Labor are losing their nerve

October 10, 2019
Written by: Kaye Lee
62 Replies

Image from smh.com.au (Illustration by John Shakespeare)

When the Coalition under Malcolm Turnbull won 76 seats in the 2016 election, it was generally accepted that Turnbull had “blown it” and the knives were quickly sharpened. Yet when the ad man wins 77 seats, he is hailed as a messiah that has delivered a decisive victory enabling the Coalition to do whatever they damn well please.

Let’s be clear about that election result.

Leaving out Queensland, in the rest of the country, Labor won 62 seats compared to the Coalition’s 54. That is a resounding victory.

We have the government that Queensland thrust upon us against the wishes of every other state and territory (except WA – the only other state where the Coalition won a majority of seats).

Instead of highlighting that endorsement, Labor are flapping around like a dying Murray cod, desperately trying to find something or someone to blame.

Labor’s agriculture and resources spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, told Gerard Henderson’s Sydney Institute that the ALP should offer “a political and policy settlement” on climate policy “to make 28% the target by 2030”. Matt Keogh agrees.

This view has nothing to do with science or jobs or responsible governance and everything to do with self-serving politics.

“How many times are we going to let it kill us? Indeed, how many leaders do we want to lose to it?” said Fitzgibbon whose primary vote in his coal-mining electorate fell 14% at the last election.

If Fitzgibbon was worth his salt, he would be pointing out to his constituents that opening Adani will lead to job losses in existing coal mines. He should recognise that automation will also threaten coal-mining jobs and be transitioning his electorate towards more sustainable industries and employment.

Did I mention climate change?

At the time when we need them most, Labor are losing their nerve.

Fitzgibbon did say one thing with which I agree – “Labor’s equivocation over the Adani coal mine left us in no man’s land,” though I doubt we mean the same thing when we say that.

Speaking of Adani, despite government approvals being fast-tracked and a timetable of what happens next being published by the Coordinator-General, Adani continues to fail to meet deadlines.

The royalties agreement with the Queensland government was supposed to be finalised by September 30. That deadline has now been put back to November 30. Worryingly, the timetable now says “Agreement not required for construction of mine or rail to commence.”

Infrastructure and interface agreements with the Whitsunday RC and the DMRT also missed their September 30 deadline with hopes now that they will be concluded mid-October.

Accreditation as a Rail Infrastructure Manager (RIM) and Rolling Stock Operator (RSO) – Stage 1: construction and Stage 2: commissioning of rollingstock – were supposed to be concluded by July 31. The latest release on October 1 states that “Adani will continue to work with the Commonwealth Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator to obtain necessary approvals. This approval not on the critical path and the Coordinator-General will continue to monitor.”

As climate activists around the world hit the streets pleading with governments to take urgent action, Labor is missing a crucial opportunity, preferring to investigate how they can be more like the Coalition.

Trying to appeal to Queenslanders is a road to ruin. Have a go at the people they choose to represent them – Peter Dutton, Matt Canavan, George Christensen, Stuart Robert, James McGrath, Andrew Laming, Pauline Hanson, Malcolm Roberts, Bob Katter – what a sorry bunch.

We need strong leadership and conviction to tackle the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. Sadly, Labor seems more interested in courting votes from those who will never vote for them than in saving the planet.

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Baby JewelsOctober 10, 2019 at 8:50 am

Thank you Kaye. You never lose sight of the big picture, never hoodwinked by the rusted ons who can’t see the forest for the trees. You always say it like it is. Keep up the good work.

Phil PryorOctober 10, 2019 at 8:51 am

The most ignorant, self centred, primitive, subservient to donors, delusional, under educated part of Australia is, surely, Queensland, the only part of the nation to embrace slavery in the form of kidnapping, coercion, indenturing.., blackbirding. Has this shaped the righteous, supremacist, idiotic, imperialist brutality of life there, as enough people regularly bypass science, facts, decency, logic, common sense, awareness? There seems to be a lack of foresight as with lower animal forms, combined with the impetuosity and surge of a randy pig. This state has charge of a world wonder in the great Reef, yet they will, collectively, discount that for a few shillikngs possibly ganed, by any means, foul or fair. It is childish, a word to desribe such as Canavan the money slut for donor interests, Hanson the Harpy and harlot for notice, Fat Clive the Zeppelin ego without ethics, Fat George the former ignorant scribbler, and many others too putrid for decent readers’ eyes. Pre-1945 standards of aggression and assertion abound, Nuremburg type over confidence and fascist filth.

Joseph CarliOctober 10, 2019 at 9:18 am

Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
4m
The parliament is full to the gills of ex private schooled fags and bozos & scummy working-class aspirants who’ll sell their soul for a string of letters after their name..useless c#nts the lot!..look at Pyne..you wouldn’t trade a roll of dunny-paper in a gastro outbreak for him!
Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
42m
The parliament is now chockers with aspirants, consciousness of kind who know who appointed them & are securing their next job..Labor members included..we have to clean out the whole House of these “yes people”…purge the f#cking lot!…rid us of this middle-class scourge.
Show this thread
Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
46m
The woman (Schott?) interviewed on energy direction before the 7amABC news..What a limp-wristed explanation..you could see she was terrified to give a contrary to LNP gov’t opinion answer..that’s the problem with “private schooled, same backgrounded people”..gutless, scared.

I can keep puttin’ it up as quick as you delete ’em!

Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 9:22 am

Joe,

I removed the comment because I didn’t want another thread to be hijacked by your obsession with class and private education.

Your last line is just silly. I could block you if I wanted to. Let’s discuss the topic rather than engage in muscle-flexing.

Joseph CarliOctober 10, 2019 at 9:26 am

YOU didn’t want…YOU….didn’t want??…what is this blog now..a convienent channel for ; “The thoughts and whimsies of Kaye Lee”..?….It’s a public blog open to public comment…are we now to see censorship on the most personal of preferences….grow up kiddo!

So go on…flex your muscle and block me…let’s see your hypocracy.

Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 9:41 am

Sigh. Obviously you wanted your comment to appear so I left it.

Now can we get back to the topic?

There’s been a veritable stampede to join renegade Liberal MP Craig Kelly’s new buddy club: Parliamentary Friends of Coal Exports.

Opposition frontbencher and Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon bolted out of the blocks, offering to co-chair the group.

Now it can be revealed three more Labor MPs have said “I’m in” to Kelly’s coal corroboree.

Mike Freelander, who holds the south-west Sydney seat of Macarthur, has joined the throng, as has the Member for Paterson, Meryl Swanson, and the Member for Oxley, Milton Dick.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/labor-mps-flock-to-join-craig-kelly-s-friends-of-coal-group-20190731-p52cn0.html

Mr Fitzgibbon is a former co-chairman of the Parliamentary Friends of Shooters as well.

WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 9:41 am

Why don’t the useless pricks in the labor party just roll over and deliver this country what it REALLY wants, a one party state, ffs! I thought Beasley was bad and even suggested that he’d made a pact with the lying Coward rodent because at the time he was useless as well, but this labor “opposition” take the cake. In this nation fascism rules, AND DONT YOU FORGET IT!!!!!

Terence MillsOctober 10, 2019 at 9:51 am

Whilst the media gurus tell us that Shorten wasn’t popular and didn’t have the common touch we are supposed to believe that Morrison is the main man and that Aussies are rallying to his vision for this country : I must have been out of the room on that one.

A recent survey from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for International Development noted of Australia :

The enormous wealth generated by iron ore, coal, oil and gas masks, and probably contributes to, an economy that has failed to develop the industries needed to sustain its position among the top ranks of the developed world.
They went on to say “As a consequence, the economy will grow 2.2 per cent a year over the coming decade, ranking in the ⁨bottom half⁩ of countries globally”, according to the Harvard projections.

Countries can do very well selling a narrow range of simple products. But to become richer – and end the wage-growth malaise that is a frequent political complaint – they need to develop new products. More sophisticated products support higher wages, according to Harvard’s Center for International Development.

For a country that saw the automobile industry virtually hounded out by a conservative government, at a time when we should have been fostering innovation and leading in the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, this doesn’t auger well for coming generations.

As a Queenslander, looking at the list of luminaries above I hangs me head in shame.

Albanese has a big job ahead of him ; I hope he’s up to it. Perhaps we would have been better placed had Dutton been successful in wresting the prime ministership away from Turnbull.

WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 9:52 am

Where I live in Queensland they drive past schools at 7:00 pm doing 40 Kph. Dumb as dog shit doesn’t cut it anymore. Regarding politics in this state, you may as well be talking to my 5 year old grand daughter.

WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 10:00 am

I always worry about non fascist politicians who appear on sky, after dark or whenever!

Matters NotOctober 10, 2019 at 10:04 am

RE:

Trying to appeal to Queenslanders is a road to ruin

Yes, those silly Queenslanders who founded the Labor Party via a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a ghost gum tree (the “Tree of Knowledge”) in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. Why – now they even elect Labor to the State Treasury benches.

Perhaps they should be more like NSW voters who have a penchant for electing conservative governments – at least of recent times. And why aren’t NSW closing down their coalmines? You know – setting a good example and taking a dose of unemployment for the good of the nation and of humanity Are they but dogs in the manger?

Seriously, one wonders at the value of reading such superficial analysis. Shakes head!

VikingdukOctober 10, 2019 at 10:11 am

What a pack of pissweak turds are Labor. As you say, KL, did I mention climate change? Yet here in qld, not only do we elect the most unsuitable shits, the labor gov up here are in the process of fast tracking laws to jail climate protesters.

Are we all enjoying the journey to fascism? I wonder sometimes, as we speed down this road, following the black hearted bastards who determine our lot, as more freedoms are stripped away, that lies and hate and deceit are the new normal, will there come a day when this site as well as other independent news sites, are forbidden.

I have no hope or faith in any political party, any politician, to me they are all lying, deceiving hypocrites, self serving traitors. The type I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire.

The only hope and dread is that climate change accelerates, serving to remove the clouds from our eyes and the ignorance from our souls. To remind us that we have fcked up enormously, we were meant to be the caretakers not the destroyers. Why do we choose to reject love, compassion, joy?

