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Mr. Abbott – These People Had a More Difficult Day Than Bronny

This afternoon, Sunday 2nd August, 2015, Bronwyn Bishop, resigned as Speaker of the House, after public pressure over an expense scandal.

Tony Abbott, Prime Minister, told Australians that “it had been a ‘very difficult day’ for Mrs Bishop.” I’d like to take this opportunity to share with Tony Abbott the range of people who have also had a ‘very difficult day’ today because of the cuts and broken promises and poor decisions of the Prime Minister and his Government.

  1. Asylum Seekers on Manus Island and Nauru living in squalor in detention indefinitely.
  2. The young person on Newstart who will starve for a month because they have no welfare income.
  3. The young person in Regional Australia who has run out of petrol and is stranded, because the only service station that takes a Basics Card is closed.
  4. The Single Mother who is waiting until Wednesday to buy milk and bread because her payments have been reduced.
  5. The person with a disability who has been transferred to Newstart who has to decide between eating and petrol, because if they don’t go to their ‘obligated inhouse training’ they will get cut off.
  6. The woman Asylum seeker who is so ashamed she is crying because she isn’t allowed a sanitary napkin, because the Guard said she can’t have one.
  7. The low- and middle-income earner pensioner who is stressed and upset about their future after pension cuts.
  8. The woman with postnatal depression who no longer can go to her counselling sessions because she can’t get childcare because she isn’t working or studying.
  9. The jobless Australians worried that work if even further from their reach because of your China Trade Deal.
  10. The chronic pain sufferer who is going without and living in pain due to increases in medication.
  11. The Federal Public Servants you sacked who are worried they will lose their home because they can’t find another job.
  12. Indigenous Australians in Remote Communities because you have denied them basic essential services and who will have nowhere to live because you are closing remote communities.
  13. Sexually Abused women and children Asylum Seekers in detention because you failed to act on abuse claims.
  14. The homeless person on Newstart stressing they won’t be able to eat when they get cut off, because their personal life barriers are a hindrance to applying for 20 jobs per month.
  15. The Jobless South Australians who could be employed building submarines but they are still jobless.
  16. The Mother who is worried that she can’t afford to take her child to the doctor because the bulk-billing centre is full and you have put up Medicare through the back door.
  17. The 756,100 jobless in Australia.
  18. Young unemployed people in Regional Australia doing twice as many hours of slave labour with no workers comp protections under Work for the Dole.
  19. The Bushfire and Cyclone victims whose lives will never be the same because they didn’t qualify for disaster assistance after your changes to disaster assistance criteria.
  20. Everyday Citizens in local communities who no longer have access to services or maintained roads due to your cuts to Local Councils.

That is just a list of 20 examples of people who don’t just have a difficult day, they have a difficult day every single day whilst your government is hurting everyday Australians. Please call an election. It’s not just the Speaker who needed to go. Your entire Government needs to go.

 

Originally published on Polyfeministix

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77 comments

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  1. Jake

    Thank you for acknowledging those of us in these situations. The govt couldn’t care less.

  2. Cathryn

    Excellent

  3. James Mason

    Excellent Trish … Spot on ..

  4. Phil

    A very thoughtful article, thanks. And what an indictment of Australia. What a horrible mess the Abbott neocons have made of our democracy and our culture.

  5. Abbie Noiraude

    You speak for so many. We on DSP and Carers…trying to exist/subsist…they, the Conservatives have no idea.

  6. stephentardrew

    Ah Trish those facty things just get in the way of the lies.

    He has a dissociative disorder which prevents him from feeling remorse.

    He is emotionally incapacitated and rationally challenged and no mater what facts are thrust in his face they will make absolutely no difference at all.

    He will either be jettisoned by the party or lose the next election without one iota of recognition of his failings. His apologies are empty and ingenuous.

    Good heavens so many people blinded by an emotionally eviscerated fool.

  7. Trish Corry

    Not sure about dissociative disorder; but I’m writing a blog post right now about his level of emotional intelligence.

  8. Matters Not

    ‘right now’

    Much better. Methinks.

    Just sayin …

    But it Matters Not

    Perhaps it’s better to delete my comment. That would be my advice.

  9. Trish Corry

    lol yes, I’m typing like a mad woman at the moment.

  10. Roswell

    Well put together piece, Trish.

  11. Trish Corry

    Thanks Roswell

  12. Marilyn

    I think the amount of Abbott’s emotional intelligence can be summed up with one word, NONE.

    But while it is now Abbott keeping people on Manus is was Gillard and co. who sent them there, while single mothers are crying over cut funds it was Gillard who cut them.

