By now, you’ve probably all heard the tale of Duncan Storrar, the man on $20,000 a year who asked assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer on QandA why people much wealthier than him are getting tax breaks and he isn’t.
Let them eat toast, replied O’Dwyer, but those mofos can cost up to $6000 so two good people began a fund-raising campaign for Mr Storrar to get himself a toaster bigger than his very kitchen because this is class warfare and it’s time to pick your feckin side.
Newscorpse immediately launched a savage attack against Duncan, despatching Princess Caroline Overington to find Duncan’s estranged son who when found had nothing good to say about his dad so obviously, dumbo, Duncan had no right to ask his question because his son hates him. No, I’m not linking to Overington’s piece of trash.
Chris Kenny’s son has also publicly proclaimed his hatred for his father but Newscorpse doesn’t see that as an impediment to Kenny’s authenticity. Apparently earning over $80,000 a year restores any authenticity one might lose as a consequence of your children hating you.
(There are in fact very many impediments to Kenny’s authenticity: his son’s hatred of him is not one of them).
According to another Newscorpse Princess, Rita Pahini and some of her followers, the ABC needs to be pilloried for allowing Duncan entry to QandA in the first place, and no government minister should appear on that show again until the audience is subject to an income test.
Newscorpse then attacked Duncan for not paying any net tax, overlooking the fact that Newscorpse pays no net tax either but that’s OK because Newscorpse has a $6000 toaster it uses to burn to a feckin crisp poor people who ask inconvenient questions so it’s exempted from tax which is only for poor people anyway who have to pay it as punishment for being poor because the doctrine of predestination teaches (read this, it explains a great deal about the LNP) that if God wants you to be rich you’ll be rich and if you aren’t it’s because you’ve pissed him off so NO TOASTER FOR YOU.
Not yet satisfied with the zillion buckets of their own stinking piss they’d poured over Duncan, Newscorpse discovered his rap sheet and plastered Duncan’s offences all over the Herald Sun’s front pages today. Duncan has a record, ergo Duncan may not ask a question on Qanda about income tax.
Yes. This is our country.
Let us not pay attention to the entirely legitimate question Duncan asked, a question many millions of us would dearly love to have answered by Treasurer Scott Morrison or, if we have no other choice, Kelly (let them eat toast) O’Dwyer. Let us instead go through the questioner’s trash cans in a mammoth effort to discredit and invalidate the perfectly legitimate question he is perfectly entitled to ask from his seat in the QandA audience upon which he is entirely entitled to settle his bum, even if he only earns $20,000 a year, because last time I looked, asking questions didn’t have a means test attached to it.
But wait. There’s more. Newscorpse chief political editor at one of its many sordid publications, Ms Samantha Maiden, will later this month appear in court to be sentenced for drunk driving and leading police not once but twice on a drunken car chase along the Hume Highway and surrounds. In spite of being found guilty of all charges, Ms Maiden has continued to write her regular column, indeed, in one of her first tweets after appearing in court she called a respected economist a dickhead, rather a reckless judgement from an individual who’d just been found guilty of drink driving and attempting to escape not one, but two police pursuits.
For reasons not immediately apparent to this writer, Ms Maiden’s criminal activities do not invalidate her opinions, while Duncan’s do.
Why have the frothing Newscorpse contingent gone after $20,000 a year Duncan like dogs in an advanced stage of rabies? Because Duncan’s question threatened them so profoundly they have to try kill him stone dead, or at the very least, silence him and anyone like him, forever. This is a message from the LNP to the country: Stick your neck out and we’ll set our backers onto you, your family and your life till there’s nothing left of any of it. We will exterminate you.
This is a class war. Make no mistake about it.
In case you still have doubts, yesterday Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took flight into the exclusive “gentleman’s only” Athanaeum Club for lunch, after being confronted by single mother, Melinda, on the matter of how hard it is raising her children after family tax cuts. As the Huff Post reports it:
The visit [to the exclusive club] comes after the PM addressed a Business Women and Working Mothers Forum in Sydney on Wednesday, and not long after he was confronted on the street by a woman named Melinda who claimed his policies were hurting families.
