiralled down into deep depression and became suicidal. To have a Social Services Minister beholden to the gambling industry is just beyond belief. It seems obvious that this jerk has NO life experience and NO empathy for the people he is supposed to be caring for and NO morals that he isn’t willing to sell for a hefty donation.
Just needs the moustache.
lolololol now THAT made me laugh! “I’ve come to clean ze pool” was what occurred to me rather than sieg heil.
What a nasty piece of work !
I never realized that this man had such an abysmal track record : all very depressing.
Stephen Tardrew:
Sure this government sounds a bit nasty when you put it like that… Ah, but hey… they DID stop those sleazy asylum seekers, didn’t day? Saved our magnificent Australian way of life, they did!
I have nothing to add to this amazingly fair article and the apt comments that follow other than to wonder how it is that he has won his seat again and again and again. Why do people vote for him? What will it take to replace him?
Terry,
That’s what sites like this are all about in my opinion. I used to find this stuff out and then harass everyone I knew with it. I felt like that guy in a doco I watched who knows a lot of Aboriginal history, though that’s pretentious of me…his knowledge was actually very important and he and his brother were perhaps the only living people who knew it.. But to a degree the feeling is the same – you need to tell someone. Everything I write in these stories is easily findable for anyone who has the time to look. That is why I sit here in total bemusement that Tony Abbott is my PM.
Yes, Mars 08.
There is NOTHING about this government that doesn’t smack of medieval brutality, ignorance and arrogance.
The picture at the top of this article… I noticed he’s wearing an Aussie flag lapel pin. Made me realise that ANZAC day is almost here.
For quite some time, I’ve not been keen on the chest-thumping and self-congratulation that gushes out on that day. I think this year I’ll watch a few DVDs and stay indoors.
what? No beers at dawn followed by a BBQ at Cronulla in the true Judeo-Christian way?
My father fought in WW2. He never went to a march but he definitely downed a few beers. My great-uncle is buried in France. Don’t let others’ need for display make you forget what they endured.
Just to underline a few salient points…
We now have a quota of 1 million for disabled people. Those of you who become disabled after our quota is reached will presumably be offered a holiday on a pacific island. We have some vacancies and we don’t want to waste the services of those nice men that we have already paid to look after you.
For those of you who do make the cut, you think red tape was bad? try ultra-violet! There will be more paperwork than the human eye can cope with but I’m sure you will find some nice leftie to help you with that.
And as for you whingers who think travelling 4 hours a day and paying 10% of your wage to do it is unreasonable then get a private jet and claim it on your entitlements like REAL hard workers do!
Kevin Andrews – The Rinse of Darkness.
Seems like they have it all pretty well tied up haven’t they?.But really,to think there is an ounce of compassion/christianity in K Andrews one would be stupid.He is a manipulating heathen using his position to force Lib.dog eat dog ideology.
Over at our blog, he has been given the ironic nickname of “Chuckles” because he’s never been known to smile or laugh. it is quite an achievement to make Uriah Heep or Ebennezer Scrooge seem charismatic in comparison.
Possibly he could have some redeeming qualities beyond trying to make life more miserable for the powerless, but so far he has kept them very well hidden.
Kaye Lee, I’m not in the ‘praising’ business, but this chronology is truly remarkable.
You ought to be congratulated.
I agree with you on all points, MN.
Guys, if I was some sort of investigative journalist braving the trenches to bring you breaking news I could accept your praise but I am a middle-aged woman sitting here in her jammies googling away when the books don’t balance. I’ve found if I do something else for half hour I suddenly get an epiphany that makes the figures add up. My family and friends say I have an elephant memory so I just remember where to find stuff and just pass it on. The information is freely available to anyone with the time and interest to look.
Kevin Andrews is yet another fabulous display of Christian love. Ugh.
Kaye, but you are doing what the mainstream media is too lazy to do.
I’m shocked! Blown away! I thought you were a ‘girl’.
Just jokin …
Have to agree with michael taylor & others. You have done a marvellous job. I find myself repeating “yes” in my head when I read your work. The factual history of this man (and Abbott) should be sufficient to disqualify them from such important positions in Australian society.