  13. stephentardrew

    Emotional intelligence is overridden by the autonomic nervous system, habituation and the hereditary biochemistry of the brain. Brain plasticity allows us to change our cognitive process but it takes time and effort. Fear plays a primary role in the development of emotional intelligence because the feedback mechanism form the prefrontal lobe (PFL) to the amygdala are much weaker than the feed-forward connections from the amygdala to the PFL. If there is poor feedback then emotions tend to override reason as the effort to control feelings overwhelms reason leading to irrational thinking that lacks consequential connections.

    Abbot appears to have very poor moral perception and limited capacity to reason so tends to live from habit a very conservative reaction to reason whereas progressives tend to us reason first to try and understand emotional reactivity. This is why conservatives live in the past because creative thinking threatens their sense of identity and stability. This can appear as dissociation from the facts because reason is overwhelmed by emotions and with Abbott, I would suggest, flat affect and poor emotional reactivity. His freeze up moments are classical dissociation from the obvious facts that attack his jaundiced self-image.

    So you do not have to be emotionally charged to have poor emotional intelligence because a lack of emotional sensitivity leads to neither highs nor lows. Abbott certainly seems to hold back his anger yet he appears to have very poor perception of moral responsibility. The feedback mechanisms are somewhat complex however imprisoning women, children and families in near torture and poverty is a direct indication of a lack of emotional and moral intelligence. To make the poor; unemployed; disabled; indigenous people; domestic violence victims; low income earners etc., suffer while feeding wealth to the one percent is immoral and dysfunctional.

    Another contributing factor is mirror neurons that give us a sense of empathy which is another area in which Abbott appears to have a deficit. The problem is that habituated inflexible minds are resistant to change so they tend to reinforce their dysfunction. That is why no matter how wrong he is, and no matter how real the empirical evidence and proof, he can ignore them simply to fulfill his ideological theocratic vision of reality.

    He is a classic borderline personality that is not diagnosable as psychiatric yet sit on the boundary between narcissistic delusions of grandeur and full blown dysfunction.

    This is a serious issue that all cultures are going to have to deal with when this type of irrationality leads to destruction of the biosphere and gross injustice and inequality. The question needs to be asked dose someone who has poor moral and emotional boundaries have the requisite personality traits to be in a position of power and control. I definitely think not.

    We need a contemporary review of democracy using science as basis for decision making and what is morally and ethically acceptable then question whether all citizens are capable of rational consequential thinking and solutions based ethics.

    If not hey should not be allowed to govern. Only by lateral and creative thinking will we break the back of conservative cruelty and brutality internationally.

  14. Loz

    It’s not just Abbott who needs to go it is the whole lot of them. They are intent on destroying everything that makes this country a fairer and more modern society. No government of this country has every made me more angry.

  15. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Well done, Trish.

    With the greatest respect to you, Trish, would you please remind Labor that they also need to be far more compassionate for many of those whom you compassionately identify in the list above.

    We ALL want the degenerate LNP zombies eradicated at the next election. The only worse outcome would be that if a cynical, lazy and cocky bunch of Labor dumbies returned to fill the gaps left by the LNP.

    If I thought you, Trish, were ‘inside the inner circle’ of Labor and could guide the policy making on ALL socio-economic policy making so that it becomes grassroots people focused and not the economic rationalist brand that Labor has happily followed for 3 decades, then I would be more hopeful that Labor has the will and the guts to make proper reforms once we’ve ALL booted out Abbott and his Degenerates on their arses.

    In the meantime, I implore good people like Trish Corry to make it very clear to Labor that they are expected by the Australian people to totally reverse, while also reforming, every unjust policy practice that has severely reduced the quality of life to all people identified on Trish’s list (and the others that could be easily added.)

    I also implore Trish and compadres to actively form a working Alliance with the Greens, the Australian Progressives and sane Independents on the Crossbenches. It takes more than what Labor has to offer in order to provide wide-ranging and effective representative government in the Australian 21st century.

  16. Kaye Lee

    And that was Julia Gillard’s forte. Admittedly it was forced upon her, but the input of the Greens and Independents in legislation made it a very productive government. Sadly they were just getting things going before the wrecking ball came along and sent us hurtling backwards.

  17. Robert

    Loz says exactly what our family think too. For the past two years TA has been tearing down all the good aspects about Australian culture and democracy and substituting something totally obnoxious in its place. I really wish we had far less than a year more to bear.

  18. Neil of Sydney

    Sadly they were just getting things going before the wrecking ball came along and sent us hurtling backwards.

    That is what Labor always says. They were always just about to run a surplus budget but it never happened.

    Look at what Labor did to our auto industry. In 2007 more than 20% of cars were made in Australia. In 2013 after Labor giving the auto industry the money it wanted, local car sales had crashed to 10% of the market.

  19. Kaye Lee

    A surplus budget was a silly promise from both sides and definitely not desirable in the current economic climate of rising unemployment and falling private sector investment.

