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Morrison’s priorities say it all

Apparently, the most pressing issues for this government to address are dealing with non-existent voter fraud and protecting religious organisations’ rights to bigotry.

The fact that, after 8 years in government, they didn’t have an emissions reduction “plan” until a couple of days before COP26 is neither here nor there.  They have important stuff to do like coming up with new three-word slogans, giving interviews on 2GB, high vis photo shoots, social media posts, and FIFO visits to wherever the latest disaster hits.

We have Alan Tudge bringing up the history curriculum again – we don’t want our kids feeling ashamed says Alan (unless they’re gay because that’s somehow bad).

Scotty’s priorities have nothing to do with what is in the best interests of the nation he supposedly leads (cough) – they are solely dictated by how to appeal to the potential One Nation and UAP voters.  That’s why Morrison won’t criticise nutters like Craig Kelly and George Christensen and Matt Canavan and our Deputy PM (who apparently thinks his incoherence is entertaining??).

The get-the-government-out-of-my-life line is madness.  It feeds the narrative that government can’t be trusted and endorses conspiracy theories about coercive control.

Government ministers often preface their comments with “Australians want” or “Australians know” yet they seem to be only pandering to the noisy far right.  According to every poll, climate action, integrity and accountability are high on the list of what Australians want.

Former Labor minister Barry Jones has sounded an urgent call for Australians to demand better “because democracy is under serious threat and both the Coalition and the federal ALP have no vision beyond the election of 2022”.

“Only an active citizenry can prevent sliding towards authoritarian or populist democracy with its endless appeals to the short term and self-interest,” Jones says.

We have Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull teaming up, John Hewson and Barry Jones, the Business Council and the National Farmers Federation and ACOSS, not to mention the state premiers and a growing number of pissed-off foreign leaders, all lining up together to tell Morrison’s government they are not doing their job adequately.

Time to get rid of these dangerous, self-serving, talentless amateurs.

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38 comments

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  1. Phil Pryor

    Morrison is no amateur, being a very accomplished bullshitter, liar, deviate, propagandist, marionette, hypocrite, dishonest dawdler, lazy, lout, worthless non worker, whopper merchant, front for fraud, and, a few hundred other wondrous achievements. SickoDicko.

  2. totaram

    Agree with Phil as usual.
    ScoMo and Co. are also not talentless. It’s just that their talents are not related to doing good for the bulk of Australians.
    I agree they are self-serving and dangerous.

    Getting rid of them is a nice idea, but I have yet to see concrete suggestions for overcoming the wall-to-wall support they get from the media, thus leading to many voters voting against their own interests.
    Just look at the constant barrage of propaganda from the Murdoch stable against Labor in Victoria.

  3. RomeoCharlie29

    Morrison is effectively admitting his is a can’t-do government and he is right. This government can’t do anything right and thus it is correct that it, in particular, should be out of our lives. His vision of can-do capitalism is currently on prominent display with the self-regulation of the building industry on display in all its ugliness as people are unable to occupy their own homes due to shoddy workmanship.the failures of self-regulation are legion, from aged care homes, to part time employment, to the failures of training programs. The hollowing out of the public service and its replacement by consultants whose failures and inadequacies are protected by the claims of commercial-in-confidence and as you point out KL a legislative program(?) largely irrelevant to the real concerns of the populace confirm this is a can’t do, won’t do government which must be consigned to the rubbish skip of history. Morrison must be given the opportunity to follow his religion and get off our necks.

  4. Vikingduk

    As cunning as a shithouse rat is the smirking jerk, as sly as a funnel web in your shoe, as dangerous as a brown snake in your bed, but, but still supported by some, the repulsive Rupert and his empire of lies, hate and division ensures the brain dead remain compliant.

    Here we are, the culmination of many years of evolution, so fucking intelligent that we actively destroy the only home we have waltzing blindly into environmental disaster and for some still can’t tell shit from custard.

  5. Josephus

    Shoving responsibility onto citizens is I think one of the nastiest aspects of consumer capitalism. For example a new tower block is found to have inflammable cladding. The developer and builder bear no legal responsibility as the ACT unlike some or all other jurisdictions did not bring in new laws post the grenfell disaster in London. Worse, each unit owner is asked to pay two grand for testing even though all have the same cladding . And so on. No protection.

  6. wam

    Short, sharp and absolute shiny, Kaye. The activity espoused by scummo is confined to what labor will do.
    Will that be enough for a liberal leader to win a second term?
    Not if albo stirs the morning shows about money and greenhouse gases NOW not when scummo calls the election. The freedom of religion should not be a right to secrecy behind ‘god’s word’. The beliefs on women should be openly stated. In, at least, 20 states of America, the fact that god causes miscarriages(ie natural abortions) is now legislated as women being the cause. The Australian religious nutters, men and women, will follow.
    ps
    Anyone added up the cash splashes by the rabbott, the copperman and scummo or wondered how such waste was possible, without the media commentary suffered by gillard?