Currently, to a large extent, Noosa shire is an outpost of environmental sanity, rapidly installing PV on all council owned buildings, even the RSL has joined the party, strict limits to development, though, unfortunately still part of

Politics won’t save us. Will Extinction Rebellion, Strikes for climate and civil disobedience lead us to an awakening? F#ck knows. I do know that I love this planet and that I will resist where I can, doing what I can.

Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 10:15 am

MN,

We are discussing contemporary politics and the challenges facing society today and how Labor is addressing them.

No-one, not even the Greens, have suggested that we close down existing mines immediately. We just can’t open new ones. If you don’t have a job with Adani, you can’t lose it – but if it goes ahead, then there will be a negative impact overall on jobs.

“Development of the Galilee Basin would displace production in other coal regions. Galilee mines would be more automated and less job-intensive than existing mines. Based on coal industry analysis, central estimates of employment reduction are 9,100 in the Hunter Valley, 2,000 in the Bowen Basin & 1,400 in the Surat Basin compared to a no-Galilee scenario. Galilee mines are likely to employ between 7,840 and 9,800 people, resulting in overall negative impact on coal jobs.”

https://www.tai.org.au/sites/default/files/P488%20Galilee%20Basin%20Development%20employment%20impacts%20%5BWEB%5D_0.pdf

I too am shaking my head at how some Queenslanders become so defensive in the face of facts. Please explain to me how not opening a mine causes unemployment when no-one currently has a job with them and are most unlikely to get one, and why employment in other places should be jeopardised.

WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 10:29 am

Will Mr Fitzgibbon be joining a new political party in the near future?

Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 10:34 am

Wobbley, Fitzgibbon has been undermining Labor for years but he doesn’t appear to want to go anywhere.

This from July 2012…

Julia Gillard insists questions about the Labor leadership have been resolved despite a public warning from the Chief Government Whip that her job would be under threat if the party’s poll numbers do not improve.

Joel Fitzgibbon, who has previously been linked to a campaign to reinstate Kevin Rudd as prime minister, prompted another round of leadership speculation by declaring on ABC’s Q&A program that unpopular leaders are eventually replaced.

“Populism matters in politics, and no matter what political party you’re talking about, if leaders remain unpopular long enough they’ll inevitably stop leading the party,” he told the audience.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-17/joel-fitzgibbon-wont-guarantee-gillard-will-lead/4134982

PeterFOctober 10, 2019 at 10:34 am

$60m is the cost of Qld seats.

My simple explanation is that, in QLD,as late as 1960, there were few state secondary schools outside Brisbane, Toowoomba and Rockhampton . Those which did exist were ‘high school tops’ , often a two room extension of the Primary School.

These offered little more than bookkeeping and typing or manual trades training for a two year (to year10)extension of Primary education.

Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 10:43 am

PeterF,

Even with the $60 million spend, the Coalition only picked up 2 seats in Qld. They lost one in NSW.

The difference in overall result from the 2016 election to the 2019 result (which had one new seat) was one seat more for the Coalition, one less for Labor, and one more independent.

Alan NosworthyOctober 10, 2019 at 11:03 am

Craig Kelly, Morrison, Fraudenberg, Eric Abetz, Andrew Hastie, Greg Hunt, Barnaby Joyce, Ssussan Leigh, David Littleproud, Michael McCormack, Christian Porter, Melissa Price, Angus Taylor, Dan Teehan, Alan Tudge, Tim Wilson,
Does this incomplete list of underperforming seat warmers give any credence to your theory that our current state of woe is singularly due to the poor voting choices of we undereducated redneck Neanderthals in the state of Queensland?
Or perhaps another example of people who should know better losing their nerve in the catharsis of a finger pointing blame game.
Let he who is without responsibility cast the first aspersion.

Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 11:21 am

Alan,

I fully agree (one minor point – Littleproud is Queensland’s too). Craig Kelly gets my weirdest vote.

But the election was decided by the loss of two Queensland seats to the Coalition.

Vic voted 21 to 15 in favour of Labor
NSW were 24 to 22 in favour of Labor.
SA voted 5 to 4 in favour of Labor.
The 5 territory seats all went to Labor.
In Tasmania, it was 2 each.

In WA, it was 11 to 5 in favour of the Coalition – the same result as in 2016.

But in Queensland, it was 23 to 6 in favour of the Coalition – vastly different from the rest of the country and crucial in the final result.

David BruceOctober 10, 2019 at 11:23 am

How can you claim this “climate change” is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced? How many civilizations have arisen and fallen on this planet already?

Seems we are moving into the emotional, hand waving, zealot inducing environments I saw when IT managers needed funds, yet lacked the knowledge and skills to present a sound business case for investment.

As you all know, when water freezes it expands as it creates ice. So next time you put ice in your scotch and ice, watch the ice melt and see if the water level rises. Then show me how melting polar ice is going to raise the sea levels and wipe out the South Pacific islands.

Our politicians are running a business franchise called the Australian Government, registered in the US at the Security Exchange Commission (SEC), after the GFC, by the then head of Treasury, a Mr Ken Henry AC, of CBA fame.

Documents relating to registration with the SEC of the Australian Government as a privately owned American company
Date – 30 June 2017

https://treasury.gov.au/foi/documents-relating-to-registration-with-the-sec

If you think party political Labour or LNP politicians are going to look after the interests of all Australians, you are not paying attention to the way the world works.

Keitha GranvilleOctober 10, 2019 at 11:28 am

I am totally disillusioned with Labour currently, I never thought that Albo was the man. Having said that, why are we so obssessed with the leaders now? When did it stop being about policy? Who the hell cares who the captain is as long as the direction the ship is heading is the one NOT going over the waterfall. If Labor goes down the Conservative road, they will lose the people who nearly got them over they line last time. QLD may be a lost cause but that doesn’t mean you join the stupid stampede.

WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 11:48 am

Well I’ve lived in Queensland now for nearly nine years having moved from the very cold in winter area of the central west of NSW. I could not believe the attitudes of the people here in the electorate of Wide Bay, the majority of whom, on the whole seem very reasonable and respecting citizens. Scratch the surface and you find a very different picture altogether. Not immoral but definitely lacking in manners, self righteous, all knowing, talk over the top, closed view attitude to everything and especially things green. Leave the engine running in the shopping centre car park for the aircon, park in disabled places and on footpaths with the engine runnning to get as close as possible to the atm. When they’re called out on traffic infringements by victims of their own self interest they become the victims and so-on. Overall I’d generalise and say Queenslanders are very immature!!!

Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 11:48 am

Lawdy Lawdy David Bruce. We have had this conversation before. Your conspiracy theories seem on an endless loop.

https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2016/mar/5.html

Wobbley, I spent the election in Wide Bay – Tin Can Bay specifically. It’s a beautiful part of the world where some of my dearest friends live. But whoa, did I see a different side at the polling booth.

Judith A BaconOctober 10, 2019 at 12:06 pm

Mnnn? Having lived through the Joh years I am used to southern states dissing Queensland. Those of us who vote on the left side of politics have enough to deal with being the state that grows more deadshit politicians than any other state, than also having to deal with southerners continually using us as the scapegoat. Loading all the blame onto Queensland isn’t going to change Queenslanders into voting differently. It just gets their backs up like that bloody convoy did. The most ill timed counterproductive event of the whole election campaign, borne out by the fact that Annastacia is bending even further over to keep Adani sweet.

So, how are you southerners going to influence change in Queensland? We got rid of Joh. We also elected Kevin Rudd, and the best of all Queensland politicians, Bill Hayden, the chief architect of Medicare.

If you all feel so bad about the election loss, imagine how lefties in Queensland feel.

Anyway, Labor needs to Green up. By Liberal-litening up, it will fade into well deserved oblivion.

ps the kids will trash any fossil fuel loving political party at the next Federal election. I can’t wait! Reminds me of my first vote after marching as a teenager against the Vietnam War. Finally, a generation has come along that is protesting. Wonder what happened to the generations in between the Boomers and now??

AorticOctober 10, 2019 at 12:11 pm

Joe Bjielke and Campbell Newman and your stated line up sums it up nicely. If they voted to secede it would receive overwhelming support I am sure. Too much sun on too little cerebral matter surely results in brain fry, to the extent you elect numbskulls. Trump I am sure would hold sway in such a ” base.”

Stephen TardrewOctober 10, 2019 at 12:22 pm

Kaye hits it out of the park. Labor is looking more like a center right neoliberal bunch of fearful cowards with little moral fortitude to fight for what is right.

One knock out and run away with your tail between your legs compromising on your core values.

Courage is a dirty word.

Judith A BaconOctober 10, 2019 at 12:27 pm

All of you bagging Queensland…here is the solution. Move here and change the voting patterns!

https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/3101.0Media%20Release1Mar%202018#targetText=The%20next%20most%20common%20move,the%20year%20ending%20March%202018.

RomeoCharlie29October 10, 2019 at 12:44 pm

Joe, if it comes to a choice of reading Kaye Lee or you, I will choose KL every time, though I do have some sympathy for the contempt of the “born to rulers”.

Just stick to the topic at hand which, as others point out, Kaye Lee has again nailed.

Phil PryorOctober 10, 2019 at 1:02 pm

David Bruce is a complete idiot, but it could be incomplete. How stupid, foolish, ignorant, is it, to ignore the gross rise of ice, plus water, in a glass. He raves about the finish of net level with ice and water already together, and not apparently changing, though a slight rise occurs. Is Queensland education and the quality of students so bad? It is a national disgrce, but Jo B-J liked ignorance among voters, to consume shit from the source, as obedient dung beetles. Many civilisations have risen and fallen by abuse of the environment in various ways. Some night school may benefit Mr. Bruce, but one might doubt that.

Joseph CarliOctober 10, 2019 at 1:08 pm

RomeoCharlie29…: “Joe, if it comes to a choice of reading Kaye Lee or you, I will choose KL every time. . . ” ….Well, there you go..and I didn’t know you could read…but good luck to you…I wonder if I will miss you…………………nah!

Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 1:18 pm

Judith,

As I said, I was in Queensland for the election with a very courageous young member of the Labor Party who I briefly helped protect the corflute she had erected from marauding people in utes and irate Andrew Bolt readers on the night before the election. I fed and watered her as she manned the booth all day on polling day along with her 60 year old mother. I brought champagne around on election night to toast the fact that Peter Dutton would no longer be a minister. She was in tears very early in the evening and retired to her bed while we oldies swore a lot.