    And how’s Malcolm’s “cheaper, faster, quicker” NBN going?

  20. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Neil,

    I don’t want Labor to run a surplus budget and YOU shouldn’t either.

    We need the money sensibly and effectively spent on innovative and compassionate society building programs throughout Australia and the bush.

    Get people working with Micro Finance Grants and Micro Credit Loans, so that since there are not enough jobs, they can be effectively funded into their own viable and sustainable self-employment.

    Once each one of the growing unemployed and under-employed can operate their own micro-businesses with sufficient funding OVER and ABOVE their Newstart, not only do they begin to rely less on welfare but they also begin returning to becoming efficient taxpayers and employment providers for other unemployed and under-employed people. Very do-able.

    So, stop your bullshit about the imperative of a surplus and THINK about how the taxpayer funding can be effectively SPENT on society building infrastructures and programs.

    Pooh to the false imperative of a surplus budget. Pooh to the LNP false imperative that this is all that matters.

  21. Neil of Sydney

    I don’t want Labor to run a surplus budget and YOU shouldn’t either.

    Well then don’t brag about our AAA credit rating. It was not until Costello took govt debt from 18% of GDP to 5% of GDP that we got our AAA back which we lost under Labor.

    And maybe you do not know, most of our borrowings are funded from overseas unlike the USA and Western Europe who can get most of the money they need from their own people.

    We are now paying $1B/month in interest on Labors debt. $700M of that goes overseas every month in interest to foreign investors never to return.

  22. Möbius Ecko

    Neil back to his old and tired one trick pony, Labor past, Labor past, Labor past whilst he quite deliberately ignores current things like this: http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLOU7GWUcAE2HvM.png

    Neil is deliberately derailing the topic again with the same old things he’s posted many times before so as to put the focus onto Labor and off his woeful Liberal’s massive shortcomings and failures in government, past and present. Especially present as we suffer through the worst government in our history led by the worst PM and containing many incompetent ministers all prevaricating and lying through their teeth.

    About time the MSM put the full focus on Abbott and this government over their rorts, lies and deceptions along with the long string of policy and economic failures.

  23. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Hear, hear Mobius.

    Neil, did you allow your mind to ponder my Micro Financing proposals at all?

    Oh dear! Such short-sightedness keeps Australian traditional economic tragics like yourself in the Dark Ages.

    Think BIG, so Australia can aim to fund its own future by innovative programs and infrastructures.

  24. Matters Not

    Great article here.

    https://theconversation.com/the-unmaking-of-the-australian-working-class-and-their-right-to-resist-44781

    The queues of workers’ cars lining up each morning to get through the factory gate – gone. The publicly owned banks and utilities – gone, or about to go. The union movement, which once covered half the employed workforce and rivalled the state for economic power – mostly gone.

    Secure, full-time employment, with its guarantee of holidays, sick pay and promotion – in many industries long gone. The working-class dream of home ownership and upward mobility via cheap land, equal educational opportunities and apprenticeships – all are on the way out.

    But all is not yet lost.

    But despite being largely defeated, these losers won’t go away – to the immense frustration of the editorialists and business lobbies. At election after election the losers keep voting down further economic reform. A higher GST? No! More privatisations? No! And so on.

    So why won’t all these little people just lie down and let history trample over them? Why can’t they see that all this economic reform has been for the best? Why don’t they cheer when the economists remove public support for their industries and close down their factories and make them and their children unemployed?

  25. Sir ScotchMistery


    A very thoughtful article, thanks. And what an indictment of Australia. What a horrible mess the Abbott neocons have made of our democracy and our culture.

    A moment if I may.

    When we talk about “neocons” et al, we aren’t actually addressing the correct issue.

    Abbott and his “party” were elected by the Australian electorate, apparently.

    I am yet to find a second person who admits to voting for him. The first person who admitted it was a mining company director I used to be friends with, so essentially folks, the disassociation, and the bullshit we are living through is OUR FAULT. They felt/feel they have a mandate to do this. We (not me, Australia, my country), voted for them, and yes that was based on bags of lies and a huge bunch of non-contributors in Western Sydney, but it’s OUR FAULT they are there. It’s up to US to change that situation.

    And if anyone says “they’ll be gone at the next election”, can I suggest not resting on the laurels of your certainty. This electorate has already proven itself beneath contempt and capable of monstrous stupidity.

    Go and find a REAL progressive, either independent or green, and work with them in your seat, so we have more chance of not being effed again at the next election, and I don’t mean just by the LNP. Shorty Bill will have to do a fair bit of change management before I vote for the mongrel again.

  26. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Well said Sir ScotchMistery,

    you are 100% correct.

