Nuclear Energy: A Layperson's Dilemma

In 2013, I wrote a piece titled, "Climate Change: A layperson's Dilemma"…

The Australian Defence Formula: Spend! Spend! Spend!

The skin toasted Australian Minister of Defence, Richard Marles, who resembles, with…

Religious violence

By Bert Hetebry   Having worked for many years with a diverse number of…

Can you afford to travel to work?

UNSW Media Release Australia’s rising cost of living is squeezing household budgets, and…

A Ghost in the Machine

By James Moore   The only feature not mentioned was drool. On his second day…

Faulty Assurances: The Judicial Torture of Assange Continues

Only this month, the near comatose US President, Joe Biden, made a…

Spiderwoman finally leaving town

By Frances Goold Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has…

New research explores why young women in Australia…

Despite growing momentum to increase female representation in Australia’s national parliament, it…

«
»
Facebook

Known problems

Spokesmodel Christian Porter has been all over the airwaves announcing the government’s latest…ummm…announcement, which is that they want everyone else to sort out the “known problems” in industrial relations and to do so, they will form not one, not two, but five new “working groups” to come up with recommendations to add to the kazillion other ignored recommendations from countless previous reviews and inquiries and reports.

Unlike during the Accord, the government is not offering anything.  In fact, they are, in advance, very much limiting what the “known problems” up for discussion are.

We won’t be discussing the minimum wage or the superannuation guarantee.  We won’t be discussing the level of Newstart or the cutting of penalty rates.  And we most definitely will not be considering sustainability in the “Jobmaker” discussion.

The task that ScottyFromMarketing has given the face of the latest advertising campaign is to, in Porter’s own words, “have a product come out of every working group.”

“…the product may in some instances be legislative, it may be budgetary, it may be a policy product, but whatever product there is, the purpose of the working groups is to try and garner as much agreement around that product as possible.”

And just in case you didn’t get the message of what these committees will do, Porter repeated the latest slogan over and over during his interview with Leigh Sales.

“They’re designed to deal with specific known problems in the system”

“There are known problems inside the system”

“What we’re concerned about is known problems”

“What we do have here is a known set of problems”

“why would we not try and limit ourselves to solving known problems”

The trouble with this approach is that the government gets to decide which problems to ignore.

Slogans like “technology not taxation” are not action.  They are not even a plan for action.  And they aren’t even true.

Spokesmodel Angus Taylor, whilst spouting his three-word script, is also pushing to spend taxation dollars propping up an expansion of fossil fuels.  Even the very expensive Snowy 2.0 is to be powered by fossil fuels.  The hydrogen industry will be powered by fossil fuels.  The gas industry will be ramped despite that being the major source of rising emissions in this country.

At some stage today, the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources are obliged to publish the December quarter emissions figures.  Bushfire emissions will not be included but reductions due to the drought will be.  Not that we should be “setting our hair on fire about climate change and all the rest of it” as whatsisname, the Deputy PM, chided recently.

Meanwhile, the Senate inquiry into the recent catastrophic fires is hearing how the “known problem” of a potential disaster was ignored by the government.  Current fire chiefs are gagged from linking bushfires to climate change.  Limit what they can say and you limit your response to areas that are more politically advantageous.  It’s not fossil fuels causing climate change, it’s greenies stopping hazard reduction burning and wholesale land clearing.  And those hundreds of arsonists.

When you employ the gas industry to suggest a road map for the future, you aren’t trying to solve a “known problem” – you are looking for affirmation of the irresponsible abrogation of our responsibility to tackle global heating.

When the pandemic hit, we listened to the medical experts and took action.  Sure, they have formed countless committees, but they didn’t push decisions down the road six months until the committee published their findings.

We have thousands of reviews and reports and recommendations.  We know what the problems are and how to go about fixing them.  And it certainly is not by creating more committees to produce more reports telling you what you want to hear and coming up with more slogans to announce.

The greatest “known problem” in this country is that we are run by ScottyFromMarketing and his inept band of backup vocals.

Like what we do at The AIMN?

You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.

Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!

Donate Button

47 comments

Login here Register here
  1. John OCallaghan

    Their next announcement will be Donald Rumsfeld’s “knowns and unknowns speech” …wait for it! …..

  2. pierre wilkinson

    I think we can all agree what the “known problems” are….
    it is just how can we vote them out?