Class war. Gird thy loins.
This article was originally published on No Place For Sheep.
One person’s “class warfare” is another person’s struggle for equity in this world …..
From the remote Kingdom of Tonga, I observe with some sadness, the slow demise of Australia as we knew it. When I arrived in Tonga last year, it was like stepping back into Brisbane in 1970. I know the “Protocols” are a forgery, but how did they know in the 1890’s that Australia would end up just like they predicted? Are our LNP politicians owned by the zionists, then bribed, blackmailed or beaten up to follow instructions of their masters, and ignore the needs of their electorate and the rest of Australia? Has the Australian electorate become as mean spirited and evil as these “elected” representatives? Or has a new breeding program spawned this demise?
I just got home from a trip to the supermarket for milk and weetbix and catfood. And my semi regular read of the front pages of the national/Melbourne daily/weekly tripe-fests courtesy of uncle rupy muckraker. I never know what I am going to find out about someone, so its always worth a check just in case there is some real juice. Like georgie ‘porkpie’ pell out for a pie and chips with a beer and a quiet fag in Rome at the weekend after the stress of not coming to Australia to say “Duuhhh. I don’t recall…” in person. Bastard. Rule 303 for him.
Today, FULL PAGE SPREAD, Duncan Storrar has a bad past !!!!!!.
Well, so do I. Not jail, but it’s stopped me getting certain jobs. I mean, I had the choice of 6 months ‘jail’, or work on Puffing Billy because I built a better shed from which to run my home printing business without the correct council permit. It only cost me $30 grand in all. Plus the initial costs of the shed they tore down.
Does that make his questions any less relevant ?
Or the answers to them any less full of shit ?
Methinks not.
Rupert. And your purple minions. Piss off and do some real reporting. There is a bullshit double dissolution election in a couple of months, or had you forgotten all of that in your haste to besmirch a guy who had asked an innocent question of his political and industrial leaders and from their answers given on National television, on a station over which you have no control, found them wanting, and a very public embarrassment to the chosen few.
Just a word of warning, you pathetic over sensitive, megalomanic wrinkled old fart, when you decide to stomp on people who are already deep in the mire there is a better than even chance that some of the shite is going to leave stains on you too, and if you kick us too often we’ll drag you down to play in our back yard. SCREW YOU !!!!
Typical undemocratic BIASED predictable trash from the home of Rupert “We love phone hacking” Murdoch.
Instead of address Duncan’s points,they attack and demonize him.
Limited News = Scum.
We will now have to call it. ( NAZI-CORP ) murdoch is the new HITLER !
Strange to see that Duncan has been a swinging voter. I expect that has changed, hopefully along with many thousands of others of his ilk. Next he’ll become radicalised. Then the poor rech will be sent to a re-education camp. Hopefully there he will be taught how to leverage his $20,000 a year into a negatively geared house with a wall and security gate!
Thank you Jennifer for making my day today. So true, so true. Poor Duncan, he asked the best question and now they’re hounding him. I hope he survives all the hype and was glad to hear the 2 who set up the crowdfunding are looking into the best way to protect him from the money sharks (including Malcolm’s Centrelink Mafia) who are no doubt circling already.
Great article Jennifer.
No surprise NewsCorp would go after Duncan, and seek to discredit him.
In his question and comment on Q& A, he has committed a secular heresy violating the plutocratic murdocracy that Australia is becoming.
Fantastic article Jennifer! Who the hell do these bastards think they are posting Duncan’s rap sheet up in a gutter rag? ( I was going to call it a news paper, but that’s insulting to news papers) Are they really trying to destroy this poor bastard for doing no more than asking a question we all would like the answer too? The rank hypocrisy of Turdbull accusing Labor of class warfare eh?!
Yet pleasingly, from my observation, the majority of people in the real world (that being online where commentary is rarely censored) are completely in support of Duncan and happy to have him spark a much needed conversation.