‘It was the “first time” that “human beings can be treated as a commodity”.’ Maybe Mr Andrews should go back and re-read his Old Testament and count the number of references to slavery so he can see just how long human beings have been treating other human beings as commodities to buy and sell.
MN,
If the Coalition keep moving the goal posts on what is considered old then I may end up a girl again.
Good point ReB.
Actually capitalism is built on the commodity of an ill-informed docile labour force. Keep em in debt, take away any protection, and keep those profits rolling.
Amazing intellectual flexibility – a man who was so closely involved in WorkChoices has the nerve to criticise stem cell research because it makes humans “a commodity”.
I’m all for euthanasia … lets start at the top of the LNP and work down ….. and don’t forget ‘madam speaker’ ..she can go too
Kaye Lee, your reply to Mars 08: you forgot the commemorative footy match afterwards..
Just caught Hobo Sapiens.. comment of the thread.
You have to hand it to our Triple A Prime Minister.
When it comes to choosing Ministers who are guaranteed to give us nightmares Abbott wins all prizes!
A friend recently told me that LNP really stands for the ‘Lasting Nightmare Party’.
Kaye Lee you are sitting on top of my cloning list along with Margo Kingston of No Fibs”
Kaye, thanks for all you hard work in putting together your fine articles, 😎 you put our so called MSN journalists to shame! 🙂
When all’s said and done though, he’s just another incompetent (Albeit one of worst), in a cabinet/party full of incompetents! 😯
Keep up the fine work 😀
Cheers 😀
paul walter:
Oh…another typical bleeding-heart, latte-sipping, tree-hugging, muddle-headed, socialist, basket-weaving, bleeding-heart, dole-bludging, deficit-loving, freedom-hating, hippie, leftie!!!
As George Brandis has clearly explained…. it is you and your sort who are the “medieval” and “ignorant” ones.
Ashamed to be Australian.
It feels very much as though the lunatics are in charge of the asylum I cannot recall a government doing so much to disadvantage the disadvantaged in my living memory. These religious goons are hell bent on driving poor people into the sea.
Thank Christ for that.
Oops Mars comment, Not Townsville who’s contention I agree with.
Wow thanks for that, I didn’t know half of this. Thank goodness we have people like you to expose people like this, well done.
Mars08 – as Elbert Hubbard has clearly explained, “If you can’t answer a man’s arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.”
And they all wonder why Australians have turned away from organised religion.
Christianity has long had an extremely ugly side to it and has been used to control groups of people, especially those with less power. Those Christians who are so quick to condemn Islam really need to take a long, careful look in their own backyards. In a way I am pleased that Australians are getting to see that Christianity is not the good standing up to Islam’s evil.
My father used to say most people can stand adversity but if you really want to test a person’s character give them power. The LNP front bench is comprised of selfish, greedy, nasty, despicable poor excuses of humanity, rotten to the core.
Down with science, restrict education to the wealthy (comprised largely of their own kind). They don’t want anyone seeing through their strategy.
I wanted to add my voice in praise of Kaye Lee and her patient, determined and indomitable spirit and brilliant memory.
“…. because we think work is the best form of welfare.” Kevin bloody Andrews from Ross Leigh’s piece.
It struck me in the eyes! Where have I seen something like that before…where is that a reworked quote? Why is that familiar and sends a shiver down my spine?
Oooooooo….Now I know! It was on a gate somewhere, wasn’t it?
Please allow me to join in on the praise.
Actually Arbeit macht frei was placed on many concentration camp gates, not just Auschwitz I.
Worth a read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeit_macht_frei
Just about every Government has one or two characters who cause us to be uncomfortable and suspicious. They have a sort of sinister creepiness about them that’s hard to precisely quantify. But there’s usually only one or two of them and they don’t necessarily reflect on the Government as a whole. The trouble with this Government is that it doesn’t just have one or two, it is replete with them. Abbott, Andrews, Morrison, Pyne, Brandis, the Bishops. Then there’s the Hunts and the Turnbulls, men who, under the sinister influence of those others have essentially turned their backs on what they know and who they are. It’s like a political version of Day of the Triffids or something.