  3. Phil Pryor

    Porter is a leading conservative political poltroon drenched in superstition and unable to comprehend normal ethics, morals, decency, behaviour, culture, probably law, certainly fairness. Untrustworthy supremacists have no outside relationship, being fully self seduced in righteousness, triumphal calls, attitude, saved, blessed, anointed, superior, even if leached by shitheadedness through and through. From the P M down they know they are right (often far outside adolf) so the rest of us can get stuffed, which is their real policy. Offering the ring to donors, or the nought to naughty nudgers is always the path for ambitious political perverts who need to rise up through a career path. Preferments, enrichments, these are the goals and we, the people may be victims, yet again. Callous C—s.

  4. Baby Jewels

    Known problems and expected, known outcomes. Another big con.

  5. Robin Alexander

    Totally Agree with Phil Pryor remarks myself have totally distrust him in man to me he seems like man etched in stone!cold eyes untrustworthy motives his revealing change to 137 laws that have stood us well for decades WHY & WHICH ones? 37 cannot be rescinded! You can bet he will be busy doing much more of this I believe for more total control of us! Opportune time no sitting Parliament only few days for “urgent” bills?Labor has fought won for reopening 2weeks JULY?is that it then until early September!after sitting only 60days over last 2 years personally believe if possible try shut down sitting in Parliament!Porter recently stated “sitting in Parliament waste of my time”?our Attorney General?Finance minister Corman stated Dec 2019″we don’t really need a PARLIAMENT?” This after last day sittings & gov tried passing without OPPOSITION SIGHTING THE BILLS?caused great furore! During noise ALBO SAID “This is a TOTALITARIAN government” never truer word said!all this year during this crises shutting down 9months?free to make all decisions never consulting labor at all making new rules laws after all Labor represents near 50per cent population voters? They most certainly do have a plan they are working towards myself think our constitution laws should be watched with Porter? & above type Government is exactly what they desire! PM 7/8top ministers all devout followers Hillsong money Cult read their beliefs Importantly AGENDA? CONTROL of govenments is one!how lucky they have PM devout follower? PLEASE BE aware everyone? They are all are untrustworthy!

  6. Gangey1959

    It’s almost Pythonesque.
    “Hey Bert. This bloke won’t haggle…..”

    Except that in coming up with a list of “known problems” that are/are not up for discussion whilst ignoring the things that are blindingly obvious our wondrous minister for IR is missing the point entirely.
    Pay rates ?… “No”
    Super ?……….”No”
    Workplace safety?…”Ummmmm. No. It costs too much, and we can’t compete. Look what it did to the car industry”
    Foreign workers?… Ooohh. Yes please. We’ll have some of them.
    Environmental protections?…. “Tea anyone?”
    Apprentices and Trade Training …….”No. Don’t need them. We have the foreign workers. Anything else ? OK. That’s all right then. Everyone can get back to making me look like I know what I’m on about.” Now where is that voldemurdoch reporter so that I can make the 6.00pm news with a “job done” story.

  7. Lawrence S. Roberts

    The powers that be want to use virus19 as a watershed moment before we do. As an aid to transparency the five I.R.groupings should be televised or whatever the latest technology is. We demand some input !

  8. Sully of Tuross Head

    How about we have an award, named, The John Howard Medal, for the most inane, repetitious LNP Ministerial slogan.
    My nominee is David Littleproud for his use of the slogan “work through, calmly and methodically” 7 times in a 5-minute Press Conference about China restricting our barley exports.
    My favourite repeated endlessly slogan from the little master of the slogan, John Howard, was when he had to make changes to his original GST Legislation to get the rat leader of The Australian Democrats, Meg Lees, on board to vote it through The Senate.
    John gave us “Fine tuning at the peripheral” to explain his back downs. Classic.

  9. Jack Cade

    How about a John Howard Memorial Urinal? With a Tony Abbott water closet adjacent?

  10. Jack sprat

    We have the best politicians that money can buy .

  11. Florence

    Why is AG Porter in charge? Why isn’t HM Hunter part of National Cabinet? So many whys.

  12. New England Cocky

    “The greatest “known problem” in this country is that we are run by ScottyFromMarketing and his inept band of backup vocals.”

    Memorial urinal only for the drowning of the namesake. Same for the water closet.

  13. Ray Tinkler

    I’ll make a prediction. If this lot are not trounced at the next election, by the one following that (and I wouldn’t be too sure that would occur either), Australia will no longer be a democracy, afterward. Think it can’t happen? Did you ever think what is happening now, could ever have happened either?