With one salient question, Duncan has summed up the concerns that trouble most Aussies. Many poor but many middle class or even wealthy. Not all of course because the likes of our PM, and the upper echelons of banking and 7-eleven have to get rich somehow and how dare poor people like Duncan and all those Indian students stand in their way just because they need to eat?
The single mother said it all when she threw up her hands and walked away from Malcolm’s entreaties that he understood a la “I feel your pain” (spare me the patronising crap Malcolm you have no fecking idea).
Her response was totally “You just don’t get it you rich knob!”
And he doesn’t! And never will! Hope spings eternal for a government who knows how to govern for all the people and recognises that the wealthy have less to lose because they have so much more to start with.
And let’s kill the GST and go back to taxation by need.
Ie food, education =no tax. Private aircraft, antiques = max tax.
Yet another great article Jennifer.
Duncan’ still the right to ask a question; regardless of his previous wrong doings. He still is part of our society and has right ask a question of a politician. The right wing media seem very embarrassed by Kelly O’Dwyer answers though.
Ethical media would not be “embarrassed” by O’Dwyer’s ghastly answer, they should be ANGRY. Totally love the title “Let them Eat Toast”. Says it all really about the attitude of the Libs. Actually I find Murdochs rags to be a bit ambivalent and less virulent this election campaign so far), compared to previous ones. Maybe thats just due to Rupert’s aversion to Malcolm.
Congratulations. Australia truly is taking after its older cousin, America. Or, as most other countries call us, the “bad influence”.
Merde-och has obviously forgotten that our poverty stricken criminals become our heroes. It’s the wealthy ones we can’t stand.
This is exactly why publications like the AIMN need to be in the public arena. The mind-numbing hypocrisy that pervades the Murdoch press can only be countered by independent sites like this and No Place For Sheep.
Your “sock-it -to- ya article by Jennifer Wilson made my heart sing – I can’t abide Murdock Press, I can’t abide his nasty undermining presence and influence upon our elections, or, his monopoly of our mainstream news, because he greedily munched it up and grabbed his lion’s share, I can’t abide his dogged influencing and weakening of the laws and rules governing media ownership in Australia. Most of all I can’t abide his lies and distortion of the truth in his gutter snipe press
Hear, hear John Kelly ……
Unfortunately, there are thousands (if not millions) of voters in circumstances similar to Duncan’s… who will still stubbornly insist on voting for the Coalition.
David May 13, 2016 at 10:53 am – the trouble is that the democratic circle is wobbly and only connects every election where we citizens are all absolutely equal in that we have an inalienable right to spend 4 minutes filling out a ballot paper 3 times every 3-4 years – the next day it changes to most votes in return for money in all its forms – the wobbly bit is in the intervening time as there is no systemic mechanism to make our representatives voter centric rather than party/donor/wealth holder centric.
When the human construct that is democracy as we know it, is de/reconstructed to allow for such mechanism and we become accustomed to talk with each other in a collaborative cooperative way, issue by issue, will we be able to positively influence this demise.
One could ask whether the recent revelation that Duncan’s name appears in the Panama Papers changes anyone’s opinion?
Irrelevant really at this stage. His question (on behalf of the 75% of workers and others who got no benefit, just cuts, from the budget. We dont know the circumstances, he could have been used unwittingly, its not unknown. Your question could also be asked re Malcolm, who is remarkably blase about it.
News Corpse . . . Where the truth goes to die. Good stuff, Jennifer, go hard or go home
It would seem to me that the venom heaped upon Mr Storrar relates not just to the fact that he questioned Turnbull’s tax cuts for the well off, but that it was The Public who decided on the narrative.