  7. Baby Jewels

    Thanks Kaye Lee. You’re a beacon of light in these dark times. We need more people telling it like it is, to wake up the sleeping.

  8. Wayne Turner

    Their priority is keeping their jobs,lining their own pockets,and those of their bribers.We do not rate at all.

    Unless you are in one of those three,only a gullible ignorant fool votes for this lot.Sadly this country is dominated by these morons.

  9. David Evans

    morrisons priorities are morrison morrison morrison and morrison.

  10. Kate Ahearne

    Thanks, Kaye.

    We do have power as individuals – not just the power to vote them out, but as you have pointed out elsewhere, there is all sorts of stuff we can do. We can send emails, make phone calls, make/sign petitions, talk to people.

    Those of us who can afford it can put solar on our rooftops, buy electric or dual fuel cars. Corporations, banks and superannuation funds can elect to withdraw financial support from fossil fuels and invest instead in renewables and alternative technologies. This by-passing of government is happening now. We can keep the cash economy going by making as many of our purchases as we can with cash.

    Keeping the cash economy alive is of particular interest to me. People on small incomes need to be able to shop at farmers’ markets, fetes, op shops, garage sales. Homeless people need a few bob when you come across them in the street. Charities need us to drop a few coins into a tin by the checkout at our local IGA.

    Let’s make good use of the powers that we do have as individuals, families, community groups and businesses.

  11. Kaye Lee

    The bleatings from the government about the cash economy are so hypocritical. They have ignored warnings about money laundering through casinos and property dealings forever. They offer special visas for people who deposit a lot of cash.

    It’s like Robodebt vs corporate tax avoidance. They go after cleaners and tradies not charging GST whilst welcoming organised crime figures who offer them cash for visas and developers who offer cash for donations and cash for fake party memberships. Cheat on Jobseeker and you are in trouble – cheat on Jobkeeper and good luck to ya. Mutual obligation for the unemployed, none at all for the employers who fraudulently ripped off the taxpayer.

  12. Richard Laidlaw

    The Morrison Show is like Monty Python’s Flying Circus, though not nearly as talented or funny.

  13. Kaye Lee

    Richard,

    Morrison is like the guy who paid $10 for an argument and Albanese won’t give him anything to argue with,

  14. Michael Taylor

    It’s like Robodebt vs corporate tax avoidance.

    When I started working in Social Security Litigation this is how things worked if:

    a Centrelink recipient was overpaid, wrongly paid, or even denied a payment by Centrelink the recipient/non-recipient could lodge an appeal with Centrelink for review…

    if the appeal failed, the next step was to take the appeal to the Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT)…

    if the appeal was successful, the case would be reviewed by my department to see if the decision had complied with the Social Security Act, and if not, my department would take the appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).

    Howard was PM at the time.

    Any appeal to the AAT would cost the department around $5,000.

    Our instruction from the government was to appeal any decision that involved a $500+ win for the Centrelink recipient.

    So the government was prepared to pay $5,000 to get back (or not get back) $500. It was sickening to be part of a government that would set the hounds on a struggling single mother, or a person with a disability.

    When Rudd was voted in, sanity prevailed. Cases were reviewed on merit, not on dollar amounts.

  15. Fred

    Spot on Kaye. If Scomo thinks that government doesn’t involve “telling people what to do”, which is the whole point of legislation, then he should shut up, say nothing and FO, preferably immediately, because all I hear from him is what he thinks (I use the term loosely as in arcane rather than lucid) which involves expecting others to align with his mantra.

  16. Terence Mills

    Next week the Religious Discrimination Bill will be presented to our parliament and the coalition want it through both houses before the Christmas break commencing 2 December – that is eight sitting days between Monday 22 November and when the parliament rises : remember they only sit for four days each week.

    I would like to be able to give you a link to the new legislation but as far as I can see, it has not been made available to the Australian public yet – it’s on a need to know basis and you don’t need to know – Michaelia Cash has it tucked away and won’t release it until she’d good and ready.

    What we do know is that this new federal Act will override any state legislation on human rights and there will be created a new position of a Commonwealth Religious Freedoms Commissioner to keep us all on the straight and narrow.

    memo to Kaye Lee : have you been able to find a draft of the new legislation ?

  17. Michael Taylor

    Kaye, one of the many things I love about your articles are the punchy last sentences. If you were a boxer, you’d be landing the knockout blow.

  18. GL

    Commonwealth Religious Freedoms Commissioner B. Houston?