All we can do is keep trying to inform people as best we can.

WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 1:43 pm

I too wept for our country and also went to bed on election night at around 8:00pm. For two months I refused to listen to anything other than triple j and yes I’m 63. I realised that one cannot concede to the evil that is fascism and hence I’m engaging with anyone who will listen although up here in Joe country, and that’s what it is, it becomes very difficult to cut through Turdoch’s utter propagander.

Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 1:58 pm

It’s a bit sad for contributors to be attacking one another. We all have points of view. Regardless of your political views, two people of the same mind will still differ. I have always said to my children that two men (or people, if you insist) sitting on a park bench each thinks the other has the best seat.
The truth of the matter is that there is NO Labor Party in Australia. One or two MPs are, but the collective is not.
And anyway, Queensland proved that there is no place for a Labor Party in Australia. Almost half the Coalition seats are screwed tightly into our own Alabama, and that situation changes rarely, and won’t change soon. The current state government is actually more RW than the SA Liberal government and probably to the right of the NSW Berejiklian government.
Quexit is our only hope.

Regional ElderOctober 10, 2019 at 2:27 pm

I agree with your analysis Kaye Lee.

In spite of billionaire Clive’s multi-million dollar crusade against Bill Shorten, ( essentially pursuing his own business plan ), and given that Queensland and W.A. more than other states, are Rupert Murdoch territories in their concentration of media, the Coalition win was very modest, increased their majority minimally. But they are marketing it like the win was overwhelming, and based on some sort of divine intervention.

Thus, for the presumed some hundreds of jobs that Adani is alleged to generate in North Queensland, and some jobs that might flow from Clive Palmer’s mining enterprises, the rest of Australia since May 18h has become hostage to narrow mining interests, to the cabal of poorly informed socially regressive LNP parliamentarians, and to their leader, a ruthless, Pentecostal marketing man.

Labor needs to hold its ground, and good on Mark Butler for standing up to the politically craven Joel Fitzgibbon. Every Labor parliamentarian should read this this article, and consider their position.

Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 2:30 pm

@Judith A. Bacon

Queensland actually bags itself. A state that allowed a loaded jury to get away with the Joh trial and has learned nothing since…

guestOctober 10, 2019 at 2:34 pm

David Bruce @11.23am

David, you have been asking about greenhouse gases lately. Why do you not know?

As for your ice in a glass experiment, take a cube of ice and melt it before putting it into the whisky. The level of the whisky rises. Right?

Ice floating in whisky displaces its own weight in water/whisky. Therefore no rise?

Most ice in the world is on the land masses. When it melts, it flows to the sea. The level of the ocean rises. See how it works with the first melting ice experiment above.

Judith A BaconOctober 10, 2019 at 2:43 pm

Mnn, Jack Cade? Wayne Goss, Peter Beattie, Anna Bligh, Annastacia …Queensland has actually voted at a state level more times than not for Labor than the LNP. Given that Annastacia is letting Australia down re Adani, her government is achieving a lot of good here as well. I could wish er to be more like Wayne Goss but she is streets ahead of Deb Frecklington and what the LNP would do to this state.

So how do we improve the left side of politics at a federal level in Queensland?

Kaye Lee, I now live in Maranoa so no chance in getting a Leftie over the line. Still, we drank champagne and chucked bits of tennis ball at the TV when results went the way they did. I believe what increased Dutton’s margin was the Get Up campaign and that bloody convoy. That convoy increased the vote for the LNP in Queensland. Labor and the Greens need to get at having a cohesive strategy that improves their combined chances of ousting the RWNJs. Until that happens or Labor seriously greens up, Labor is going down the gurgler. Sad for someone like me whose first vote was for Gough Whitlam’s government.

guestOctober 10, 2019 at 2:50 pm

Kaye,

an interesting article in reuter.com, by Clyde Russell, Feb 20, 2019, tells us that coal is not competing well with the price of renewable energy in India. Coal is becoming redundant and coal-fired power stations are not investable, according to banks.

As for Qid believing in the Adani dream, as you have said on numerous times, it is an unworkable scheme which will lead to pain and tears.

That Qid voters should sharpen up their resolve because of protests by people outside the state is just plain blind parochialism. It slaps the face of the rest of Oz.

But then, so does Murdoch and Palmer.

Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 3:30 pm

Judith A.

City Queenslanders gave Dutton an increased majority.
Bush Queenslanders gave Christensen an increased majority.
To coin a tmesis…
QEF*ckingD.
I lived in Brisbane for a year or so – I wot what I speak.

Judith A BaconOctober 10, 2019 at 4:09 pm

And I have lived here my whole life (I am 66), except for the last 11 years in Brisbane. Now I live in the electorate of Maranoa….so no chance of change there.

It would be wrong to think that voters whether they be city or country were not influenced by that convoy. The Greens 2% increase across the board is partially attributable to that. Redneck voters d o not just abound in Queensland. One would think that the vote for Labor ought to have been much stronger than it was in southern states given how on the nose the LNP were (and still are). So maybe instead of just bagging Queensland ( and I can understand why with the likes of Hanson, Palmer et al) ask yourselves this, why wasn’t Labor’s vote better in the rest of the country given that it was on track to win the unloseable election.

It is too simplistic to just look at Queensland. Western Australia is as bad even though it doesn’t produce the horror politicians like Queensland does.

On a brighter note, it has just started to rain. Hopefully it will be more than a few spits.

paul walterOctober 10, 2019 at 5:08 pm

Some interesting stories out just now about the battle hotting inside Labor.

From the scab end, this: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/10/labor-must-help-coalition-pass-legislation-even-if-it-disappoints-purists

“Purists?” Since when does something involving foundational principles and the preservation of democracy itself dismissed as “Purist”?

However..

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/10/labor-mps-resist-trade-deal-explicitly-at-odds-with-national-platform

And this.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/10/extinction-rebellion-labor-members-say-chilling-mass-arrests-have-echoes-of-bjelke-petersen-era

These people are saying people like Richard Marles should be more concerned about this sort of thing:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/10/job-snobs-claim-that-companies-struggle-to-hire-based-on-29-firms-not-14000-as-reported

Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 6:25 pm

Judith.

Sorry to harp, but the federal Coalition got 77 seats in May. Qld gave them 25 of them.
Indefensible.
Take 30 seats out of the entire Australian voting and it’s clear that Qld saved the happy clapper from getting his arse well and truly kicked. Australia didn’t vote for him, but Qld did.

totaramOctober 10, 2019 at 6:38 pm

Guest: People like David Bruce are not interested in actual science – just gish-galloping and trolling. No point wasting your time with actual physics experiments. If people were really interested, they wouldn’t bullshit around.

totaramOctober 10, 2019 at 6:42 pm

Jack Cade: you are right with your numbers. The question we have to ask is this: how much of the Queensland debacle was caused by Clive Palmer’s $60 million and how much by Bob Brown’s cavalcade. Can you untangle this?

As for Labor “losing its nerve”, I beg to rephrase that as “losing its last bit of brains”.

Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 6:51 pm

Totaram: I actually believe Browns caravan swung it for the Coalition. As I have said before, on the ABC compass I am a hardcore Greens devotee, but I’ll never vote for them. They gave us Abbott. The art of politics is compromise, the Greens ‘purity’ has rooted us now for a decade.

ZathrasOctober 10, 2019 at 7:37 pm

This is the reason Morrison jumped behind Gladys Liu so quickly and unequivocally. A bi-election where she loses her seat would put Morrison right back into Turnbull-Land but with a lot of extra baggage plus an economy on the slide with no solution in sight.

It’s also a reason for the ALP to get on the front foot quickly and sort itself out. It’s likely to be all downhill for Morrison and it’s only the speed we are yet to work out.

Paul DavisOctober 10, 2019 at 7:43 pm

Gosh Kaye Lee, not only do you display Solomon like wisdom but also Job like patience, if you will forgive my citing the old testament ….

There are several long term posters on this site whose egos are…. well, you know. Good luck and more power to you.

With regards to what used to be a fair dinkum decent political party. I understand your deep seated commitment but there are now so many fifth columnists and whiteanters that that party basically no longer exists. With lukewarm “leaders” like Marles and Fat Tony i doubt that Labor will gain any traction by 2022 even against HolyMo’s gang of fascist criminals.

totaramOctober 10, 2019 at 7:54 pm

Jack Cade: I don’t care what you believe. That is entirely for you. I want to know what the evidence is – the numbers. I find it hard to believe that Clive Palmer wasted $60 million. Obviously, you suddenly don’t care. As usual, there are any number of opinionistas. Opinions, as someone said, are like arse-holes – everyone has one. Not much use and as long as we continue to go with “beliefs and opinions”, we will continue to flounder. It might be better if the coalition have another three terms, just so people figure out what is going on, although with the 24/7 propaganda and brainwashing, I doubt that they will. Bad luck. I will be gone by then. Cheers.

AorticOctober 10, 2019 at 9:47 pm

With Butler, Marles, Dreyfus, Wong et al we have a solid basis within Labor to tackle the nutters on the other side but until Albo learns how to pronounce Australia correctly he will never gain traction with the voters.

KeithOctober 10, 2019 at 10:02 pm

A couple of years ago I watched an interview with climate scientist Natalia Shakhova, it had Igor Semiletov in the background making very worrying commentary. Natalia’s comments had been centred around the East Siberian Sea. More recently, Igor Semiletov and an International team found methane pouring out of af a site in the East Siberian sea at a far greater rate. But, we have bloody politicians making commentary without a shred of data, down playing the effect of climate change. They are critical of those involved with the group Extinction Rebellion. Politicians are so caught up with their ideology and donations, that scientists and voters are not taken into account. Politicians have provided the impetus for groups such as Extinction Rebellion forming. While Extinction Rebellion does create inconvenvenience, at least they are not responsible destroying the population carrying capacity of Earth as are fossil fuel billionaires and their political pawns … politicians.