    Get off your bums, Australian voters, and ensure you support a real, alternative government that has ethics, energy, initiative and preparedness to get their hands dirty in bringing about proper, just reforms and innovation. Do the following:

    1) Kick the LNP out so hard they won’t be able to sit down for the next 10 years or more.
    2) Make Labor totally accountable to these far-reaching improvements by realising they will NOT be the only beneficiaries of these changes coz they don’t deserve it. That will make Labor less cocky and more prepared to start negotiating with the real and ethical movers and shakers thy names are the Greens, the Australian Progressives, other innovative minor parties, sane Indies and other progressive community voices.

  27. Neil of Sydney

    Neil, did you allow your mind to ponder my Micro Financing proposals at all?

    No i didn’t. Actually unemployment is still not too bad. The current unemployment rate is close to a record low for the Hawke/Keating govt. I am not sure govts can do to much. Small grants may help. Especially start up grants to get a project up and running.

    But did you ponder my comment. 70% of the money the Australian govt borrows comes from overseas unlike most Western countries. It is not good for a small country like Australia to have so much foreign debt.

  28. keerti

    To add to bishop’s difficult day, she now has to survive on a generous pension with travel allowances etc! Poor thing!

  29. Neil of Sydney

    Neil is deliberately derailing the topic again with the same old things he’s posted many times before so as to put the focus onto Labor and off his woeful Liberal’s massive shortcomings and failures in government, past and present.

    I would like to see you clean up the mess Labor left. The economic numbers in 2007 were the best for a generation, all destroyed by the people who voted for Rudd in 2007.

  30. diannaart

    Stirling work, Trish (and special commendation to Jennifer Meyer-Smith)

    We must get rid of this mob, a mob of cowards which immediately resorts to playing the victim whenever anything approximating truth rises above the B/S.

    Labor – think very carefully about what you plan, many of your long term supporters are bitterly divided because of your rather schizoid polices. If you are really wanting to take action on climate change – then provide the detail. If you are trying to be tricksy on boat people, remember the masters of cunning stunts are mostly in the Liberal Party.

    Honesty from the start means not having to back-flip later – also provides a sense of consistency and stability, a sense many of us would like to experience.

  31. Lee

    “And maybe you do not know, most of our borrowings are funded from overseas unlike the USA and Western Europe who can get most of the money they need from their own people.”

    BS Neil. Australia’s “debts” are in Australian dollars. Which nations, other than Australia, produces Australian dollars? Answer: none.

  32. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Thanks diannaart. 🙂

    Neil,

    I think you’re fibbing. You DID take notice of my Micro Financing proposal by conceding, “Small grants may help. Especially start up grants to get a project up and running.” 10/10, although the grants must be sufficient.

    Now, start advocating how these types of financial incentives can effectively feed into extra proactive Budget spending that will provide far greater dividends than chasing a narrow, bloody-minded attitude to surplus and restricting innovation.

  33. keerti

    Abbutt also had a diffacluk day! once more he showed how out of his depth he is as a “leader”. It is one thing to be continually negative as an opposition leader (especially about what other, more able, people are achieving). It is altogether something else to lead with a clear coherent vision and inspire confidence in leadership. It probably won’t happen, but when this trial of a government gets the boot I believe the first action of the incoming coalition (labour, Greens and independants government) should be to compensate all those who have been abused by abort and his henchmen.

  34. Möbius Ecko

    Wow Neil don’t you change your tune when the Liberals are in power. You’re a hypocrite plain and simple and prove it with just about every nonsense post poorly attempting to make lame excuses for this utterly woeful government and its leader. Something you refuse to address whilst rote Labor bashing.

  35. mars08

    Howling about budget deficits, like systematically mistreating asylum seeker, and enacting draconian citizenship laws… are simply useful distractions both major parties use to clobber each other. Their purpose is to grab some quick newspaper headlines and maybe score a few easy votes.

    These “issues” are used to give the illusion that our politicians are doing something constructive.

  36. Neil of Sydney

    You’re a hypocrite plain and simple and prove it with just about every nonsense post poorly attempting to make lame excuses for this utterly woeful government and its leader.

    No i think you are too stupid to realise the scale of the mess Rudd/Gillard left. Fact is i think we are doomed. Debt will continue to grow. Unless some miracle occurs it will reach dangerous levels.

    Now, start advocating how these types of financial incentives can effectively feed into extra proactive Budget spending

    We had a nice granting scheme but Rudd axed it

    http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/nelson-attacks-axing-of-commercial-ready-20080620-144c7.html

    An Australian company developing a hybrid-drive system for trucks should be given a $5 million grant it was expecting from the federal government, the opposition says.

