Morrison’s munificence starts early
Several political commentators – the ones who failed to hold the government to account and who failed to see where that would lead – have opined that Scott Morrison’s victory will give him the ability to bestow positions on merit, choosing the best person for the job.
Except that’s not how Scott rolls.
Even before the writs have been issued, Morrison is rewarding his backers and clearing out anyone who may question his supreme authority.
Arthur Sinodinis was a Turnbull stalwart. He also suggested that the Coalition look at some of Labor’s policies. He had to go.
IPA member Mitch Fifield is to be sent off to the UN where he will no doubt further undermine any action on climate change or human rights for refugees.
This opens the door for Morrison to appoint two Senators of his liking who will no doubt be extremely grateful for the largesse showered on them, not by the public at an election, but by their leader at his whim. Jim Molan is no doubt hoping for the nod the voters refused to give him.
Morrison’s former flatmate and numbers man, Stuart Robert, has been promoted to take over the NDIS and “drive efficiencies in the public sector”.
This is the same person who charged taxpayers $38,000 for his home internet service.
He’s the guy who had financial ties to a company, the GMT Group, which was awarded millions of dollars’ worth of government contracts. He apparently neglected to inform his octogenarian parents that they were now the directors.
He also had to appear before the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission for bankrolling two of his former employees to run in local government elections as supposed independents.
He was sacked from his ministerial role by Malcolm Turnbull after he accompanied a Liberal Party donor to China to secure a mining deal for a company in which Robert had shares.
He accepted Rolex watches for he and his wife from “instant noodle billionaire” Li Ruipeng, the chair of the Li Guancheng Investment Management Group.
In 2012, Robert delivered a speech to Parliament that had sections of it written by a lobbyist for Gold Coast property developer Sunland.
And then there is his involvement with the Australian Ibero-American Business Council which has been described as “an exercise in astroturfing, where business interests are trying to create what looks like a broad-based community organisation but actually they control it”.
Robert is a Pentecostal Christian, who, along with his wife, was to co-host a “Treasures of Grace” tour of Israel this year organised by the Gold Coast-based Metro Church. Interested travellers could pay $5600 to join the “trip of a lifetime.”
Morrison’s other numbers man, Alex Hawke, has been promoted to International Development Minister and assistant Defence Minister.
He is also a Pentacostal, and a member of the Hillsong Church, who strongly supported new rules to allow religious schools to expel students who are gay, bisexual or transgender, warning that people of faith were under attack in Australia: “I don’t think it’s controversial in Australia that people expect religious schools to teach the practice of their faith and their religion […] We’re mostly talking about the primary system and very very young people who are below the age of consent. So this is a manufactured issue that the left is raising to try and circumvent religious freedom”.
Aside from working part-time at Woolworths while he was studying, his only job has been as an electorate officer and political adviser for conservative politicians, starting with Ross Cameron after graduation.
After his preselection in 2007 amidst claims of rampant branch-stacking, he said he believes that Australia will move increasingly towards an American model of conservatism and that “The two greatest forces for good in human history are capitalism and Christianity, and when they’re blended it’s a very powerful duo.”
One week into the reign of Scott the Messiah and the message is clear. Rewards will follow for true believers. It’s a grand time to be a Pentacostal sycophant.
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Judith
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New England Cocky
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Keitha Granville
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DrakeN
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Paul Davis
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Ill fares the land
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Paul Davis
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roma guerin
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David Stakes
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Egalitarian
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Jack
Return to home pageYoung adult dystopian fiction describes a world of extreme inequality and human rights abuse. At first it seemed that authors were warning of an undesirable future if things followed their present course.
But perhaps it has backfired and young people have become resigned to these futures as prophesies, not warnings.
Get ready for “Morriscum mediocrity” as any Lazy Nasty People politician having half a modicum of commonsense, management ability or moral fortitude is pushed into the deep background while every form of graft and corruption is practiced to rip-off government revenues and transfer public infrastructure assts into private corporate hands, both national and especially international.
We now have the full joining of church and state – it is not going to be good.
Try this for a new beginning
https://mailchi.mp/d323bfc36411/media-release-511391?e=121b77748e
Courtney Herron, a 25yo homeless woman allegedly suffering from mental health and addiction issues, was brutally beaten to death with such ferocity that attending police officers were physically ill. In death Courtney will, for a week maybe, capture the attention and sympathy of the well fed and comfortably housed. Politicians, commentators and even the slimy Herald Sun have publicly mourned the woman’s tragic death, statements like “the system failed her” being tossed about the airwaves. Yawn.