Lack of any policy means serious illnesses for a number of people and death, the biosphere is being hugely damaged. But, dollars are of more importance than even the future well being of their own children.

https://www.newsweek.com/methane-boiling-sea-discovered-siberia-1463766?fbclid=IwAR1wp0GuTGDgJFgkgcGTRD6rw3WTJVSMpnXfBWljMxSY1-wIrXnPIgWfCOI

Joseph CarliOctober 11, 2019 at 8:48 am

totaram..: ” I find it hard to believe that Clive Palmer wasted $60 million.”…..and that’s if it was even Clives own money to “waste”…which, considering the last couple of years of evasive debt-paying by the man and the fact that his assets were frozen in 2018 over the Nickel plant swindle, one has to ask; Where did Clive get such a amount of brass to fling around so frivously on such a reckless ( and considering the “success” of his party) gamble?…and we all are aware that Clive wouldn’t spend $2 to get his shirt ironed, one has to conclude that his $60 mill’ was funnelled in from an outside source…
And if anyone was watching the same #Auspol twitter stream I was this last week, there were a couple of days there when the AEC was embroiled in a intervention scandal calling on the Federal Court to throw out the claims against Josh Frydenberg and Gladys Liu and their “chinese Whisper” signs…now WHY the AEC decided to become involved front and centre is interesting in itself..I contributed several Tweets to the convers’..:

Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
8 Oct
I would suggest it is in the AECs interest to have the Josh/Gladys case thrown out of court, because if found guilty, it condemns the AEC also for lack of electoral scrutiny in favour of the LNP…the head of the AEC would need to resign.

Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
8 Oct
It appears the AEC has been pressured to step into the misleading signage affair…for while it may not have instigated electoral fraud, it certainly did nothing to stop it happening on its watch.

Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
8 Oct
The AEC stepping up to the plate to defend LNP electoral deception is wrong…It appears the AEC is trying to dampen down any possible perception of themselves assisting or blind-eyeing LNP fraud….whose side are they on..the Aust’ voters or the coalition’s ?

A large number of other Tweets joined in the conversation, enough to ask if it was NOT Labor’s policies or methodology that lost them the election, but just plain old electoral fraud!…and considering the fact that EVERYBODY from the bookies to the pundits marking the exit-poll cards were totally flumoxed by the outcome, it may be time, rather than blame the “disconnected voter” or the “bloody Queenslanders” or the “ignorant swinging voters” (who really had absolutely no reason to back the LNP) to call in the “stewards” on the election.

Joseph CarliOctober 11, 2019 at 9:20 am

A re-post for those who still bother to read me…

“Preference Farming” for electoral success!

Ok..here’s what I deduce happened..: The polls are going ratshit for the LNP..they are in the proverbial..what to do?…their spin-doctor lobbyists suggest a consultation with the now defunct “Cambridge Analytica” to crunch the numbers needed to get the LNP over the line in the coming election..They work out that the mood of the voters is toward small parties/indies to get a better percentage of the voting…BUT..where will their preferences go?..Therein lies the solution.

They need to get heaps of preferences in many seats from a reliable source…enter PHON and Palmer…they are the only ones who can cover so much ground..But PHON are arse-breakingly inept, unreliable and broke…but they are solid on-side..They are keen for a deal..so they are told; ok, but get some money or get stuffed!…Exit Ashby and co. to the NRA. Where they confess that if they had the dosh, they could alter the democratic outcome in the elections..or wtte..

Palmer, on the other hand, is “reliable old-school Nat’ Party swindle”…and he has his assets frozen in 2018 over the shennannigans of he, his relative and his companie’s fiddling the books and wages of his employees etc…he’s under the pump both legally and financially..AND he has that handy, dodgy old political party of his tucked away in the closet like an A. Jones deep, dark confession…He has the many bank accounts where money could be shifted to from..say; Parakeela, a certain “prospecting” group or India..if you get the drift!…whatever, he’s on board..he has no choice…and let’s admit it…those sort of blokes you meet down the front-bar of the local any time ..they got a mouth full of braggadocio, their hand always around a small-beer and the other hand in their trouser pocket fiddling with the last of their small change…but he’s not interested in getting back into Parliament…he doesn’t have to, they say…as amatter of fact, it’d be a failure if he DID get a seat , because that would mean the LNP would miss out on one!..No..he only has to follow instructions and enter a candidate, ANY SHONKY PERSON, in EVERY SEAT running and let the “back-room boys” run the show from there..all he is needed for is to give a sense..a very slim sense…(because the AEC is in the hands of another “Duntroon Poltroon” and can be guaranteed to ‘do its job”…of f#ck all)…of legitimacy to the scam…HE only has to do a couple of pressers when required and then he can go spend sometime in Fiji or wherever…yes!..of course..all “on The House”…AND as a bonus, he can keep the electoral refund money he gets for the percentage of votes he gathers and the Murdoch press will wash him as white as a Georgia/ American Belle O’ the South!……if he just keeps his big mouth shut!

Let the preference farming begin!

The thing that worries me about Labor, is why it has not effectively bothered to call for an inquiry into the suspicions surrounding the running and monitoring of candidates and signage for the election…can it be that they too are “in the thick of it” in regards to dodgy electoral practices?

Judith A BaconOctober 11, 2019 at 10:50 am

Ahhhhh….this reminds on the Heavenly Twins. The Heavenly Twins was the name given to the two airlines Australia had at the time. Anytime one put up their fares, the other did in a nano second, all the while complaining bitterly about the other. Collusion was obvious but never proven. Along came another airline to try wrest control from the Heavenly twins. It lasted for a few nanoseconds and complained bitterly that the decks were stacked by the Heavenly Twins, with the government’s blessing. And it didn’t matter who was in government.

Australians like to rely on independent umpires so fair play is maintained. And at the same time have a go at the ref, and call him or her a mug for getting it wrong. Some have woken up to the fact that fair play is a pipe dream in politics, and that the game is played on several levels, where umpires’ decisions are obviously from a stacked deck. Which becomes more obvious the longer a party is the incumbent.

Come the Revolution!

guestOctober 11, 2019 at 11:02 am

Totaram @6:38pm

I believe we need to confront these deniers with the facts. So much of denial claim is false and baseless.

Take David Bruce’s claim that melting is in a glass of whisky does not raise the level of the whisky. What he has neglected to do is to see how the level rose when he put the ice in the glass.

This kind of cherry-picking of facts and omissions of key science is exactly what deniers do. Ian Plimer, in his book “heaven+earth”, pulls the same trick. For example, his question 30:

“Can you please show me how 3% of annual emissions of carbon dioxide, that is the human emissions, drive climate change and the other 97% do not?”

Plimer simply does not add the two sources of CO2 together because he does not believe that CO2 has any effect on global warming.

What he neglects to acknowledge is that CO2 for a very long time has kept the Earth’s average temperature at about 14 degrees C. It is that kind of cherry-picking employed by David Bruce.

As well, concerning David, he has just asked what greenhouse gases are so he can adjust his climate model. Is he serious? A home-made climate model? And he claims NASA connections and research in the South Pacific and frequently quotes well known deniers. He might be serious but it is all a fantasy.

It is disappointing to see politicians, for example, getting away with shonky comments – and I wonder why they get away with it.

Look at the rubbish published in The Australian, protected by a pay wall. It befuddles genuine discussion.

guestOctober 11, 2019 at 11:17 am

Joseph Carli,

I am with you on Clive Palmer, straight out of Qld from the Bjielke Petersen era. Did he pay money to Murdoch? The amount was huge! Where did it come from?

Of course he had an effect. He attacked Shorten ad hominem, claiming that he could not be trusted. It was the same mudslinging thrown by the Murdoch press for years.

And we know what was said about Murdoch by a judge in the UK about him as proprietor of a newspaper.

Murdoch is a propagandist who sets out to make the world as he sees it, protecting his own investments.

Joseph CarliOctober 11, 2019 at 11:30 am

guest…and the whole arguement that it was Labor’s inept presentation of the policies relies on the presumption that the electorate was too “disconnected” to send them to Canberra…YET…yet that same ‘disconnected” electorate convienetly was “savvy” enough to vote the most inept, policy-less bunch of rooters and rorters back into office – some with an increased majority!- for a THIRD TERM!!…one just has to ask…”cui-f#ckin’-bono”….and the answer comes up everytime as the LNP & their operatives…

Come on!…blind f#cking Freddie could understand Labor’s policies…after all, if one can understand and interpret the rules of rugby league, and the whole East-Coast has an opinion on THAT!… the other is a cake-walk!

Adn BTW…where has Palmer and ANYONE of his crew of buccaneers gone since the election…they have done a disappearing act faster than Mandrake the magician.

paul walterOctober 11, 2019 at 5:59 pm

totaram, Joe Carli on Palmer.

Sums it up, doesn’t it?

ChristopherJOctober 11, 2019 at 6:53 pm

I will say it again, Murdoch and the ABC and SBS, Sky, 9, 10, 7, the Courier Mail, my local Cairns Post, the radio stations….. These outlets pilloried Labor and that is all we saw. Not one pundit said Labor were any good and their campaign was without any shots at all, too corrupt to throw mud now

Those of us that are more curious and seek to know what’s coming, well, we were aghast at the result (bookies had Labor at odds on, remember?), but everyone needs to understand that the election here in Queensland was stolen by a media barrage which made Queenslanders turn away from what could have been a reasonable alternative government for Australia. We were lied to about a Morrison government. Shame on us for not being better informed.

Now, with the Labor fickwuts left holding onto their entitlements and power, there is no alternative government.

Protesting is all we have. The climate emergency idiots should stop trying to disrupt and say their message quietly, on the pavement. I and everyone I know is ready to voice our opinions in solidarity, we are just waiting for a movement to start which is worth our effort. Labor isn’t it. The party has never looked after my working class interests my entire adult life.

guestOctober 12, 2019 at 11:38 am

ChristopherJ,

there is some kind of contradiction here.

First you say no media praised Labor – the election ‘stolen by a media barrage’. But Labor could have been a ‘reasonable alternative government’ and Qld was ‘lied to about a Morrison government’.

But then you do an about face in you attitude to Labor, the ‘fickwuts left holding onto their entitlements and power’. What? And ‘there is no alternative government’. What?