  19. Billy

    Kaye, gosh, you have done it again. Such a short succinct summary that sums up the file that is Australian democracy. In

  20. Kaye Lee

    Terence,

    “The government has taken the extraordinary step of withholding the draft bill from its own supporters before it expects them to vote for it on the floor of Parliament. The government keeps its own backbenchers in the dark, too.

    The bill is so secret that few can be sure how it will work if it is ever passed. The Attorney-General, Michaelia Cash, outlined drastic changes last week to scale back the plan drafted by her predecessor, Christian Porter, but she only gave the backbench committee a five-page outline.”

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-s-secretive-religious-freedom-bill-it-s-certainly-free-of-information-20211118-p59a34.html

    Be vewwy vewwy kwiet – it’s a seekwet.

  21. GL

    Kaye Lee,

    And on that depressing, but not wholly unexpected LNP sneaky crap note, I think I’ll go and listen to Mike Oldfield’s album Incantations to take my mind off the never ending vileness of the scum that is Scummo and Crony Co. Inc..

    Have a good night all.

  22. Michael Taylor

    Kaye, big difference from what Julia Gillard wanted to do, that is, not dwell in secrecy.

    She saw the value in social media as the answer to the right-wing MSM. Her plan was to throw open proposed policies to the general public to gauge their reaction, and to absorb new ideas.

    She also saw that media releases were a waste of time as the MSM was giving her no oxygen. Her alternative was to hand out media releases via YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

    Her other idea was for each department to run a blog site, mainly for public feedback.

    Meanwhile this little black duck was running a blog site called Cafe Whispers. 😁

  23. RosemaryJ36

    The current level of thinking in the so-called government is almost as low as you could get.

  24. Richard Laidlaw

    Indeed. They’re leading the limbo dancing competition.

  25. B Sullivan

    The secret bill will not protect religious organisations’ rights to bigotry, it will guarantee their privilege to bigotry. A privilege that does not apply to anyone else, whereas rights apply to everyone. Its content is being kept in the dark because faith is a leap in the dark. Ignorance is an essential ingredient of confidence. And Scott Morrison is supremely confident, after all, Australia is a Liberal Party Democracy in which privileged over-represented minorities and not the majority determine who will form government.

  26. Terence Mills

    Kaye

    I thought that they were keeping it secret but, call me naive, I couldn’t believe that an elected government in Australia would actually try this on and withhold legislation from the parliament until the last moment.

    There are eight sitting days left this year and they want to ram this through without any members of our parliament (either side) having the opportunity of seeing and comprehending the legislation. Is this because they are ashamed of what they are doing ?

    This is the height of arrogance from a government who have never understood that democracy is … government of the people, by the people, for the people

    David Marr in the Guardian :

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/19/the-church-has-always-been-in-the-business-of-shame-now-it-wants-a-law-to-protect-its-nastiness

  27. Kaye Lee

    Speaking of preselection, Sophie Mirabella’s husband got the nod to replace Scott Ryan in the senate.

  28. Michael Taylor

    I thank the sky fairies that it wasn’t Sophie herself.

    Maybe the Libs have realised that she’s damaged goods in my (and her former) electorate.

    Nah, they’ll probably pick her to again run in Indie against Helen Haines.

    Good luck with that. Helen does more for her electorate before lunchtime than Sophie did in three years.

  29. Michael Taylor

    It annoys me when I hear people label the independents as Liberals in disguise. There are some fabulous independents in Parliament, of which Helen is one.

    Helen is more Labor than Labor are. She fights on issues that Labor should be doing.

  30. Kaye Lee

    There’s a definite advantage to being an independent – you can’t get wedged and you don’t have to produce a budget.

  31. corvusboreus

    I don’t think there are many real advantages in running as an independent candidate, and several disadvantages (eg lack of access to broader collective coffer) but I can see a number of significant advantage in having independent political representation.

    Firstly, unless you choose an indi from the MDP ( multiple dissociate personalities), the conduct of your member isn’t dictated by factional whimsy.

  32. Michael Taylor

    Helen is doing everything that Labor should be doing:

    Pushing for an integrity commission.
    Pushing for more climate action in our electorate.
    Has got a commitment from the government for 24,000 homes in Wodonga (and Albury – Sussan Ley’s electorate) to get fibre to the premises broadband.
    Gets out and talks to people in her electorate.

    I haven’t heard from or seen Labor’s, the Liberals, the Greens or the Nationals candidate in six years.

  33. leefe

    “The government has taken the extraordinary step of withholding the draft bill from its own supporters before it expects them to vote for it on the floor of Parliament.”

    Is this even legal? You’d think there would be some sort of procedural rule against it. If nothing else, surely it would open the legislation to court challenges due to the possibility of being unconstitutional?

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