This country is shit, absolute shit. This year we are on track to set a modern day record for the most women slain and maimed by male partners and exs. Thousands of men women and children are living in cars or sleeping rough. Charities are feeding, showering and clothing destitute people as best they can. Our government? Cuts to welfare because these losers don’t get a go because they’re not having a go.
Christians? Of course we are, Jesus rewards the affluent because they are affluent. Jesus saves …. at the ANZ.
You know, in my home town, there was a very well known business that acchieved a lot of success, but which was owned and run by devout members of a partiuclar religious sect. It was no secret that to be one of the management team required you be of the same faith. I’m not suggesting they were religious nutjobs, merely highlighting that we tend to recruit in our own image. Despite the fact that I have read numerous articles suggesting how Morrison can keep his faith out of his politics, we have already seen that the two are inextricably intertwined – they define Morrison and how he views and interacts with the world and the image he has of himself and his “team”. When you combine his religious zeal with his lust for building a Cult of Morrison with his inability to work collegiately (he demands [rather than commands] subservience from his “followers”), you have a man who sees himself as a quasi-President.
Now that he has been given, by God’s grace and will, ultimate power, he is going to abuse it, but the media won’t report on abuses – it will be up to the “underground” sources to identify what he is really doing – which is a lot of nothing puffed up to look like the unification of Australia. He will make Australia afraid so he can “protect us”. He will make it sound like it is un-Australian to not want what he wants – his own perverted vision of Howard’s Australia reborn with a “Morrison twist”. As Howard did, he will trumpet unity and practise division. It will be interesting to see how his avowed “unification” works given that he has already drawn the lines around himself and his ministry (his “inner circle of supporters and sycophants if you will). It is all as inevitable as night follows day. It is what drove him to seek power and why he will misuse power. The LNP has already moved surreptitiously closer to an authoritarian state. Conservatvie talk personal liberties, but they want to remove personal liberties, because that allows them greater freedom to attack an villify any group they want to, notably journalists, academics and scientists, but also anyone whio is dependent upon welfare. Oh and don’t forget that the privatisation of Medicare is on the list of 75 thbings the IPA wants – Mediscare was not without substance.
I recalled recently and listened again to one of the great social commentary songs in Australia – Master of Spin by Mark Seymour. It wasn’t written about Trump or Morrison specifically, but the lyrical metaphor is distrubingly prescient. “He came out of nowhere, a God-fearing man…”. ” ….into a world he was born to command”. His mother “pushed from behind” (Morrison’s foray into child acting). On it goes. With song lyrics you can generally twist your thinking to believe they fit one’s own narrative, but I don’t think I am making this up. Not every line fits, but many seem to.
Really interesting DrakeN. So ABC management rejected one 30 minute secular oriented radio program per month. But they will permit the NSL to submit a list of ‘suitable’ persons from which, if and when circumstances require, a guest on an ABC panel program may be chosen, in the interest of balance of course. No doubt the list will be vetted first by the IPA. My goodness that Jane Caro is a vexatious nuisance. Hilarious. It’s a bit like ‘spot the greenie’ on ABC TV opinion shows.
I despair.
Just what we need……..A God Squad Parliament.
Pork barrels all-the-way-down will be the new normal!
We will most probably see a huge expansion of the situation described in the essay by Michael West in the Saturday Paper titled Surge in Coalition Outsourcing.
Meanwhile, as far as I know Alex Hawke is closely associated with the deeply misogynist right-wing “religious” outfit opus dei.
What an insult to vulnerable people and their families depending on the NDIS Scott Morrison and Stuart Robert are. He is not my PM. He is the Liar from the Shire
Blimey now both nativists and God botherers have been mainstreamed in govt., but hardly surprising, and they are happy to extol the virtues of US style theocracy vs. democracy. Now this should be fodder for Australian investigative and/or political journalists…… but probably not.
For a warning, one can only rely upon the likes of US writers, Nancy MacLean’s ‘Democracy in Chains’ (right wing take over by stealth) and Chris Hedge’s ‘Christian Fascism’ (leveraging of unethical Christianity).