Suddenly you attack ‘the climate emergency idiots’. Who are they and why should they speak ‘quietly on the pavement’?

So now you await some ‘movement’ which is not Labor, because what did Labor ever do for you? What kind of ‘movement’ are you waiting for?

You side with Labor at first and then you turn against it just as the media is supposed to have done before the election. There is some muddled thinking here.

johnoOctober 12, 2019 at 4:52 pm

Speaking of ‘ the climate emergency idiots ‘. I was one of them yesterday. Joined in with the Extinction Rebellion protest in Adelaide. As the police blocked off the road there was no need for much civil disobedience and the the whole shebang was more a street party than protest.

Claudio PompiliOctober 14, 2019 at 1:50 pm

Kaye, I enjoy your articles and largely concur with your views. However, IMHO the ALP lost its nerve a long time ago.

Labor hasn’t been able to create a narrative that appeals to the hearts and minds since the Hawke/Keating years… Instead it ducks for cover with small target strategies. Even worse now with ‘bipartisan’ Albo…. Life is good in permanent Opposition…. A gr8 salary and perks, lots of holidays, and you don’t have to work hard….a few verbal slinging matches and job’s done.

On the other hand, if Labor were really serious about being in government, they would form a centre-left Coalition with the Greens and Independents. They’d be unbeatable… after all, that’s the only way that the Liberals are able to govern… with the help of the irrelevant but vital Nationals votes. Instead Labor’s arrogance to want to rule alone will guarantee it’ll be in the wilderness for a very long time

Judith A BaconOctober 14, 2019 at 1:56 pm

I totally agree, Claudio.

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Baby JewelsOctober 10, 2019 at 8:50 am

Thank you Kaye. You never lose sight of the big picture, never hoodwinked by the rusted ons who can’t see the forest for the trees. You always say it like it is. Keep up the good work.
Phil PryorOctober 10, 2019 at 8:51 am

The most ignorant, self centred, primitive, subservient to donors, delusional, under educated part of Australia is, surely, Queensland, the only part of the nation to embrace slavery in the form of kidnapping, coercion, indenturing.., blackbirding. Has this shaped the righteous, supremacist, idiotic, imperialist brutality of life there, as enough people regularly bypass science, facts, decency, logic, common sense, awareness? There seems to be a lack of foresight as with lower animal forms, combined with the impetuosity and surge of a randy pig. This state has charge of a world wonder in the great Reef, yet they will, collectively, discount that for a few shillikngs possibly ganed, by any means, foul or fair. It is childish, a word to desribe such as Canavan the money slut for donor interests, Hanson the Harpy and harlot for notice, Fat Clive the Zeppelin ego without ethics, Fat George the former ignorant scribbler, and many others too putrid for decent readers’ eyes. Pre-1945 standards of aggression and assertion abound, Nuremburg type over confidence and fascist filth.
Joseph CarliOctober 10, 2019 at 9:18 am

Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
4m
The parliament is full to the gills of ex private schooled fags and bozos & scummy working-class aspirants who’ll sell their soul for a string of letters after their name..useless c#nts the lot!..look at Pyne..you wouldn’t trade a roll of dunny-paper in a gastro outbreak for him!
Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
42m
The parliament is now chockers with aspirants, consciousness of kind who know who appointed them & are securing their next job..Labor members included..we have to clean out the whole House of these “yes people”…purge the f#cking lot!…rid us of this middle-class scourge.
Show this thread
Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
46m
The woman (Schott?) interviewed on energy direction before the 7amABC news..What a limp-wristed explanation..you could see she was terrified to give a contrary to LNP gov’t opinion answer..that’s the problem with “private schooled, same backgrounded people”..gutless, scared.

I can keep puttin’ it up as quick as you delete ’em!
Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 9:22 am

Joe,

I removed the comment because I didn’t want another thread to be hijacked by your obsession with class and private education.

Your last line is just silly. I could block you if I wanted to. Let’s discuss the topic rather than engage in muscle-flexing.
Joseph CarliOctober 10, 2019 at 9:26 am

YOU didn’t want…YOU….didn’t want??…what is this blog now..a convienent channel for ; “The thoughts and whimsies of Kaye Lee”..?….It’s a public blog open to public comment…are we now to see censorship on the most personal of preferences….grow up kiddo!

So go on…flex your muscle and block me…let’s see your hypocracy.
Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 9:41 am

Sigh. Obviously you wanted your comment to appear so I left it.

Now can we get back to the topic?

There’s been a veritable stampede to join renegade Liberal MP Craig Kelly’s new buddy club: Parliamentary Friends of Coal Exports.

Opposition frontbencher and Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon bolted out of the blocks, offering to co-chair the group.

Now it can be revealed three more Labor MPs have said “I’m in” to Kelly’s coal corroboree.

Mike Freelander, who holds the south-west Sydney seat of Macarthur, has joined the throng, as has the Member for Paterson, Meryl Swanson, and the Member for Oxley, Milton Dick.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/labor-mps-flock-to-join-craig-kelly-s-friends-of-coal-group-20190731-p52cn0.html

Mr Fitzgibbon is a former co-chairman of the Parliamentary Friends of Shooters as well.
WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 9:41 am

Why don’t the useless pricks in the labor party just roll over and deliver this country what it REALLY wants, a one party state, ffs! I thought Beasley was bad and even suggested that he’d made a pact with the lying Coward rodent because at the time he was useless as well, but this labor “opposition” take the cake. In this nation fascism rules, AND DONT YOU FORGET IT!!!!!
Terence MillsOctober 10, 2019 at 9:51 am

Whilst the media gurus tell us that Shorten wasn’t popular and didn’t have the common touch we are supposed to believe that Morrison is the main man and that Aussies are rallying to his vision for this country : I must have been out of the room on that one.

A recent survey from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for International Development noted of Australia :

The enormous wealth generated by iron ore, coal, oil and gas masks, and probably contributes to, an economy that has failed to develop the industries needed to sustain its position among the top ranks of the developed world.
They went on to say “As a consequence, the economy will grow 2.2 per cent a year over the coming decade, ranking in the ⁨bottom half⁩ of countries globally”, according to the Harvard projections.

Countries can do very well selling a narrow range of simple products. But to become richer – and end the wage-growth malaise that is a frequent political complaint – they need to develop new products. More sophisticated products support higher wages, according to Harvard’s Center for International Development.

For a country that saw the automobile industry virtually hounded out by a conservative government, at a time when we should have been fostering innovation and leading in the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, this doesn’t auger well for coming generations.

As a Queenslander, looking at the list of luminaries above I hangs me head in shame.

Albanese has a big job ahead of him ; I hope he’s up to it. Perhaps we would have been better placed had Dutton been successful in wresting the prime ministership away from Turnbull.
WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 9:52 am

Where I live in Queensland they drive past schools at 7:00 pm doing 40 Kph. Dumb as dog shit doesn’t cut it anymore. Regarding politics in this state, you may as well be talking to my 5 year old grand daughter.
WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 10:00 am

I always worry about non fascist politicians who appear on sky, after dark or whenever!
Matters NotOctober 10, 2019 at 10:04 am

RE:

Trying to appeal to Queenslanders is a road to ruin

Yes, those silly Queenslanders who founded the Labor Party via a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a ghost gum tree (the “Tree of Knowledge”) in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. Why – now they even elect Labor to the State Treasury benches.

Perhaps they should be more like NSW voters who have a penchant for electing conservative governments – at least of recent times. And why aren’t NSW closing down their coalmines? You know – setting a good example and taking a dose of unemployment for the good of the nation and of humanity Are they but dogs in the manger?

Seriously, one wonders at the value of reading such superficial analysis. Shakes head!
VikingdukOctober 10, 2019 at 10:11 am

What a pack of pissweak turds are Labor. As you say, KL, did I mention climate change? Yet here in qld, not only do we elect the most unsuitable shits, the labor gov up here are in the process of fast tracking laws to jail climate protesters.

Are we all enjoying the journey to fascism? I wonder sometimes, as we speed down this road, following the black hearted bastards who determine our lot, as more freedoms are stripped away, that lies and hate and deceit are the new normal, will there come a day when this site as well as other independent news sites, are forbidden.

I have no hope or faith in any political party, any politician, to me they are all lying, deceiving hypocrites, self serving traitors. The type I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire.

The only hope and dread is that climate change accelerates, serving to remove the clouds from our eyes and the ignorance from our souls. To remind us that we have fcked up enormously, we were meant to be the caretakers not the destroyers. Why do we choose to reject love, compassion, joy?

Currently, to a large extent, Noosa shire is an outpost of environmental sanity, rapidly installing PV on all council owned buildings, even the RSL has joined the party, strict limits to development, though, unfortunately still part of

Politics won’t save us. Will Extinction Rebellion, Strikes for climate and civil disobedience lead us to an awakening? F#ck knows. I do know that I love this planet and that I will resist where I can, doing what I can.
Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 10:15 am

MN,

We are discussing contemporary politics and the challenges facing society today and how Labor is addressing them.

No-one, not even the Greens, have suggested that we close down existing mines immediately. We just can’t open new ones. If you don’t have a job with Adani, you can’t lose it – but if it goes ahead, then there will be a negative impact overall on jobs.

“Development of the Galilee Basin would displace production in other coal regions. Galilee mines would be more automated and less job-intensive than existing mines. Based on coal industry analysis, central estimates of employment reduction are 9,100 in the Hunter Valley, 2,000 in the Bowen Basin & 1,400 in the Surat Basin compared to a no-Galilee scenario. Galilee mines are likely to employ between 7,840 and 9,800 people, resulting in overall negative impact on coal jobs.”

https://www.tai.org.au/sites/default/files/P488%20Galilee%20Basin%20Development%20employment%20impacts%20%5BWEB%5D_0.pdf

I too am shaking my head at how some Queenslanders become so defensive in the face of facts. Please explain to me how not opening a mine causes unemployment when no-one currently has a job with them and are most unlikely to get one, and why employment in other places should be jeopardised.
WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 10:29 am

Will Mr Fitzgibbon be joining a new political party in the near future?
Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 10:34 am

Wobbley, Fitzgibbon has been undermining Labor for years but he doesn’t appear to want to go anywhere.