    Permo-Drive, based in Ballina on NSW’s far north coast, was expecting the grant from the Commercial Ready scheme, axed in the Rudd government’s first budget last month, it was reported……..Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said government’s hypocrisy had been exposed by a decision to provide global car giant Toyota with $35 million to assist with manufacture of a hybrid Camry, but not help a local company.

  37. amca01

    Very well said – written with passion and feeling. There’s something deeply wrong at a fundamental level with Australia that such a man as Abbott can rise to the office of Prime Minister. If we believe in the democratic process, then we have to accept that sometimes we get what we may not want. But Abbott – indeed his entire party – are in another class of awfulness altogether. We cannot, and must not, accept them, and their wilful and wholescale abandonment of every imaginable principle of fairness and openness. Their mendacity, closed-mindedness, and immunity to reason almost beggar belief.

  38. Sir ScotchMistery

    In point of fact kNeil, darling, your job, as head of writing for the PMO seems to be taking a bit of a belting. Perhaps a cup of tea dear?

    Please remember when you tell lies on Abbott’s behalf, that we can read as well, and we are generally smarter than your boss, or her mouthpiece, well-known english-person, former (luckily for kids everywhere) priest, Abbott.

    The LNP has never ever put this country into a AAA rating position, ever. And that includes the states, including Queensland where we endured 3 years of that failed pongo, Campbell “can-do” Newman.

    Telling the same lies, day after day, never makes them the truth. Like being an idiot, is the result of repeating an action in hopes of a different outcome.

  39. Trish Corry

    I worked so hard to get rid of Newman. The election after party was overwhelming. I was so emotional. I did feel more scared for our future under Newman than Abbott. Newman had far too much power and there is no senate to stop the really bad stuff. We need a senate in QLD. I do not like the committee structure. Newman is like Abbott but on fast track. We need to get rid of Abbott or it will end up being worse than Newman. Citizens should never feel frightened. It’s wrong

  40. Setzer

    Let’s not forget that Abbot wanted things to be even worse for the majority of Australians. He wanted it to be 40 job searches a month. That would virtually impossible for people like me in a small town. About 50,000 population. I have to scrape the barrel as it is to even find places to apply to and often have to make some not serious applications to jobs in other towns just to meet the quota and not get cut off.

  41. Kyran

    SSM, a recent article suggested Standard & Poor’s considered the likelihood of Australia losing their AAA rating as a 1 in 3 chance over the next two years. Due, entirely, to the current government. Their policies and/or the absence of their policies. I kneel to no one.
    As a caution, don’t water the weeds. Take care

  42. Trish Corry

    Exactly Setzer. I tried to make a point about regional people in my post. I live in Rockhampton in Central Qld

  43. Neil of Sydney

    The LNP has never ever put this country into a AAA rating position, ever. And that includes the states, including Queensland where we endured 3 years of that failed pongo, Campbell “can-do” Newman.

    The Commonwealth first lost its AAA rating under Hawke/Keating in 1986. We had a AAA rating before that. Fraser/Howard govt had a AAA rating. Here is a Table showing the Commonwealths ratings

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nhIozwI_SqA/US7wD2n50oI/AAAAAAAAAGg/6EE7WVb6pYs/s320/historical_credit.jpg

    Our AAA was regained in 2003 when Moodys and S&P’s restored our rating which we lost under Hawke/keating. And you only need the two major ratings agencies (Moody’s and S&P’s) to give you a AAA to get it back.

    a recent article suggested Standard & Poor’s considered the likelihood of Australia losing their AAA rating as a 1 in 3 chance over the next two years. Due, entirely, to the current government.

    Wrong. We are in danger of losing our AAA but it will be because of Rudd/Gillard and the debt time bomb they left which the Coalition is having trouble fixing.

  44. trishcorry

    Neil, obviously I don’t agree with your comments regarding the bad state Labor left us in. This has been argued sufficiently between experts and the verdict is that Labor did indeed do a very good job under the circumstances we were under. It always confuses me when people such as yourself believe a budget surplus is the be all and end all to all things.

    At what cost do we achieve a quick return to surplus? (not that a surplus may even be a good idea at this point in time, but that is an argument for another day). If a quick return to surplus means that young people will starve for a month under punitive jobsearch measures, that victims of fires and cyclones receive no assistance because the criteria has been changed, and I everything else I have pointed to in my original post, plus more; then I don’t want a surplus at that cost.

    I don’t know where conservatives / neo-liberals get the idea that if we have a surplus everything will be OK. It won’t be. Conservatives / neo-liberalists by ideology alone, think every one needs to lift themselves up by the bootstraps and they believe everyone is given the same opportunity, they do not see it as the Govt’s responsibility to assist those in need (even if the Govt creates the circumstances which hinder them). It is a flawed ideology, underpinned by the strand of ethics based on egoism. The ideology of conservatives / neo-libs will never progress a country and will always harm the disadvantaged.