The Murdoch media in particular consider that it is themselves who decide how the Australian public will think, decide on what opinions they will hold. The LNP narrative was supposed to be “average” Australians get tax cuts, “small” business get tax cuts and that it’s Mr and Ms Average who hold multiple negatively geared properties. And if you don’t fit into how the Libs want “average” perceived, then you are a leaner, a no hoper, a sponge on the public purse. Mr Storrar gave us all a reminder of what “average” in Australia is likely to be – a struggler who has to scrape to find enough money to take his daughters to the pictures, NOT someone who has a negatively geared property tucked away for their 1 year old baby.
And then something even worse happened (as far as the Murdoch media was concerned), the public rallied in support of Mr Storrar. Rip him up, tear him down as he has destroyed the narrative.
I earn more therefore I am worth more as a citizen and I care not what the peasants eat. If you don’t like it too bad because all the complaining in the world isn’t going to change diddlysquat.
O’Dwyer had a very Duttonesque look on her face when trying to answer Duncan’s question, which really says a lot about her suitably to be a member of parliament.
And I’d like to know how much NewsCrap paid his son to vilify him. Probably enough for at least a good sized deal of Ice!
Classic case of attacking the man and not the argument. And why isn’t publishing his history a breach of privacy?
Interesting read the ‘Doctrine of Predestination’. Another interesting read is about how well the same people are making the EU a safer place. Ah, what to believe. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
What a fantastic article. I wish more people could comprehend this message.
This article hits the nail on the head. Our democracy is going down the drain and most Australians are asleep leaving men who want one set of rules for the rich and another for the poor at the wheel. Pardon all the mixed metaphors.
Sall I completely agree. It still angers me that Zaki Mallah had every right to ask his question before Steve Ciobo chose to turn the whole situation into some sort of toxic political point scoring exercise. I would very much like to have heard the response to Zaki’s question, a question, which only he was qualified to ask and which was decidedly valid.
Roslyn are you suggesting that if we had someone more like Hillery Clinton running things it would be different or am I reading to much into your ‘men’ reference.
The underlying issue here is that regardless of Duncan’s personal problems–which I sympathize with–is that Australian governments of both major persuasions have over time and incrementally lost their duty-of-care to their citizens, especially those at the lowest fiscal end of their society. It is time for these citizens to form political-blocs and demand their rights which is to be cared for by their government when times are bad
If Damon Johnston behaved like the judge and jury in a pub and spewed out the disgusting indignation towards Duncan as he did he would get his head bashed in.
https://soundcloud.com/774-abc-melbourne/herald-sun-editor-damon-johnston-with-jon-faine-on-774-abc-melbourne
All these comments and no one of you identified the irony in Duncan’s question, in fact it was a completely stupid question for him to ask. First we all know Duncan DOESNT PAY TAX, so how exactly would a TAX CUT help him if he doesn’t pay tax?
Wayne, he does pay tax every time he buys clothing, puts petrol in his car etc.
More to the point, tax cuts to those small businesses needing $6000 toasters on the back of budget cuts to Medicare, health services and unemployment benefits are hurting lots of people on middle and low incomes or no incomes.
Stimulating the business sector may buy you votes from that sector, however you do need a population with money to buy what those small businesses are selling.
If you think about it, paying huge subsidies for the mining sector to take away the coal, iron ore, oil and gas, and reducing revenue from the business sector, this budget is really robbing Peter to pay Paul.
But you’ll get your wish, when poor bloody Duncan gets the money from the crowd funding, I’m sure he’ll be taxed to the max.
The stupid, bullish insistence the ‘average’ ‘citizen’ (for ‘citizen’, read ‘consumer’, or ‘costumer’ as my spellcheck likes to remind me is true) that ‘politics is shit, all politician are liars’ let the moral vacuums of the L(N)P gain power, and do what they want. If you don’t like the low quality dross we get as our least-worst-of-two-options politicians, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, rather than carping and ‘cleverly’ misspelling Rupert’s empire’s name on lefty, low-readership blogs and ‘news’ websites. Actually run for office, and put your principles into practice. You do have principles, don’t you, unlike, say, Peter Dutton . . . ? What are they? Have you ever written them down and can say unreservedly that you believe in them? Or are you all mouth and no trousers?