This from July 2012…

Julia Gillard insists questions about the Labor leadership have been resolved despite a public warning from the Chief Government Whip that her job would be under threat if the party’s poll numbers do not improve.

Joel Fitzgibbon, who has previously been linked to a campaign to reinstate Kevin Rudd as prime minister, prompted another round of leadership speculation by declaring on ABC’s Q&A program that unpopular leaders are eventually replaced.

“Populism matters in politics, and no matter what political party you’re talking about, if leaders remain unpopular long enough they’ll inevitably stop leading the party,” he told the audience.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-17/joel-fitzgibbon-wont-guarantee-gillard-will-lead/4134982
PeterFOctober 10, 2019 at 10:34 am

$60m is the cost of Qld seats.

My simple explanation is that, in QLD,as late as 1960, there were few state secondary schools outside Brisbane, Toowoomba and Rockhampton . Those which did exist were ‘high school tops’ , often a two room extension of the Primary School.

These offered little more than bookkeeping and typing or manual trades training for a two year (to year10)extension of Primary education.
Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 10:43 am

PeterF,

Even with the $60 million spend, the Coalition only picked up 2 seats in Qld. They lost one in NSW.

The difference in overall result from the 2016 election to the 2019 result (which had one new seat) was one seat more for the Coalition, one less for Labor, and one more independent.
Alan NosworthyOctober 10, 2019 at 11:03 am

Craig Kelly, Morrison, Fraudenberg, Eric Abetz, Andrew Hastie, Greg Hunt, Barnaby Joyce, Ssussan Leigh, David Littleproud, Michael McCormack, Christian Porter, Melissa Price, Angus Taylor, Dan Teehan, Alan Tudge, Tim Wilson,
Does this incomplete list of underperforming seat warmers give any credence to your theory that our current state of woe is singularly due to the poor voting choices of we undereducated redneck Neanderthals in the state of Queensland?
Or perhaps another example of people who should know better losing their nerve in the catharsis of a finger pointing blame game.
Let he who is without responsibility cast the first aspersion.
Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 11:21 am

Alan,

I fully agree (one minor point – Littleproud is Queensland’s too). Craig Kelly gets my weirdest vote.

But the election was decided by the loss of two Queensland seats to the Coalition.

Vic voted 21 to 15 in favour of Labor
NSW were 24 to 22 in favour of Labor.
SA voted 5 to 4 in favour of Labor.
The 5 territory seats all went to Labor.
In Tasmania, it was 2 each.

In WA, it was 11 to 5 in favour of the Coalition – the same result as in 2016.

But in Queensland, it was 23 to 6 in favour of the Coalition – vastly different from the rest of the country and crucial in the final result.
David BruceOctober 10, 2019 at 11:23 am

How can you claim this “climate change” is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced? How many civilizations have arisen and fallen on this planet already?

Seems we are moving into the emotional, hand waving, zealot inducing environments I saw when IT managers needed funds, yet lacked the knowledge and skills to present a sound business case for investment.

As you all know, when water freezes it expands as it creates ice. So next time you put ice in your scotch and ice, watch the ice melt and see if the water level rises. Then show me how melting polar ice is going to raise the sea levels and wipe out the South Pacific islands.

Our politicians are running a business franchise called the Australian Government, registered in the US at the Security Exchange Commission (SEC), after the GFC, by the then head of Treasury, a Mr Ken Henry AC, of CBA fame.

Documents relating to registration with the SEC of the Australian Government as a privately owned American company
Date – 30 June 2017

https://treasury.gov.au/foi/documents-relating-to-registration-with-the-sec

If you think party political Labour or LNP politicians are going to look after the interests of all Australians, you are not paying attention to the way the world works.
Keitha GranvilleOctober 10, 2019 at 11:28 am

I am totally disillusioned with Labour currently, I never thought that Albo was the man. Having said that, why are we so obssessed with the leaders now? When did it stop being about policy? Who the hell cares who the captain is as long as the direction the ship is heading is the one NOT going over the waterfall. If Labor goes down the Conservative road, they will lose the people who nearly got them over they line last time. QLD may be a lost cause but that doesn’t mean you join the stupid stampede.
WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 11:48 am

Well I’ve lived in Queensland now for nearly nine years having moved from the very cold in winter area of the central west of NSW. I could not believe the attitudes of the people here in the electorate of Wide Bay, the majority of whom, on the whole seem very reasonable and respecting citizens. Scratch the surface and you find a very different picture altogether. Not immoral but definitely lacking in manners, self righteous, all knowing, talk over the top, closed view attitude to everything and especially things green. Leave the engine running in the shopping centre car park for the aircon, park in disabled places and on footpaths with the engine runnning to get as close as possible to the atm. When they’re called out on traffic infringements by victims of their own self interest they become the victims and so-on. Overall I’d generalise and say Queenslanders are very immature!!!
Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 11:48 am

Lawdy Lawdy David Bruce. We have had this conversation before. Your conspiracy theories seem on an endless loop.

https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2016/mar/5.html

Wobbley, I spent the election in Wide Bay – Tin Can Bay specifically. It’s a beautiful part of the world where some of my dearest friends live. But whoa, did I see a different side at the polling booth.
Judith A BaconOctober 10, 2019 at 12:06 pm

Mnnn? Having lived through the Joh years I am used to southern states dissing Queensland. Those of us who vote on the left side of politics have enough to deal with being the state that grows more deadshit politicians than any other state, than also having to deal with southerners continually using us as the scapegoat. Loading all the blame onto Queensland isn’t going to change Queenslanders into voting differently. It just gets their backs up like that bloody convoy did. The most ill timed counterproductive event of the whole election campaign, borne out by the fact that Annastacia is bending even further over to keep Adani sweet.

So, how are you southerners going to influence change in Queensland? We got rid of Joh. We also elected Kevin Rudd, and the best of all Queensland politicians, Bill Hayden, the chief architect of Medicare.

If you all feel so bad about the election loss, imagine how lefties in Queensland feel.

Anyway, Labor needs to Green up. By Liberal-litening up, it will fade into well deserved oblivion.

ps the kids will trash any fossil fuel loving political party at the next Federal election. I can’t wait! Reminds me of my first vote after marching as a teenager against the Vietnam War. Finally, a generation has come along that is protesting. Wonder what happened to the generations in between the Boomers and now??
AorticOctober 10, 2019 at 12:11 pm

Joe Bjielke and Campbell Newman and your stated line up sums it up nicely. If they voted to secede it would receive overwhelming support I am sure. Too much sun on too little cerebral matter surely results in brain fry, to the extent you elect numbskulls. Trump I am sure would hold sway in such a ” base.”
Stephen TardrewOctober 10, 2019 at 12:22 pm

Kaye hits it out of the park. Labor is looking more like a center right neoliberal bunch of fearful cowards with little moral fortitude to fight for what is right.

One knock out and run away with your tail between your legs compromising on your core values.

Courage is a dirty word.
Judith A BaconOctober 10, 2019 at 12:27 pm

All of you bagging Queensland…here is the solution. Move here and change the voting patterns!

https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/3101.0Media%20Release1Mar%202018#targetText=The%20next%20most%20common%20move,the%20year%20ending%20March%202018.
RomeoCharlie29October 10, 2019 at 12:44 pm

Joe, if it comes to a choice of reading Kaye Lee or you, I will choose KL every time, though I do have some sympathy for the contempt of the “born to rulers”.

Just stick to the topic at hand which, as others point out, Kaye Lee has again nailed.
Phil PryorOctober 10, 2019 at 1:02 pm

David Bruce is a complete idiot, but it could be incomplete. How stupid, foolish, ignorant, is it, to ignore the gross rise of ice, plus water, in a glass. He raves about the finish of net level with ice and water already together, and not apparently changing, though a slight rise occurs. Is Queensland education and the quality of students so bad? It is a national disgrce, but Jo B-J liked ignorance among voters, to consume shit from the source, as obedient dung beetles. Many civilisations have risen and fallen by abuse of the environment in various ways. Some night school may benefit Mr. Bruce, but one might doubt that.
Joseph CarliOctober 10, 2019 at 1:08 pm

RomeoCharlie29…: “Joe, if it comes to a choice of reading Kaye Lee or you, I will choose KL every time. . . ” ….Well, there you go..and I didn’t know you could read…but good luck to you…I wonder if I will miss you…………………nah!
Kaye LeeOctober 10, 2019 at 1:18 pm

Judith,

As I said, I was in Queensland for the election with a very courageous young member of the Labor Party who I briefly helped protect the corflute she had erected from marauding people in utes and irate Andrew Bolt readers on the night before the election. I fed and watered her as she manned the booth all day on polling day along with her 60 year old mother. I brought champagne around on election night to toast the fact that Peter Dutton would no longer be a minister. She was in tears very early in the evening and retired to her bed while we oldies swore a lot.

All we can do is keep trying to inform people as best we can.
WobbleyOctober 10, 2019 at 1:43 pm

I too wept for our country and also went to bed on election night at around 8:00pm. For two months I refused to listen to anything other than triple j and yes I’m 63. I realised that one cannot concede to the evil that is fascism and hence I’m engaging with anyone who will listen although up here in Joe country, and that’s what it is, it becomes very difficult to cut through Turdoch’s utter propagander.
Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 1:58 pm

It’s a bit sad for contributors to be attacking one another. We all have points of view. Regardless of your political views, two people of the same mind will still differ. I have always said to my children that two men (or people, if you insist) sitting on a park bench each thinks the other has the best seat.
The truth of the matter is that there is NO Labor Party in Australia. One or two MPs are, but the collective is not.
And anyway, Queensland proved that there is no place for a Labor Party in Australia. Almost half the Coalition seats are screwed tightly into our own Alabama, and that situation changes rarely, and won’t change soon. The current state government is actually more RW than the SA Liberal government and probably to the right of the NSW Berejiklian government.
Quexit is our only hope.
Regional ElderOctober 10, 2019 at 2:27 pm

I agree with your analysis Kaye Lee.

In spite of billionaire Clive’s multi-million dollar crusade against Bill Shorten, ( essentially pursuing his own business plan ), and given that Queensland and W.A. more than other states, are Rupert Murdoch territories in their concentration of media, the Coalition win was very modest, increased their majority minimally. But they are marketing it like the win was overwhelming, and based on some sort of divine intervention.