    Please watch Stephen Hail’s lecture Economics using Modern Monetary Theory. It is available on You Tube and is very interesting indeed and uncovers a lot of myths about the economy. I’d link it, but I can’t at the moment sorry.

  45. diannaart

    There is no such thing as a budget surplus. Not while economics do not include the environment as the foundation for economic planning nor while there remain people living in poverty.

    Neither poverty or environmental protection/investment is ever considered a part of the equation… and yet these bozos bang on about creating a surplus…

    Bizarro world

  46. jimhaz

    @ stephentardrew

    Well I for one agree with your post.

    Rudd also had EQ problems, though of different kind and to a lesser degree to Abbott. With Rudd it seemed high IQ, medium empathy, but some sort of problem with the esteem side of things probably due to fears suffered as a child causing an overemphasis on the need for respect from others and an excessive desire for control.

    Gillard had no such problems.

  47. Sir ScotchMistery

    To be of a little assistance is something I enjoy.

    Here is the link to the Stephen Hall lecture, which kNeil won’t watch as the big words will be a struggle, but for the rest of us it isn’t bad to remind us of the depth to which this lying, corrupt, mindless rabble have taken us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBpm5sVmGYc

    SSM

  48. Trish Corry

    Thank you Sir ScotchMinistery.

  49. Trish Corry

    Ps. I liked the video so much I’ve watched it three times and share it with all and sundry.

  50. Harquebus

    You are spot on diannaart.

    “The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the reverse.” — Herman E. Daly.

  51. keerti

    And the government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the people. Not the reverse!

  52. Wun Farlung

    Okay Neil of Sydney.
    What is the point of having your Holy Grail budget surplus?

  53. Neil of Sydney

    What is the point of having your Holy Grail budget surplus?

    To keep our AAA credit rating which i think we will lose.

  54. Harquebus

    I thought that the government was a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporatocracy. In my opinion, they have been bought by them and represent their interests and not ours.

  55. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Neil,

    you said earlier that Rudd Labor shut down a grant system that had been introduced by Nelson previously.

    My only observation that I can offer on your reference is that despite the possible short-sightedness of the shutdown, the potential recipient was an established enterprise with the promise of multiples of millions of dollars.

    This example does NOT reflect what I am advocating.

    You are refusing to engage sensibly with ethical and reasonable potential game-savers that will save Australia from the traumas you perceive for us losing the AAA rating.

    Open your eyes and consider ALL echelons of society, including the vulnerable, when deciding what policies are the best.

    Don’t look to the LNP to provide them.

  56. totaram

    “What is the point of having your Holy Grail budget surplus?

    To keep our AAA credit rating which I think we will lose.”

    (Quite aside from who got it from all the 3 agencies and it was not your beloved Howard govt. – it was Wayne Swan)

    Wow! Triple A credit rating! And what will you do with it? Do tell! Will it enable the Govt to “borrow” more so it can spend? But you don’t like borrowing! So what is it for?

    If the govt. does borrow, who will it borrow from? (you claim from foreigners, dear me, but it is not in foreign currency I hope you know)
    All govt. “borrowing” is through AUD denominated bonds issued by treasury. Please go and read on the website of the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) what they do with bonds. Also read about open market transactions on the bond market carried out by the RBA. These have nothing to do with govt. spending.

    Let me put it to you: You know nothing about “government debt” for this country. You think the analogy with a household or business applies. It does not!

    Every time you post this ignorant bullshit in future, you will be studiously ignored.

  57. Matters Not

    ignorant bullshit in future, you will be studiously ignored

    If only. If only.

    Neil has been doing this for years. The promises to ignore are also somewhat ’empty’.

    Talk about being ‘sucked in’.

    Don’t feed the …

    It’s not that difficult.

    Simply, don’t read!

  58. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    True Matters Not,

    Neil is a bit sad for believing in the LNP Degenerates so much that he’ll fight each of us for any concept expounded.

    Discussion nonetheless is needed coz even if Neil doesn’t see the wisdom of our ways, political shakers in all relevant angles of Australian politics will see our dialogues.

    I want Abbott’s LNP to know they are stuffed.

    I want Labor to know that their prissy, wishy-washy alternative economic rationalist approach to improving our socio-economic-political opportunities is not acceptable.

    Labor needs the Greens, the collective progressive voices throughout Australia.

    Don’t shut down the discussion.

  59. Neil of Sydney

    You are refusing to engage sensibly with ethical and reasonable potential game-savers that will save Australia from the traumas you perceive for us losing the AAA rating.

    Labor in govt does not have a good record with employment.