Policies aside, on a personal, human level, there’s nothing whatever about this Government that makes one feel the least bit comfortable. Not one thing. That’s pretty scary.
Thanks @ Matters Not.
I referred to the quote/phrase. I did not mention one particular gate. I thought I didn’t need to. I am well aware of its history.
I asked my man if I was drawing too long a bow. He didn’t think so but thought the mere hint of the evocation of THAT part of history may be my downfall. He being disabled I felt it was worth the chance. I shall always stand up for him and his fellow DSP recipients…for it is in Medicine and Science that we find his ability to live, not by the concept of ‘work’ that Bloody Andrews invokes.
Sometimes just surviving is hard ‘work’ enough, believe me.
I agree Dan. Like you, my husband gets annoyed if I am too partisan. He said you need to be balanced and not just hate on Tony Abbott. The trouble is I cannot find one single thing where I can say “well at least they….”. The only ‘success’ they have had is in “stop the boats”. The consequences of that success are horrific. Not only are we not helping refugees, we are committing human rights abuses and earning ourselves a very bad reputation globally. The only balance I can come up with is to share my hate around the whole cabinet. The minister for education wants to cut funding and go back to rote learning. The minister for health wants to cut services and slowly dismantle our health care system. The minister for immigration wants to close our borders to anyone needing our help. The minister for social services wants to remove restrictions on gambling and send the disabled out to work. The minister for the environment wants more coal mining. The minister for communications wants to stop the NBN and cut funding to the national broadcaster. The assistant minister for health wants to stop labelling on junk food. The Attorney General wants to defend bigots while impeding the course of justice in an International Court. Our foreign minister has worked her way through offending every country that isn’t Japan or the US though even they have disagreed with some of her statements. Our Speaker is the most bias impediment to parliament this country has ever seen. It just goes on and on with every day bringing new announcements of how we can make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Kaye Lee,
Oh, hell yes. This is the amazing thing about them (so far), amazing and scary at the same time – they literally have no redeeming feature. Quite literally, not one. Yes, of course that’s a judgement made from our progressive perspective and it’s therefore highly biased, but gee whiz this mob do suck the big one. Fair dinkum. As much as I detested the Howard Government, it wasn’t nearly this bad. I really disliked his Government, perhaps even hated it, but I didn’t necessarily have feelings of fear or suspicion in relation to it. This is different. This Government and its personnel are not just unlikable, they are actually scary. Who the hell wants to live with that sort of emotional relationship to their Government? Not me, but I guess I’m going to have to get used to it.
So many FRWNJ’s so little time. Kaye lee, I thought do I really need to view what emerges when you drag this Andrews from under his rock into the daylight to check his vitals? Dangerous work, these components of the Abbottoir are renown for their high-pitched squeals if disturbed – you could’ve been deafened KL – we all could!
Kevin Andrews possibly encompasses every trait of the righteous Catholic politician. This article is a timely reminder that our Federal Government does not have an occasional nut-job to entertain and keep comedians in work, it is a breeding ground for the most bigoted collection of bullies since Howard. I was such a innocent back in the Howard years, I thought when he and his cabinet were so decisively dismissed, I would never see its like again. Although, nagging at the back of my mind was the thought that not all of the Howard acolytes went with their leader. They hung around, there were no politicians able to come forward, for example there are actually a lot of female Liberals quite capable… well, we know what Abbott had to say about that, no chance of any moderate Liberals – we now know that ‘merit’ does not include a moderate political stance – it is an outright outrage temperament preferably including spittle or the doors to the party-room remain firmly closed.
Therefore, Reason has limped across the hall to the Labor party room, knocking tentatively, no-one is listening.
dianna,
Judi Moylan was a Liberal Senator for whom I had a great deal of respect. Sadly she is retiring and we have to put up with the likes of Michaelia Cash who apparently has sufficient merit to be “The Assistant Minister for Woman” as the sign on her office door said. Prerequisites for the job – a passing knowledge of Shakespeare with a delivery that did indeed include flying spittle and distended veins, and tits to make up for the fact that the Minister has none.