Thus, for the presumed some hundreds of jobs that Adani is alleged to generate in North Queensland, and some jobs that might flow from Clive Palmer’s mining enterprises, the rest of Australia since May 18h has become hostage to narrow mining interests, to the cabal of poorly informed socially regressive LNP parliamentarians, and to their leader, a ruthless, Pentecostal marketing man.

Labor needs to hold its ground, and good on Mark Butler for standing up to the politically craven Joel Fitzgibbon. Every Labor parliamentarian should read this this article, and consider their position.
Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 2:30 pm

@Judith A. Bacon

Queensland actually bags itself. A state that allowed a loaded jury to get away with the Joh trial and has learned nothing since…
guestOctober 10, 2019 at 2:34 pm

David Bruce @11.23am

David, you have been asking about greenhouse gases lately. Why do you not know?

As for your ice in a glass experiment, take a cube of ice and melt it before putting it into the whisky. The level of the whisky rises. Right?

Ice floating in whisky displaces its own weight in water/whisky. Therefore no rise?

Most ice in the world is on the land masses. When it melts, it flows to the sea. The level of the ocean rises. See how it works with the first melting ice experiment above.
Judith A BaconOctober 10, 2019 at 2:43 pm

Mnn, Jack Cade? Wayne Goss, Peter Beattie, Anna Bligh, Annastacia …Queensland has actually voted at a state level more times than not for Labor than the LNP. Given that Annastacia is letting Australia down re Adani, her government is achieving a lot of good here as well. I could wish er to be more like Wayne Goss but she is streets ahead of Deb Frecklington and what the LNP would do to this state.

So how do we improve the left side of politics at a federal level in Queensland?

Kaye Lee, I now live in Maranoa so no chance in getting a Leftie over the line. Still, we drank champagne and chucked bits of tennis ball at the TV when results went the way they did. I believe what increased Dutton’s margin was the Get Up campaign and that bloody convoy. That convoy increased the vote for the LNP in Queensland. Labor and the Greens need to get at having a cohesive strategy that improves their combined chances of ousting the RWNJs. Until that happens or Labor seriously greens up, Labor is going down the gurgler. Sad for someone like me whose first vote was for Gough Whitlam’s government.
guestOctober 10, 2019 at 2:50 pm

Kaye,

an interesting article in reuter.com, by Clyde Russell, Feb 20, 2019, tells us that coal is not competing well with the price of renewable energy in India. Coal is becoming redundant and coal-fired power stations are not investable, according to banks.

As for Qid believing in the Adani dream, as you have said on numerous times, it is an unworkable scheme which will lead to pain and tears.

That Qid voters should sharpen up their resolve because of protests by people outside the state is just plain blind parochialism. It slaps the face of the rest of Oz.

But then, so does Murdoch and Palmer.
Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 3:30 pm

Judith A.

City Queenslanders gave Dutton an increased majority.
Bush Queenslanders gave Christensen an increased majority.
To coin a tmesis…
QEF*ckingD.
I lived in Brisbane for a year or so – I wot what I speak.
Judith A BaconOctober 10, 2019 at 4:09 pm

And I have lived here my whole life (I am 66), except for the last 11 years in Brisbane. Now I live in the electorate of Maranoa….so no chance of change there.

It would be wrong to think that voters whether they be city or country were not influenced by that convoy. The Greens 2% increase across the board is partially attributable to that. Redneck voters d o not just abound in Queensland. One would think that the vote for Labor ought to have been much stronger than it was in southern states given how on the nose the LNP were (and still are). So maybe instead of just bagging Queensland ( and I can understand why with the likes of Hanson, Palmer et al) ask yourselves this, why wasn’t Labor’s vote better in the rest of the country given that it was on track to win the unloseable election.

It is too simplistic to just look at Queensland. Western Australia is as bad even though it doesn’t produce the horror politicians like Queensland does.

On a brighter note, it has just started to rain. Hopefully it will be more than a few spits.
paul walterOctober 10, 2019 at 5:08 pm

Some interesting stories out just now about the battle hotting inside Labor.

From the scab end, this: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/10/labor-must-help-coalition-pass-legislation-even-if-it-disappoints-purists

“Purists?” Since when does something involving foundational principles and the preservation of democracy itself dismissed as “Purist”?

However..

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/10/labor-mps-resist-trade-deal-explicitly-at-odds-with-national-platform

And this.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/10/extinction-rebellion-labor-members-say-chilling-mass-arrests-have-echoes-of-bjelke-petersen-era

These people are saying people like Richard Marles should be more concerned about this sort of thing:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/10/job-snobs-claim-that-companies-struggle-to-hire-based-on-29-firms-not-14000-as-reported
Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 6:25 pm

Judith.

Sorry to harp, but the federal Coalition got 77 seats in May. Qld gave them 25 of them.
Indefensible.
Take 30 seats out of the entire Australian voting and it’s clear that Qld saved the happy clapper from getting his arse well and truly kicked. Australia didn’t vote for him, but Qld did.
totaramOctober 10, 2019 at 6:38 pm

Guest: People like David Bruce are not interested in actual science – just gish-galloping and trolling. No point wasting your time with actual physics experiments. If people were really interested, they wouldn’t bullshit around.
totaramOctober 10, 2019 at 6:42 pm

Jack Cade: you are right with your numbers. The question we have to ask is this: how much of the Queensland debacle was caused by Clive Palmer’s $60 million and how much by Bob Brown’s cavalcade. Can you untangle this?

As for Labor “losing its nerve”, I beg to rephrase that as “losing its last bit of brains”.
Jack CadeOctober 10, 2019 at 6:51 pm

Totaram: I actually believe Browns caravan swung it for the Coalition. As I have said before, on the ABC compass I am a hardcore Greens devotee, but I’ll never vote for them. They gave us Abbott. The art of politics is compromise, the Greens ‘purity’ has rooted us now for a decade.
ZathrasOctober 10, 2019 at 7:37 pm

This is the reason Morrison jumped behind Gladys Liu so quickly and unequivocally. A bi-election where she loses her seat would put Morrison right back into Turnbull-Land but with a lot of extra baggage plus an economy on the slide with no solution in sight.

It’s also a reason for the ALP to get on the front foot quickly and sort itself out. It’s likely to be all downhill for Morrison and it’s only the speed we are yet to work out.
Paul DavisOctober 10, 2019 at 7:43 pm

Gosh Kaye Lee, not only do you display Solomon like wisdom but also Job like patience, if you will forgive my citing the old testament ….

There are several long term posters on this site whose egos are…. well, you know. Good luck and more power to you.

With regards to what used to be a fair dinkum decent political party. I understand your deep seated commitment but there are now so many fifth columnists and whiteanters that that party basically no longer exists. With lukewarm “leaders” like Marles and Fat Tony i doubt that Labor will gain any traction by 2022 even against HolyMo’s gang of fascist criminals.
totaramOctober 10, 2019 at 7:54 pm

Jack Cade: I don’t care what you believe. That is entirely for you. I want to know what the evidence is – the numbers. I find it hard to believe that Clive Palmer wasted $60 million. Obviously, you suddenly don’t care. As usual, there are any number of opinionistas. Opinions, as someone said, are like arse-holes – everyone has one. Not much use and as long as we continue to go with “beliefs and opinions”, we will continue to flounder. It might be better if the coalition have another three terms, just so people figure out what is going on, although with the 24/7 propaganda and brainwashing, I doubt that they will. Bad luck. I will be gone by then. Cheers.
AorticOctober 10, 2019 at 9:47 pm

With Butler, Marles, Dreyfus, Wong et al we have a solid basis within Labor to tackle the nutters on the other side but until Albo learns how to pronounce Australia correctly he will never gain traction with the voters.
KeithOctober 10, 2019 at 10:02 pm

A couple of years ago I watched an interview with climate scientist Natalia Shakhova, it had Igor Semiletov in the background making very worrying commentary. Natalia’s comments had been centred around the East Siberian Sea. More recently, Igor Semiletov and an International team found methane pouring out of af a site in the East Siberian sea at a far greater rate. But, we have bloody politicians making commentary without a shred of data, down playing the effect of climate change. They are critical of those involved with the group Extinction Rebellion. Politicians are so caught up with their ideology and donations, that scientists and voters are not taken into account. Politicians have provided the impetus for groups such as Extinction Rebellion forming. While Extinction Rebellion does create inconvenvenience, at least they are not responsible destroying the population carrying capacity of Earth as are fossil fuel billionaires and their political pawns … politicians.

Lack of any policy means serious illnesses for a number of people and death, the biosphere is being hugely damaged. But, dollars are of more importance than even the future well being of their own children.

https://www.newsweek.com/methane-boiling-sea-discovered-siberia-1463766?fbclid=IwAR1wp0GuTGDgJFgkgcGTRD6rw3WTJVSMpnXfBWljMxSY1-wIrXnPIgWfCOI
Joseph CarliOctober 11, 2019 at 8:48 am

totaram..: ” I find it hard to believe that Clive Palmer wasted $60 million.”…..and that’s if it was even Clives own money to “waste”…which, considering the last couple of years of evasive debt-paying by the man and the fact that his assets were frozen in 2018 over the Nickel plant swindle, one has to ask; Where did Clive get such a amount of brass to fling around so frivously on such a reckless ( and considering the “success” of his party) gamble?…and we all are aware that Clive wouldn’t spend $2 to get his shirt ironed, one has to conclude that his $60 mill’ was funnelled in from an outside source…
And if anyone was watching the same #Auspol twitter stream I was this last week, there were a couple of days there when the AEC was embroiled in a intervention scandal calling on the Federal Court to throw out the claims against Josh Frydenberg and Gladys Liu and their “chinese Whisper” signs…now WHY the AEC decided to become involved front and centre is interesting in itself..I contributed several Tweets to the convers’..:

Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
8 Oct
I would suggest it is in the AECs interest to have the Josh/Gladys case thrown out of court, because if found guilty, it condemns the AEC also for lack of electoral scrutiny in favour of the LNP…the head of the AEC would need to resign.

Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
8 Oct
It appears the AEC has been pressured to step into the misleading signage affair…for while it may not have instigated electoral fraud, it certainly did nothing to stop it happening on its watch.