    Unemployment was at 2% in 1972 when Gough won govt and he then promptly doubled it to 4%. Unemployment was at 8% in 1983 and was at 8% in 1996 with unemployment at 11% when Keating became PM. Unemployment was at 4.3% in 2007 when Howard lost office and at 5.8% when Rudd lost office.

    All three Labor govts mentioned never had unemployment lower at the end of their term than at the beginning. The most recent govt who was successful in reducing unemployment was the Howard govt who reduced it from 8% in 1996 to 4% in 2007.

    Labor does not know how to create jobs.

  60. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Neil,

    you’re just regurgitating stats THAT can be manipulated.

    Haven’t you noticed that enlightened people don’t believe in LNP, or other conservative elements – even some Labor on the Right examples – anymore?

    So, point scoring is being wasted on me and probably many others who keep reading your poor attempts at saving the LNP losers’ reputations.

  61. Roswell

    Neil is a waste of space.

  62. Trish Corry

    Neil, you need to contextualise issues. Keating governed through a recession, I recall them being very hard times indeed. In addition, John Howard changed the reporting of employment figures (I worked in youth employment at the time). It was referred to as ‘number fudging’. Kevin Rudd Governed through one of through one of the, if not the biggest financial crisis the world has seen (the depression during WWII may have been worse, I’m not sure. I don’t pretend to be an economist like many who comment on the economy). There is absolutely no excuse for the staggering unemployment figures we have now. If you want to know how Labor does indeed create jobs, perhaps you might like to read a previous job post of mine https://polyfeministix.wordpress.com/2015/07/18/how-do-you-starve-a-region-of-jobs-just-vote-lnp/ After that, please read the latest CCIQ westpac survey, which shows that business confidence has now risen and we are now having a positive outlook since the Palaszczuk Govt has taken over in QLD.

  63. Matters Not

    I note that my advice has been ignored.

    Not that I am surprised.

    Another victory for a troll.

    And it’s all down to the ‘responders’.

    Shakes head. And walks away.

    Not for the first time.

  64. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Why is an honest response, that points out irregularities, a ‘victory for a troll’?

    If poor ole Neil is a troll, someone’s the fool in paying him coz he doesn’t sound particularly bright in arguing sensible contrary arguments.

    More fool rabid Abbott, Credlin and other LNP functionaries for paying for inadequate political forces.

  65. Neil of Sydney

    If poor ole Neil is a troll

    How long does one have to post for before they are stopped being called a troll? My opinions have not changed for years. I have nothing in common with people from the left of politics.

    Quite aside from who got it from all the 3 agencies and it was not your beloved Howard govt. – it was Wayne Swan

    Here is a Table showing Australias credit rating upgrades and downgrades.

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nhIozwI_SqA/US7wD2n50oI/AAAAAAAAAGg/6EE7WVb6pYs/s320/historical_credit.jpg

    We lost our AAA rating under Hawke/Keating. In fact we were downgraded several times. We got our AAA back in 2003 when the 2 major agencies upgraded us. Then in 2006 the Commonwealth became debt free. Then in 2011 a minor ratings agency, Fitch also gave us a AAA. Beats me why you people make such a big deal about that. The question should be why didn’t Fitch give us a AAA when debt was zero?

    Anyway it does not matter. Rudd/Gillard set us on the path to Greece.

  66. Sir ScotchMistery

    More fool rabid Abbott, Credlin and other LNP functionaries for paying for inadequate political forces.

    Spelling alert Jennifer, “farces” is spelt with an “a”.

  67. Möbius Ecko

    I’m with Matters Not.

    Jennifer Neil is now hammering the AAA rating meme, as he’s done in the past many times, along with the Labor debt is bad Liberal debt ignore meme, and all to derail the topic away from the failings of the Liberals and to get posters defending or posting on Labor and not the Liberals.

    It’s a old well worn and utterly predicable tactic of Neil’s that he’s engaged in for years, and is very successful at, as the responses to him in this thread about an Abbott failing shows. Whenever Neil is asked to respond on something his beloved Liberals failed on he either ignores it or diverts to Labor as a response, most times off topic. You can see this in the one or two paragraph posts attacking past Labor he throws in as the bait and then his rote responses attacking Labor past on posters responding to that bait.

    He really gets his rocks off on trolling and considers it an accomplishment or victory if he gets scathing responses and especially if he’s banned. His small mindedness even thinks that having his unrelentingly repeated over many years small handful of Labor attack points pointed out to him is a badge of honour.

    Matter Not is correct on this. I found it’s best to just completely ignore Neil, something I will now again take up. So this will the last post here he will get from me derailing a topic on Abbott’s spectacular and considerable failings both as a Prime Minister and as a human being, something you will never see Neil address as he will always hark back to Labor as a response.

    If you cant ignore him the next best tactic is to always respond to his Labor attacks by bringing the subject back on topic in response and by pointing out with facts the considerable failings of the Liberals and their leaders, especially Howard.