  14. Matters Not

    Once upon a time, there was a PM named Kevin Rudd who had polling numbers to die for – political capital oozing from every pore – but he didn’t use it. Content to let it evaporate and thus missed many chances. Now he has plenty of ‘if onlys’ and a mountain of regrets. Then there’s Scott Morrison who also developed a deep reservoir of trust, good will, power and influence despite a very shaky start due to bush fires followed by a woeful judgement response. But as Katharine Murphy points out:

    Morrison was determined to learn from his own deficiencies during the summer crisis. He wanted to do a better job with coronavirus than he had done with the bushfires, and this was a high bar to set, because the nine governments of Australia could have easily been overwhelmed by the pandemic, as other governments were.

    What this shows us is Morrison can learn. …

    Yes! And one thing Morrison has learned is that one must strike when the metaphorical iron is hot. Don’t let the chance go by. And so it is is with industrial relations. The union movement is at an historical low ebb. The tide is well and truly out despite the best efforts of Sally McManus and Michele O’Neil who are now completely on the back foot. Do they have anything other than white flags in their kit bags – because threats of industrial action at this moment in time are off the table? Morrison is a very good politician! Seems he will be there for a very long time.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=political+capital&oq=political+capital&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.6376j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

  15. ajogrady

    Christian Poerter is seduced by his own cunning and a victim of his own known knowns.

  16. DrakeN

    Maybe, just maybe, it is more a case of the system itself being the problem.
    A system which had its origins in creating benefits for the already wealthy in their pursuits of continued efforts in increasing their wealth and priviledge at the expense of the general public.
    If Dr Jennifer Wilson does actually get her hands on the GG – Betty Windsor of Britain correspondence, as the high court has decided that she should, and actually get the MSM to publish the results, then some spark might be introduced into the mind dulling rounds of incessant lying snd subterfuge.

  17. leefe

    Product? Five separate overpaid pseudo-Think Tanks to come up with more meaningless slogans? It’s not like they will be presenting ideas for future policy, because the IPA has already set out the LNP’s agenda.
    It’s just another sleight-of-height rort.

  18. Michael Taylor

    Breaking: RoboDebt has been cancelled. All debts are to be waived and money returned to those that had paid their ‘debt’. ✊✊

  19. Wam

    Haha this equals your usual insight oops your pre-known samples of the known problems which will require the bipartisanship of the government and business. This will form the block against any departure from the known union behaviour and guarantee that the future will squeeze out unions, and as an adjunct, destroy another known local government.
    The big two will provoke the unions and the split will bolster the new-work choices movement to take to an election.
    The week before the election boobby will arise and labor will wake up
    ps have I missed the indignation at the insult of labor party being left out??
    pps
    notice we are being punished for having elected two labor members and a labor senator.

    Wowed, Michael, another disgusting failure. How about getting some indue money back for the cashless card fiasco?

  20. Matters Not

    Morrison is on a roll. And will ensure he plays the leading role.

    The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) will be scrapped and replaced with National Cabinet meetings with a specific focus on creating jobs, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced. … “COAG is no more,” Scott Morrison said. … “It will be replaced by a completely new system.”

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-29/coag-scrapped-national-cabinet-here-to-say-coronavirus-update/12300636

    Certainly his ambition is on display for all to see. And who will object? After all – how many knew what COAG was all about in the first place. COAG’s List of Achievements included …. ? Only Paul Keating will have regrets.

  21. Vikingduk

    Michael, at a cost of $721 million. The gold urinal goes to . . . And then we find when the Australian Faux Police investigate dodgy dealings of politicians they don’t go after the phone records, in contempt of parliament they maintain. How convenient. We’ll never know how complicit was the screech who walks in the tip-off of the AWU raids. That stench, ah yes, the foulness of lnp corruption. No pay cuts for these traitorous scum, the smirking jerk maintains they continue to do a good job, worth every shekel and more. Who needs democracy, not us, we quite happy to live our lives in the hope a different pack of turds will be elected, thus taking us to a land of milk and honey.

    Is that the future? The liar from the shire and his good buddy president Wun Dum-Fuc re-elected? A demented deadbeat and a sanctimonious jerk hell bent down fascist road. What surprises does nature have in store? Hopefully sufficient to stop this destruction by us forsaken humans. Politics won’t sort this shit out, we are too far down the road of ecosystem collapse, wild fires kicked off again in the arctic along with unbelievable temperature increases.