A very similar thing happened in the US. With the first Obama victory, the neocons who infested Bush’s government crawled back under their rocks and remained silent. Obama’s administration did nothing to expose them to public scrutiny. Time passed, memories faded and, in recent months, they’ve reestablished their influence in Washington DC.
Great post as usual Kaye. You really hit the nail on the head with the last line.
Reblogged this on polyfeministix and commented:
What do you call a man who is against anything to do with welfare and social services in Australia? Why the Minister for Social Services of course!
Unfortunately, I believe our way of life has to become particularly bad before a significant number of Australians lose their apathy towards political matters and start demanding better service from their politicians. It has been said that we get the government we deserve.
Can anyone recall the percentage of Australians who decide who will get their vote only after they have arrived at the polling booth? I cannot find the answer but I seem to recall the percentage was disturbingly high.
The day before the last SA state election I was sitting on a bus and the young man sitting next to me was proudly telling his mate that he had voted a couple of days earlier. His goal was to get in and out as quickly as possible, so he cast a donkey vote for the lower house and placed a 1 above the line for the upper house. I felt like thumping him. He and others like him are making a decision on who is going to run the state or the country and they cannot be bothered voting responsibly. They are so quick to give up their power to the people who do not deserve it.
What a disgusting man! I knew he was bad but did not know the full extent of his evil activities. Thanks for the information. He is indeed “Kevin bloody Andrews”
Christian hey? So, you are saying Jesus is a pro-gambling, anti-refugee type who thinks we should stop helping the old and disabled? I think I must have been away that day when I went to Sunday School.
Such hypocrisy, I’m not sure if I want to cry or vomit.
Kaye:
Great Article and comments. Hit the ball out of the park again Kaye.
How the hell do we get you into the mainstream?
Stephen, rather than losing Kaye to the MSM I’d rather that more of their readers came here. 🙂
Michael
Point taken Michael you do us a great service and far be it for me to interfere.
I am a dedicated fan.
Nothing surprising in this well researched article. Andrews is a sick man. One of a number of seriously ill people. He’s been this way for a long time. I’ve written to him many times advising he seek psychiatric help but the hard thing is to get him to admit that he’s a perverted and sick human being in need of help. Once he accepts his deranged condition then help can be applied. There are too many of his ilk supporting each other in the denial of their state of mind for any self examination to take place. A sorry state of affairs which is continued by the support these people find in the electorates that they represent.
Back at ya, Stephen. You are a respected contributor.
You are 100% entitled to praise you receive,I suppose it’s another way to say thank you.And,while at it I would like to personally say thank you very much.Thanks to your memory and/or research,I figure both,I have learn’t much I never would have found out about.Cheers Kaye and thanks again.
Kaye, enjoy your work, however, Judi Moylan was a Member of the House of Representatives – the Member for Pearce, WA. Christian Porter replaced Judi Moylan in September 2013. Porter was apparently once described in the following way – put a wig on him and you just get another Julie Bishop. Michaelia Cash is a WA Senator and you have described her to a tee.
While we’re talking about opening up to a bigger Australian public it may be worthwhile some of the very talented and informed AIMN contributors to consider the DRUM http://www.abc.net.au/news/thedrum/contribute/guide/.
A missive published on the Drum could bring more readers to AIMN : swings and roundabouts.
The Drum is so beholden to right-wing extremists form the IPA I’ve long given-up on it. It used to be good a long time ago, but in the supposed been to promote “balance”, they have given way too much space to the likes of Chris Berg and the Neo-Liberalists constantly pushing their agenda.
There are a handful of solid contrinutors like Greg Jericho and Peter Wicks, but they are forever being shouted-down by Abbott supporters and their insane ideologies.
The comments section is also peopled with dozens of paid trolls and right-wing lunatics.
Better to have more people come here.