Dear everyone, thank you for your great comments and support for AIM & No Place for Sheep. I, for one, will never shut up 🙂
Wayne, Storrar’s point was clearly made so I don’t know how you missed it. As stated he does pay tax on just about everything, but his income as that’s so low he can’t meet the tax threshold to pay income tax. The taxes he does pay though consume a far greater proportion of his income than that of the wealthy panellists and the Murdoch media minions who had go at him, yet they get government handouts and breaks but Duncan doesn’t. That was his question, where is his financial relief?
Then we could really go into the hypocrisy of this in the media who savagely attacked Storrar paid no tax on billions, some of their journalists have past criminal records with one currently facing charges and one of their leading journalist’s son spoke out against his father. These are all things the Murdoch media stated disqualified Storrar from being able to express his opinion.
Yeah he is not a hero just a normal ex criminal (we hope) thug I love how everyone rushes out to make someone a hero without actually knowing what type of person he is.
Well again that’s not true James. Apart from the Murdoch media who are making him out to be a thug and crim, other media I’ve read states he is neither a thug nor a hero, which is where I stand.
My point is the hypocrisy in this. Storrar made a point and did nothing more than ask a question that somehow has the right outraged purely because he dared ask a question in a forum called Q&A. On the other hand they have no problems with their own thugs and crims, but do have problems with recalcitrant family members speaking out against their own. The opposite of what they are levelling against Storrar.
How dare some awful low bred commoner question Rupert’s puppets and raise a ruckus! Now he has commanded his thralls to dig up any hint of dirt and trash him in the eyes of the sheep.
James,
If it is about people making someone a hero, what happened demonstrates how convected and ritualised our mainstream media (including the ABC) has become, and how difficult it is to get legitimate questions answered by politicians.
Without pretence or artifice, Duncan Storrar asked an incisive question relating to unfairness and structural inequity in Australian society and the perception that the decisions made in the 2016-2017 Budget would accentuate that further. His retort to Innes Willox ( who claimed Duncan probably didn’t pay any tax ), that he Duncan, indeed paid taxes every time he got in his car, was equally incisive, revealing the regressive nature of the GST on those who are unemployed, under-employed and / or have a disability.
He asked a question in a very public forum, a question he wanted an answer to, given his own life experience, and a question which millions of Australians would also have liked to ask.
The unexpected sequel with the crowd-funding of thousands of dollars for Duncan (not something he or anyone might have predicted), was a curious parody of the ‘cash for comment’ that persist in the commercial television current affairs world.
It was as if thousands of individuals who offered him money were saying ” Thank you, You asked the very question we would like to have asked ‘ or ‘ The government is short-changing your entitlement to fairness in the Budget, and in a small way, I would like to counter that injustice ‘
Overall, this episode says something about the opaqueness of Australia’s investigative media to ask of us as a community, and our politicians, the hard questions.
Thanks Duncan and thanks AIMN.
I always thought that there was a distinction between what (the content) someone said and who (mouth) that person is – this distinction is very useful as one concentrates on one then the other an initial mutually exclusive exercise.
In our society, as reflected by some fellow citizens, the distinction does not exist or worse, they have been left not to make that distinction and actually qualify first, then perhaps question what was said depending on the former and how propaganda serves our masters.
James, this is a useful trait to have, particularly if one wishes to be regarded as thoughtful, insightful, willing to learn and does not wish to embarrass oneself or perhaps be seen as foolish and shallow.
The question was excellent, the questioner for all his past and present circumstances seems to have found within himself a latent spark – please do not be jealous, just acknowledge that within him.
Unfortunately the person is related to what they are saying. Not mention the fact that the premise of what he is saying is incorrect. There is no comparison between him getting more stuff for free and a tax payer getting a reduction on what they pay (which contributes to the free stuff our friend Duncan is wanting more of). So the real question is do we take more from people who are productive members of society and give it to him so he can take his kids to the movies on Saturday).