    Well we’ve had a go, a good go at destroying anything worthwhile, trash the planet, trash each other. And now we’ll get a go alright. Global warming will give us a go, a run for the money, a good slap, will it be enough to wake us? Probably not. The virus is more immediate, the deaths right there for all to see, take the science as truth, yet climate change seems so distant to most, or not real. It is here and now, time to wake the foock up. And do what?

  22. Michael Taylor

    Vikingduk, another cost to add onto this is the wasted money forked out to collection agencies.

    Which reminds me of a secret I must tell you: when Howard was PM ASIO was selling the names of people who couldn’t found by collection agencies … to those agencies. 😡

  23. Michael Taylor

    MN, scrapping COAG is a bit of a worry. COAG included the state governments, whereas National Cabinets – as we have seen – are an ‘invite only’ gathering. More power to Morrison.

  24. Terence Mills

    I must have missed the bit about Stuart Robert resigning over the Robodebt cockup !

  25. calculus witherspoon.

    What a fearful trio of mules, Frydenburg, Porter and Angus Taylor.

    God, I loath preppies.

    as for imbeciles like Morrison, Dutton and Robert, no, the less said the better.

  26. Paul Davis

    With regard to Robodebt repayment announcement by Stuart Robert today….. Their ABC program The Drum was graced by the presence of that geriatric pillock Kathryn Greiner who launched into an amazing apology on behalf of Robert, claiming that the public servants working for Centrelink were totally responsible for the false debts and the ‘misinformation’ given to the minister who was a blameless patsy in this whole debacle. She totally rejected Fanning’s suggestion that Robodebt was politicised by the government.

  27. Sully of Tuross Head

    Paul, as a regular viewer of The Drum, I can say it has been a safe haven for Liberal Party has-beens and wanna-bees since its inception and I have been complaining about the bias to the Liberal and National Party on the nightly panel since its inception.
    Every bloody night, we have the likes of the tax payer fattened pig Amanda Vanstone, and other mouthpieces, aided by the hosts and Murdoch maggots and IPA type think tank sewer dwellers on to defend every indefensible action of this Government.
    I have replies from The Drum denying bias and stating they have a pool of around 50 guests they draw from. I have repeatedly asked how many are connected to the Liberal Party but that goes unanswered.
    Having given up on complaining officially to The Drum, I now post every night on their FB page when the guest list is revealed and there, sure enough is some smirking born to rule fool from the Liberal Party who knows bugger all about the night’s topics.
    The Drum is a Disgrace, always has been, long before Little News Corp spiv David Spears turned Insider’s into a Sunday morning recovery session for Murdoch drunks recovering from a heavy Saturday night on the turps.

  28. Harry Lime

    Vikingduk,I don’t care what you say, or how you say it,you say it exactly as I’d like to say it.I’m already IN.
    I’m going out in the courtyard for a cigar..if not a stiff joint.

  29. Harry Lime

    Michael Taylor, anyone who thinks that the Liar has seen the light,still puts their tooth in a glass of water.

  30. Jack Cade

    The ABC now has no credible political commentary. All programmes with a political content contain guests from the Liberal gene pool or the Murdoch swamp. We still have Four Corners but the only unfettered programme is Media Watch. 15 minutes per week is no sop to neocon critics.
    I now scour Youtube for political comment. George Galloway, Rachel Maddow, The Young Turks, and occasionally Morning Joe.

  31. Harry Lime

    Jack Cade , With the bowl an image of his simian mouth?

  32. Harry Lime

    Paul Davis,the Murdochisiation of Aunty continues.No need to look further than the Land of the Rich, Home of the Rest.

  33. Michael Taylor

    Harry, I’ll be expecting my six pence to be in the glass in the morning.

    I won’t be able to sleep with all this excitement.

  34. Kaye Lee

    The Senate passed an order in 2018 that requires the minister to publish the quarterly greenhouse gas emissions data no later than five months after the end of each quarter. For the December quarter that date is 31 May. It hasn’t been published yet. Unless they intend to release it over the weekend, Angus Taylor will have yet again missed the deadline.

    “This is a pretty unambiguous Senate order. It’s not something he gets to choose …he’s the minister and it’s his job,”

  35. Ray Tinkler

    Michael Taylor

    MN, scrapping COAG is a bit of a worry. COAG included the state governments, whereas National Cabinets – as we have seen – are an ‘invite only’ gathering. More power to Morrison.