We think Kevin Andrews is bad now. However, we’ll be in even more trouble if he decides to take a leaf out of Iain Duncan Smith’s book. IDS, as he’s known there, is Kevin Andrews’ counterpart in the UK, in the Department for Work and Pensions. Under his rule, terminally ill people have been forced back to work, or have their benefits cut. The scheme was administered by a company called Atos, and 1300 sick people died after being forced back into work.
Kaye Lee…….I have reblogged your comment at 11:37am here:
https://www.facebook.com/TheAbbottoir?ref=hl
It is to truthful not to share…………….hope that’s Ok?
Of course xiaoecho. The whole point is to spread the word. We have 2 years and 5 months to educate, motivate, and interest people. I should have included the Infrastructure musketeers Tony, Warren and Jamie with their roads to nowhere and who could forget Barnaby’s dams, is that the Chattanooga choo choo
Rezenebe,
Thanks for the correction re Judi Moylan. She is a loss to parliament and I thank her for her service and courage.
Great article, Andrews pure idiocy. Sadly many Australian politicians don’t have too much going for them. Maybe that’s why they’re in politics because they wouldn’t qualify for any other work!
I’ve often wondered who wins the prize for the nastiest throwback (from the standpoint of morality and human decency) to be produced by the Liberal Party, and during Kevin Andrews’ relentless victimisation of Dr Haneef leant heavily towards Andrews as the winner. Kaye Lee’s thoroughgoing reminder of everything that is misanthropic about this guy – and the tyrannical cesspit from which he chose to draw his hatred of humanity − has placed him decisively in the lead. So much so that it would be a very useful chore indeed to build the chronicle of Kevin Andrews into a well-referenced booklet (he’s not significant enough to rate a book) and to see that the word is spread through his electorate.
The picture of Mr Andrews is not complete without taking account (as Ms Lee has) of his part in the Roman mafia which is poisoning the social and political life of Australia through its hold on the Abbott-Pell government as it has poisoned world history throughout the 1700 years since it was cobbled together in a deal stitched up by the tyrant Constantine in return for playing a part in an authoritarian imperium.
Budget scarcity is a lie in the face of an order made with taxpayers’ money for 58 F35 strike fighters from the Yank military-industrial complex at $125 million dollars each (and an extra $22.5 million each if they’re to have engines in them) to play a part in the next US colonial war (and the next and the next and the next. . .) when any government that put Australia first would let the Yanks pay for and fight their own Project for the New American Century.
Reblogged this on The Grovely Gazette.
Like the asylum seeker folly, this is another policy decision which Labor simply CANNOT criticise. This foolishness predates the current mob.
Kevin Andrews is one sick individual,but he is not the worst,how would you like to live in the same street where 7 out of 10 households voted for him. Now thats scary.””
In further consideration of the issue of the F35 strike fighters I do not think there is a case for zipping our lips on the ground that Labor pollies betrayed Australia in signing on to the deal. Most Australian Labor and Liberal pollies are notorious worldwide for being honorary Yanks. A wander though Google demonstrates growing pressure on governments to pull out of the deal, and Hockey can’t be let off the hook for preaching “austerity” (liarspeak for impoverishment) to millions of Australians who desperately need the money – while carefully guarding some $12 billion contribution to US dreams of “full spectrum dominance” of other people’s homelands.
PS: May ! add my unstinted admiration of Ms Lee for bringing us such a wealth of assiduously collected and clearly expressed information on the challenging moral crisis into which bogans have thoughtlessly voted our country.
Interesting to hear Joe Hockey complain about Centrelink’s computer systems yesterday. That the government will need to spend Millions or Billions on upgrading the system. Callers to this radio station were commenting on being on hold for sometimes over an hour waiting to speak to someone from Centrelink and in one case someone was a waiting for over 4 hours. Now this will happen if you do not have enough staff to man the phones. “Attention Earthlings “ This will be another step towards The Tony Abbott’s Conservative governments Final Solution 1984 project”. Full Control. Warning!Warning!
This seemingly Innocuous comment by Hockey is CODE for Big Brother type state of the art computer systems that will know what you had for breakfast type matching surveillance control. This government is pure evil.
The Queen really believes she is on the throne because God put her there.