Joe Carli
@JAYSEE423
·
8 Oct
The AEC stepping up to the plate to defend LNP electoral deception is wrong…It appears the AEC is trying to dampen down any possible perception of themselves assisting or blind-eyeing LNP fraud….whose side are they on..the Aust’ voters or the coalition’s ?

A large number of other Tweets joined in the conversation, enough to ask if it was NOT Labor’s policies or methodology that lost them the election, but just plain old electoral fraud!…and considering the fact that EVERYBODY from the bookies to the pundits marking the exit-poll cards were totally flumoxed by the outcome, it may be time, rather than blame the “disconnected voter” or the “bloody Queenslanders” or the “ignorant swinging voters” (who really had absolutely no reason to back the LNP) to call in the “stewards” on the election.
Joseph CarliOctober 11, 2019 at 9:20 am

A re-post for those who still bother to read me…

“Preference Farming” for electoral success!

Ok..here’s what I deduce happened..: The polls are going ratshit for the LNP..they are in the proverbial..what to do?…their spin-doctor lobbyists suggest a consultation with the now defunct “Cambridge Analytica” to crunch the numbers needed to get the LNP over the line in the coming election..They work out that the mood of the voters is toward small parties/indies to get a better percentage of the voting…BUT..where will their preferences go?..Therein lies the solution.

They need to get heaps of preferences in many seats from a reliable source…enter PHON and Palmer…they are the only ones who can cover so much ground..But PHON are arse-breakingly inept, unreliable and broke…but they are solid on-side..They are keen for a deal..so they are told; ok, but get some money or get stuffed!…Exit Ashby and co. to the NRA. Where they confess that if they had the dosh, they could alter the democratic outcome in the elections..or wtte..

Palmer, on the other hand, is “reliable old-school Nat’ Party swindle”…and he has his assets frozen in 2018 over the shennannigans of he, his relative and his companie’s fiddling the books and wages of his employees etc…he’s under the pump both legally and financially..AND he has that handy, dodgy old political party of his tucked away in the closet like an A. Jones deep, dark confession…He has the many bank accounts where money could be shifted to from..say; Parakeela, a certain “prospecting” group or India..if you get the drift!…whatever, he’s on board..he has no choice…and let’s admit it…those sort of blokes you meet down the front-bar of the local any time ..they got a mouth full of braggadocio, their hand always around a small-beer and the other hand in their trouser pocket fiddling with the last of their small change…but he’s not interested in getting back into Parliament…he doesn’t have to, they say…as amatter of fact, it’d be a failure if he DID get a seat , because that would mean the LNP would miss out on one!..No..he only has to follow instructions and enter a candidate, ANY SHONKY PERSON, in EVERY SEAT running and let the “back-room boys” run the show from there..all he is needed for is to give a sense..a very slim sense…(because the AEC is in the hands of another “Duntroon Poltroon” and can be guaranteed to ‘do its job”…of f#ck all)…of legitimacy to the scam…HE only has to do a couple of pressers when required and then he can go spend sometime in Fiji or wherever…yes!..of course..all “on The House”…AND as a bonus, he can keep the electoral refund money he gets for the percentage of votes he gathers and the Murdoch press will wash him as white as a Georgia/ American Belle O’ the South!……if he just keeps his big mouth shut!

Let the preference farming begin!

The thing that worries me about Labor, is why it has not effectively bothered to call for an inquiry into the suspicions surrounding the running and monitoring of candidates and signage for the election…can it be that they too are “in the thick of it” in regards to dodgy electoral practices?
Judith A BaconOctober 11, 2019 at 10:50 am

Ahhhhh….this reminds on the Heavenly Twins. The Heavenly Twins was the name given to the two airlines Australia had at the time. Anytime one put up their fares, the other did in a nano second, all the while complaining bitterly about the other. Collusion was obvious but never proven. Along came another airline to try wrest control from the Heavenly twins. It lasted for a few nanoseconds and complained bitterly that the decks were stacked by the Heavenly Twins, with the government’s blessing. And it didn’t matter who was in government.

Australians like to rely on independent umpires so fair play is maintained. And at the same time have a go at the ref, and call him or her a mug for getting it wrong. Some have woken up to the fact that fair play is a pipe dream in politics, and that the game is played on several levels, where umpires’ decisions are obviously from a stacked deck. Which becomes more obvious the longer a party is the incumbent.

Come the Revolution!
guestOctober 11, 2019 at 11:02 am

Totaram @6:38pm

I believe we need to confront these deniers with the facts. So much of denial claim is false and baseless.

Take David Bruce’s claim that melting is in a glass of whisky does not raise the level of the whisky. What he has neglected to do is to see how the level rose when he put the ice in the glass.

This kind of cherry-picking of facts and omissions of key science is exactly what deniers do. Ian Plimer, in his book “heaven+earth”, pulls the same trick. For example, his question 30:

“Can you please show me how 3% of annual emissions of carbon dioxide, that is the human emissions, drive climate change and the other 97% do not?”

Plimer simply does not add the two sources of CO2 together because he does not believe that CO2 has any effect on global warming.

What he neglects to acknowledge is that CO2 for a very long time has kept the Earth’s average temperature at about 14 degrees C. It is that kind of cherry-picking employed by David Bruce.

As well, concerning David, he has just asked what greenhouse gases are so he can adjust his climate model. Is he serious? A home-made climate model? And he claims NASA connections and research in the South Pacific and frequently quotes well known deniers. He might be serious but it is all a fantasy.

It is disappointing to see politicians, for example, getting away with shonky comments – and I wonder why they get away with it.

Look at the rubbish published in The Australian, protected by a pay wall. It befuddles genuine discussion.
guestOctober 11, 2019 at 11:17 am

Joseph Carli,

I am with you on Clive Palmer, straight out of Qld from the Bjielke Petersen era. Did he pay money to Murdoch? The amount was huge! Where did it come from?

Of course he had an effect. He attacked Shorten ad hominem, claiming that he could not be trusted. It was the same mudslinging thrown by the Murdoch press for years.

And we know what was said about Murdoch by a judge in the UK about him as proprietor of a newspaper.

Murdoch is a propagandist who sets out to make the world as he sees it, protecting his own investments.
Joseph CarliOctober 11, 2019 at 11:30 am

guest…and the whole arguement that it was Labor’s inept presentation of the policies relies on the presumption that the electorate was too “disconnected” to send them to Canberra…YET…yet that same ‘disconnected” electorate convienetly was “savvy” enough to vote the most inept, policy-less bunch of rooters and rorters back into office – some with an increased majority!- for a THIRD TERM!!…one just has to ask…”cui-f#ckin’-bono”….and the answer comes up everytime as the LNP & their operatives…

Come on!…blind f#cking Freddie could understand Labor’s policies…after all, if one can understand and interpret the rules of rugby league, and the whole East-Coast has an opinion on THAT!… the other is a cake-walk!

Adn BTW…where has Palmer and ANYONE of his crew of buccaneers gone since the election…they have done a disappearing act faster than Mandrake the magician.
paul walterOctober 11, 2019 at 5:59 pm

totaram, Joe Carli on Palmer.

Sums it up, doesn’t it?
ChristopherJOctober 11, 2019 at 6:53 pm

I will say it again, Murdoch and the ABC and SBS, Sky, 9, 10, 7, the Courier Mail, my local Cairns Post, the radio stations….. These outlets pilloried Labor and that is all we saw. Not one pundit said Labor were any good and their campaign was without any shots at all, too corrupt to throw mud now

Those of us that are more curious and seek to know what’s coming, well, we were aghast at the result (bookies had Labor at odds on, remember?), but everyone needs to understand that the election here in Queensland was stolen by a media barrage which made Queenslanders turn away from what could have been a reasonable alternative government for Australia. We were lied to about a Morrison government. Shame on us for not being better informed.

Now, with the Labor fickwuts left holding onto their entitlements and power, there is no alternative government.

Protesting is all we have. The climate emergency idiots should stop trying to disrupt and say their message quietly, on the pavement. I and everyone I know is ready to voice our opinions in solidarity, we are just waiting for a movement to start which is worth our effort. Labor isn’t it. The party has never looked after my working class interests my entire adult life.
guestOctober 12, 2019 at 11:38 am

ChristopherJ,

there is some kind of contradiction here.

First you say no media praised Labor – the election ‘stolen by a media barrage’. But Labor could have been a ‘reasonable alternative government’ and Qld was ‘lied to about a Morrison government’.

But then you do an about face in you attitude to Labor, the ‘fickwuts left holding onto their entitlements and power’. What? And ‘there is no alternative government’. What?

Suddenly you attack ‘the climate emergency idiots’. Who are they and why should they speak ‘quietly on the pavement’?

So now you await some ‘movement’ which is not Labor, because what did Labor ever do for you? What kind of ‘movement’ are you waiting for?

You side with Labor at first and then you turn against it just as the media is supposed to have done before the election. There is some muddled thinking here.
johnoOctober 12, 2019 at 4:52 pm

Speaking of ‘ the climate emergency idiots ‘. I was one of them yesterday. Joined in with the Extinction Rebellion protest in Adelaide. As the police blocked off the road there was no need for much civil disobedience and the the whole shebang was more a street party than protest.
Claudio PompiliOctober 14, 2019 at 1:50 pm

Kaye, I enjoy your articles and largely concur with your views. However, IMHO the ALP lost its nerve a long time ago.

Labor hasn’t been able to create a narrative that appeals to the hearts and minds since the Hawke/Keating years… Instead it ducks for cover with small target strategies. Even worse now with ‘bipartisan’ Albo…. Life is good in permanent Opposition…. A gr8 salary and perks, lots of holidays, and you don’t have to work hard….a few verbal slinging matches and job’s done.

On the other hand, if Labor were really serious about being in government, they would form a centre-left Coalition with the Greens and Independents. They’d be unbeatable… after all, that’s the only way that the Liberals are able to govern… with the help of the irrelevant but vital Nationals votes. Instead Labor’s arrogance to want to rule alone will guarantee it’ll be in the wilderness for a very long time
Judith A BaconOctober 14, 2019 at 1:56 pm

I totally agree, Claudio.

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