    Not just more power to Morrison. To paraphrase, One small step for a PM (seemingly)’ one giant leap for a wanna’be dictator. I share your concern. I remember Morrison’s words on setting up this bunch, according to him. It was that they would come to him and say, “Mr prime Minister, this is what we want you to do”. Of course, that was a lie too.

  36. andy56

    Vikingduck, the thing that sticks in my throat were the words of a RIO tinto guy who said: we take our realationship with the indigenous seriously”. Who the f*ck is this lying shitster? He’s just blown away the cover of Tinto being a responsible player. Just looking after their own interests. If the indigenous want a spear throwing competition in the board room, i will support them.

  37. andy56

    As for the scrapping of COAG and replaced by a singularly focused group is surely kicking the can down the road. This will not last long and then every year we will be back to budget woes. Coag was a useful tool for uniting the country, sure it met occasionaly, but that was something that could be fixed. This shit, is one dimensional and i can already hear the shit fight starting.
    These guys should seriously stop drinking what ever it is that they drink. Its a set up for failure. The government is hell bent on pushing its IPA agenda, one way or another.

  38. Ray Tinkler

    Matters Not

    “Morrison is a very good politician! Seems he will be there for a very long time.”

    My firm beliefs also. Although there is a proviso, for his other beliefs are what “aspirates” him. So..anything he can do here to speed up the process of his ascension to a place of high position in that place he sees himself being in will look good on his CV for it. The hastening of climate change’s devastation will fit the bill nicely, thankyou.

  39. Keith

    Do nothing or little about climate change and the LNP “known problems” are meaningless.
    Almost 40 years ago scientists working for Exxon predicted by 2030 global temperature would be 1.5C over pre-Industrial times.
    Till so far the projection has been quite accurate.
    Most countries are not reaching the Paris promises; but, the USA, Australia and Brazil are considered the worst offenders.

    Children find it very hard to learn vicariously; the LNP and to a lesser extent the ALP, are not taking notice of what is happening overseas.
    If unprecedented events happened once or twice then people can be forgiven for not taking account of those. But, there are continual reports of extreme events being recorded in the non-Murdoch press overseas.

    There are no excuses for decision makers not to take climate change into account, renewables won’t necessarily slow climate change completely, though they do potentially buy time.

    Recent studies on ocean currents, and the warmth of oceans providing an environment for stronger storms in the Pacific and Atlantic are not comforting. Ocean warmth is felt to be hitting populations of phytoplankton, which then has an impact on krill, and further up the marine food chain. These matters being discussed in recent reports.

  40. Kaye Lee

    At some point after my last comment at 8:33 last night, they released the latest emissions data.

    “Australia’s annual emissions for the year to December 2019 are estimated to be 532.5 Mt CO2 -e. This figure is 2.4 per cent below emissions in the year to June 2000 (545.4 Mt CO2 -e)”

    Our promise was to reduce emissions by 5% below 2000 levels. We didn’t even get half way there.

  41. Matters Not

    KL. sometimes they use June (financial year) and sometimes they use December (calendar year), but regardless, the attention of the citizenry is elsewhere – on what is perceived to be more pressing matters. Might help explain why many miners vote as they do. Hungry mouths are very much today’s problem – with the future seen as a luxury for the future. And it’s unlikely to change in the immediate. Such is life!

  42. Kaye Lee

    From memory, our emissions reduction commitment was by June 2020. The economy shutdown will have helped but they don’t count emissions from bushfires and they didn’t do any drought revisions of the claimed net sink from the LULUCF sector. It would be very interesting to visit all those sites that have been paid a motza to supposedly plant trees.

  43. Kronomex

    Yay! A new two word slogan from the LNP, “Known Problems.”

  44. Ray Tinkler

    Kronomex

    And the subliminal message is that Unions and Labor are the “Known Problems”.

  45. DrakeN

    Ray Tinkler – everything which impedes their progress toward greater wealth and priviledge is, for them, a problem whether known or not.

  46. calculus witherspoon.

    Re other comments, The Drum has deteriorated rapidly since Buttrose.

    Last night’s was abysmal…nothing on ROBOdebt and other serious issues, just a platform for the hideous Muppet’s wife to spin lies into truth.

    So sad, Fanning’s deterioration also, although I suppose she can’t do much about the scripting and direction.

  47. New England Cocky

    @Ray Tinkler: The “Known Problems” are Barnyard Joke and Gussie Grasslands Taylor …..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page