No, Henry The VIII wanted to swap one wife for another, the Pope would not allow it. So he made his own religion and made himself the high mucky muck!
He began to use pirates to pillage the Spanish treasures and called them privateers. His daughter chartered equivalent of today’s corporations, those
Chartered bodies raped India and duly paid Royalties to keep everything legal.
The Yanks kicked them out and we ended up getting the role of penal colony.
These Royals are part of the system used to exploit Australian minerals because ‘God’ also gave them ownership of everything 6 inches under the surface.
Rio Tinto and all the other corporations just pay the ‘good old Royalties’ and everything is OK. They can even have a Prime Minister dumped for daring to tax them when they made “super taxes”, while at the same time Australian taxpayers pay the excise on their Diesel fuel to the tune of $ 100 Billion.
So the Queen is making Shmucks of us “by the The Grace of God”.
Are you still bending over Australia?
Republic anyone?
Corporations live forever, never eat, rely on humans to think and act for them, (or pretend to look after their interests), corporations cannot sign a treaty or write a cheque.
Yet because of some legal trickery happened when an ex Senator Roscoe Conkling, lied to the Supreme Court in 1886 that the intent of the drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment to give citizenship to black male slaves, was also meant to apply to Corporations. By the 1930’s his notes of the drafting committee, from the time just after the civil war were studied in detail, and his perjury was exposed.
However the horse had bolted and the corporation law change tsunami, had brought on the great depression and the Personhood of corporations (not citizenship) based on a lie, and fruit from a poisoned tree was treated with wilful blindness, by those that benefited by this fraud on an unsuspecting world. We still pretend that corporations are people, and allow them to rule the world like some alien invasion of robots.
It is the pirates and the pirate-like operating philosophies of those who are directors who manipulate the system enabling them to rip the wealth of the world via corporate coffers into their own pockets, in violation of the duty of care they owe the the corporation they are meant to represent. It is this culture, that will ultimately bring us all to the next great recession and bloody revolution, or the rise once more, of fascism.
We can refuse to accept this corporate madness or move our families to a safe place before the next wave of human madness (note the Arab Spring uprisings against oppression itself) overtakes us.
Roscoe Conkling Drunkard, Womaniser , Perjurer and Senator.
Died in a blizzard in New York, drunk as a Skunk!!
An interesting, albeit inaccurate lesson in history, SirJohn. You seem to have missed the section of British history for the period 1642-1651 – a little ruckus called the English Civil War – and the 1701 Act of Settlement. I’m pretty sure the Queen would have been well and truly taught about both, and especially the latter and would be well aware that she rules by the grace of Parliament, not ‘because God put her there’.
Whether Roscoe Conkling lied in 1886 about the intent of the Fourteenth Amendment or not makes absolutely no difference to life in Australia, because the Fourteenth Amendment was a change to the AMERICAN Constitution; in 1886 Australia didn’t even have a constitution to amend.
“Privateers” were private individuals who employed others and pillaged from anyone, not just the Spanish but the English as well. It just happened to be the case that during Henry VIII’s time, there were more Spanish carrying more wealth in boats than most other nations, so they were the hardest hit.
Corporations exist to enable groups of people (shareholders) to conduct enterprises on a scale too large to be managed successfully by an individual. Some corporations conduct mining enterprises, paying the Government a fee to allow them to do so (‘royalties’ – you at least got the origins of that term almost right). It is simple greed and self-centredness that drives directors and CEOs to divert the corporation’s earnings from their rightful owners – the shareholders – into their own pockets in the form of obscene salaries and ‘performance bonuses’.
Quite how this greed will bring about a ‘bloody revolution’ or a ‘wave of human madness’ you are yet to explain.
Take pity on me. He’s my local member. I’m searching for a high profile, baggage free, vote winning, local candidate that could stand for the seat of Menzies and be able to attract 15000 votes away from Andrews, come second on the primary count and gain Labor preferences to finish first on the 2PP. It’s a huge challenge, but if Cathy McGowan could do it in a safe seat like Indi, why not Menzies.