Yes I know the hippies amongst you will jump up and say for some reason people who made more of their lives have to pay for the dead wood in society but not all us believe that.
I’m personally happy to pay for students and short term unemployed to make it but no way do I want to pay for Mr Assault to have a free ride for the rest of his life.
Ok I’m finished let the free love and support the free loaders commence whinging.
James, just out of curiosity. do you approve of abortion?
Not really a related question right ? But to be honest I don’t know. Its tricky, one side has the rights of the mother to control her body on the other half is the rights of the unborn child. The question is when does the child cease being a part of the mother and becomes an independent being that deserves the same rights as the mother.
To put it another way it seems reasonable that someone could get an abortion the day after conception because there isn’t much there yet. Conversely I think most reasonable people would say you shouldn’t abort a baby the day before birth. So where is the point it crosses over. I personally don’t know, I’m not a theologian, scientist (in that area) or even a women. I don’t have the information so I can’t make a judgement.
Sorry 🙁 I know you were hoping for something more to pigeon hole me as some sort of conservative.
Oh, you managed to provide plenty, James. 😉
😛
James damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
I am very pleased that you will not shut up Jennifer Wilson – you make me think. I may not have been responding to your writing lately – I always read all your stuff, and I look forward to receiving your posts via email – and again, I say, I am very glad, that you write as you do – and although, I might not always agree with you, diversity of thinking and freedom are important, now more than ever. A lot of intelligent writing is needed to counteract the tyranny of Murdoch’s, Newscorpse and ugly, gutter rubbish, scribbling. Good on you AIMN as well
In the end, it showes the 60 Minutes Lebanon antic was no accident- Tabloid media and press would rather die than tell the truth on social issues.
Thank you Kristapet. We have a lot of weeks of work ahead of us because Murdoch is going to pull out all the fire power
Many people who pay ‘no net tax’ are taxed on their earnings throughout the year. of course it can be nice to get a couple of hundred or even more back on your tax return, but you actually need the money week to week. Someone like Duncan will fall straight into combined poverty traps when they earn a bit of money.
The person may be on a Centrelink payment such as Newstart. They get a couple of weeks casual work, maybe a short-term job. The moment they have income they lose a substantial amount from their centrelink payment, at the rate of 50c in the dollar and they also pay tax on their earnings. A ‘good week’ that brings in sat $1000 (gross) – tax at the normal rate is taken out (which might be returned many months later after the end of the Financial Year) and the person will not get any Centrelink support at all that week, and they won’t be getting that back at all. Then there may be costs in making the money such as organising childcare or travel to the job.
If you have public housing, your rent will also go up to reflect your higher income. I don’t think any other segment of the population has this happen the moment they start to get a bit of work. It’s no wonder that people don’t rush to tell Centrelink and the housing people that they have say 3 weeks’ work. The reaction is instant, but when you run out of work, and need extra help again, the processes to reinstate your payment/assistance are slow and complex .
I experienced this when I thought to subsidise my Austudy with weekend work as a taxi driver. It sometimes cost me more than I earned, plus the time lost when I could have been studying, catching up on housework, spending a while with family etc.
Duncan said he has been a swinging voter. This was his most telling comment. The average Australian, no matter what their earning has become a swinging voter over the last 10 years. Both major parties become more and more alike. Media for both sides (Murdoch for Right, Fairfax for Left) are living in the past if they think their parties will return to their their view of utopia
One thing I would like to add is that the Libs are absolutely “delighted” that the msm are all discussing Duncan and ignoring the issue he raised. Playing the man has been a long standing tactic. Next moment everyone is discussing the person and the issue has been neatly swept aside in the flurry. Attacks on Duncan, unfortunately for the person himself all fit precisely into the LNP theme of “The $80,000+ Average Person”, therefore any lesser mortal must be at fault (character, work ethics, drugs)…and there is a veritable army of resentful bogan/troll types out there frothing at the opportunity to attack.
kelly,what a virile presbyterian ladies college girl you are.mark