  68. Kaye Lee

    Anyone who says “My opinions have not changed for years” is hardly worth engaging with.

  69. trishcorry

    I think the difference between Labor and Liberal supporters is, that if this list was presented as something Labor had done; one or two things would happen with Labor supporters. Labor supporters would be arguing that this is utter rubbish and misconstrued (because that can and does happen) and would defend Labor values and set the record straight or If it were absolutely true, they would feel anger and shame and would argue about whether to quit Labor and join another party (which some would) or whether to stay and change Labor from the inside.

    I think the fact that Neil just accepts the 20 points made in the post as insignificant to defend or discuss and the fact that he does not show any display of shame or anger by association; speaks volumes about the Liberal Party and its followers.

  70. Möbius Ecko

    Kaye it’s not as though on rare occasion that Neil hasn’t got it right, which I’m more than willing to acknowledge. A long time ago on a blog Migs knows well, Neil quite rightly pointed out where I was wrong on unemployment figures. I immediately admitted to my error, apologised to Neil and acknowledged he was right. Neil to this day still hammers that one correct fact over and over whilst completely ignoring other facts and data on matters showing where the Liberals have failed and/or lied. Indeed he brings up that fact and a couple of others out of context purely to derail threads on Liberal failings, malfeasances, deceits and lies.

    So Neil does once in a blue moon get it right, just nowhere near as often as you and only when it’s a fact he can use to bash Labor with otherwise it’s ignored.

    And it’s not that Neil doesn’t change his opinion over years that’s the real problem, it’s that for years he submits the same handful Labor bashing posts with only slight variations in the wording that is.

  71. Neil of Sydney

    is hardly worth engaging with.

    Why? I will change my opinion if proven wrong. But that comment by totaram that Swan got a AAA from 3 ratings agencies whereas Costello only got it from 2 and therefore Swan is better really annoys me. It is propaganda of the worst type.

    You get a AAA when the two major ratings agencies give it to you and that happened for Australia in 2003. The question should be asked is why did the third ratings agency, Fitch, wait until 2011 to give us a AAA?

    As for the Liberal failings i am supposed to be commenting on, they have not been in that long. It is impossible to clean up Labors mess in such a short time. Furthermore i suspect very few people have any idea what to do.

  72. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Sorry Neil,

    I’m taking Sir ScotchMistery’s advice and ignoring your comments as representative of LNP “inadequate political – farces” (unless you start showing some wisdom and analyse how Abbott, Credlin and every other LNP functionaries are pulling our country down to its knees).

    No more ‘tit for tat’ by blaming Labor every time the finger is pointed at Abbott’s LNP and start making non-partisan, feasible suggestions for how ALL Australia can be improved by positive political principles, policies and procedures.

    Your last chance to prove you can do it.

  73. townsvilleblog

    Trish, you’re dead right, a lot of people had a worse year than Bron being paid $300+thousand and receiving another 811,000 plus in expenses the tories don’t know how hard some of us do do it, we would be lucky to have a combined income of $20,000 if Debbie could not pick up a little bit of work here and there, we would be on the bones of our bums. Abbott apparently spent $1.4 mil in the same space as Bron spent her $811,000 so they are certainly not setting an example by any means, in fact its just another case of you do what I say not do what I do.

  74. maurice dutton

    wow great refreshing read. especially the employment fudging. this was to bring us into line with OECD countries from memory but if you like work one day a week you are classed as employed ? (please correct) this creates the illusion of better economic figures leading to better credit ? well that was my rant at Uni

  75. Sir ScotchMistery

    @ Maurice, I suspect the figure isn’t 1 day per week, it’s a couple of hours.

  76. diannaart

    It’s all a matter of perspective.

    A married couple I used to know… I was very good friends with these people – they would not hesitate to help a friend in need as they did for me many years ago. The only reason I have lost touch with them is because of my own dark years when I lost contact with much of the mainstream (another story).

    The point I am labouring to make is this, I recall one year when my friends were most distraught – they’d had a ‘bad’ year financially and could not go on their annual sojourn in New York – they went to the Gold Coast instead – slumming it I know. These people are not ignorant, however their reality is miles away from mine which is miles away from that of refugees. At heart; their hearts were solid gold – I could always rely on them and they were very philanthropic towards the world in general.

    Now, compare this couple to people who feel superior because of their wealth, who cannot and do not care about those less well off, who believe in their own self-entitlement…. Bronny really did have a bad day, poor thing – it’s all about perspective.

  77. totaram

    My apologies people. I just thought that once in a while we should let NoS know that he is being ignored. We don’t want him deluding himself that his arguments are so compelling that the rest of us are left dumbfounded.:-)

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