Another test for Australians’ complacency, disengagement and need for perceived prosperity, at any cost…
Genuine question…. is this Cabinet of 45(?) Ministers and Assistant Ministers the largest ever cabinet Straya has had?
Is there a big enough oval table? So the majority of elected LNP members made the inner sanctum. Must be much gnashing of teeth with sackcloth and ashes in the gloomy darkness of the backbench. Couldn’t His Serene Munificence make the other 30+ Parliamentary Secretaries so everyone can snout in the trough? (Vision of Anthony Quinn in sheikh garb “i am a river to my people”).
There are so many homeless people in this country now. The Religious Morrison would be on a winner if he started putting out the funds and start building Public Housing. That could be his 2nd miracle.
Oh dear. Looks like we are in for a period of extreme corruption and an attempt to impose some degree of theocracy. Strange how often religion and corruption go hand in hand.
Wherever in the world religion has the upper hand the worst of the social ills grow, especially those things religion says it stands against: murder, disease, teen pregnancy, abortion, divorce, ignorance, racism, poverty.
We gave theocracy more than a fair try. For more than a thousand years Christian theocracy ruled Europe. That period is called the Dark Ages for a very good reason. During that time Europe stagnated and festered with corruption, superstitious ignorance, poverty, cruelty, large scale institutional murder and torture, and disease. Entangling politics with religion is the absolute worst of bad ideas.
Kaye Lee: ‘He is also a Pentacostal, and a member of the Hillsong Church, who strongly supported new rules to allow religious schools to expel students who are gay, bisexual or transgender, warning that people of faith were under attack in Australia: “I don’t think it’s controversial in Australia that people expect religious schools to teach the practice of their faith and their religion […] We’re mostly talking about the primary system and very very young people who are below the age of consent. So this is a manufactured issue that the left is raising to try and circumvent religious freedom”.’
I am on the verge of exploding over the acceptance of homophobia on grounds of religious ’belief’!
If modern people of faith can accept modern medicine (based on knowledge acquired in recent times), and not blink at the fact that mankind visited the moon without needing a magical flying carpet, yet ignore the fact that refrigeration now obviates the need for all the food fetishes which they now cling to as part of their faith and, worst of all, refuse to acknowledge the rainbow nature of human sexuality, then we are opening a Pandora’s box in allowing a largish chunk of society to pick and choose how much of science they are willing to accept!
Clearly rational thought is increasingly limited to the atheists and agnostics!
We can only hope that the deep recession looming on the horizon, hits us sooner rather than later. That will occupy the Government’s time, and make them leave us alone. The thin veneer of that water colour in the rain talk of being the best economic managers, will be seen for the emperor’s news clothes foolery that it is. Morrison has made himself the minister in charge of social services. That’s scary for anyone on Newstart, Youth Allowance, Austudy or any of the myriad of welfare supplements the most vulnerable receive. The Cashless Wefare Card is privatisation by stealth of the Welfare system. I think Morrison is going to see as much privatisation of the financial wing of social services, and the privatisation of the service side, as he can over the next three years. I won’t be surprised to see both the ABC and SBS merged and sold in that time as well. Frydenberg has already floated changes to Super taxation, and I’m sure, that somewhere deep in the bowels of the policy agenda, there’s a manifestation of a death tax, subtlety named, but a death tax nonetheless. We can already see that the winds of the economic storm have arrived, and the Government is trying to head them off with a stimulus aimed squarely at the housing market, in the hopes first home buyers will be encouraged to purchase. But that’s a stop gap measure at best, and long term will not pan out. Also happening this year, quite soon if memory serves, those paying interest only mortgage payments, are going to start paying interest and principal. Some 900,000 mortgages fall into this category. One would imagine that quite a few of those are already under stress, so would likely collapse in due course. We see house prices falling, and this exacerbates the stress, and spreads it across any mortgage being serviced by the bare minimum required. Many people are paying part of or all of a payment on a credit card, which raises the interest on that payment far higher that the rate of the mortgage, and further compounding the problem. On June 1st, penalty rates will be further reduced, pushing more people into financial stress. One has to wonder at what the desired end result is. The ongoing refusal to take action on Climate Change. Please bring on the deep recession…another three years of these idiots unfettered on our nation, we’ll be toast…