Oxfam reaction to the Rio de Janeiro G20…

Oxfam Australia Media Release Responding to the Rio de Janeiro G20 Ministerial Declaration…

Top 1 per cent bags over $40 trillion…

Oxfam Australia Media Release The richest 1 per cent have amassed $42…

50th annual Trade and Assistance Review released

Productivity Commission Media Release The Productivity Commission has released the 50th annual Trade…

Violence trickles down, and the myths that enable…

By Andrew Klein One of the most dangerous, evil myths permeating western…

IJM welcomes tougher stance on Big Tech for…

International Justice Mission Media Release International Justice Mission (IJM) Australia) welcomes move by…

Playing politics with people’s lives

By Bert Hetebry Politics and journalism work hand in hand in sending messages…

Social Democracy: Transitioning from Neoliberalism

By Denis Hay From Neoliberalism to Social Democracy: A Path to a Fairer…

New report reveals technical and market implications for…

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering Media Release A new report released…

«
»
Facebook

Rupert Tweets, The NDIS, and Some Thoughts on That Photo!

“Country (Australia) almost ungovernable with any Senate majority impossible for either side to execute. Bilateral agreement to change urgent if unlikely”

Rupert Murdoch on Twitter.

So Rupert Murdoch thinks Australia is “ungovernable”. Interesting choice of word there. It’s not because Abbott isn’t up to the job, mind you. Abbott remains the “best alternative”. Rupert makes that clear in later tweets. Rather it’s because of those unruly senators that won’t let the best person for the job just get on with things. We should all be working together on “reform”.

Although I can’t help but wonder whether I’d feel good about Rupert’s tweets were I Tony Abbott. Being urged toward an election now reminds me of that time in primary school when my friends in grade one urged me to take on the grade two bully – a boy who subsequently grew to over two metres tall. Thinking back, I’m not sure that they were really on my side…

And stories have surfaced about a lunch between Mr Murdoch and Scott Morrison. But hey, Rupert and Wendy have separated so he’s a free man and he can eat with whoever he thinks is an interesting lunch companion. Still, Morrison has never struck me as the sort who’d be full of interesting bon mots and amusing anecdotes.

So one wonders how long Abbott would actually last if he were to go into Cabinet and announce that he’s taking Rupert’s advice and calling a snap election.

Say what you like about Rupert at least he gives people with memory difficulties a go. That poor Rebekah Brooks has just been re-appointed to run his UK newspaper organisation . As you may remember, her defence at the trial was that she was unaware of the criminal wrongdoing of intercepting voicemails and bribing public officials, and knew nothing of the conspiracy to cover it all up. The jury agreed and she was found not guilty.

Now it seems that Rupert thinks that someone with that level of incompetence should be rewarded by being given a job just a few years after receiving a ten million pound send-off from the organisation. No wonder he thinks wages are too high.

Mm, Murdoch also supports Tony Abbott. Perhaps he sees incompetence as a virtue, not a flaw. Still the jury found that she knew nothing about the phone hacking. And that she couldn’t remember anything else including any conversations she’d had that might have been incriminating. I guess that’s because there were none and that she had such a hands off approach that she just signed the checks and presumed they were for some worthwhile project. Much like the Liberals in Victoria, who recently discovered that one of their own was such a good economic manager that he was managing to siphon funds into his own pocket

Of course, it’s unlikely that the NDIS board will be re-appointed. They were appointed by Labor and there seems to be a fear within the government that they may be competent which would give no excuse to make massive changes. So their jobs are being advertised nine months before their terms are due to expire. They discovered this when they saw the job ads. To be on the new board, one must have “substantial board experience either in a large listed company or a significant government business enterprise”.

With Rebekah Brookes now taken, perhaps someone on the board of HIH would still be around, or we could import some of those executives from those companies that crashed in the GFC, because whatever, they’d have to be better than those put on the board by Gillard!

Now that the NBN is running so smoothly with the Liberal appointments, maybe some of them could help out. All right, I know that some of you are going to argue that it’s blown out to $56 billion, but it would have cost $90 billion under Labor according to estimates done by a couple of Liberal frontbenchers over a lunch using the cost of the wine as a reckoning point. And it wouldn’t even be finished by next year like we promised.

Anyway, this goes back to John Howard’s plan to make sure that anyone in position of influence was put there by the Liberals. That way it would always seem that any “unbiased” observer was against any Labor plan. He managed it fairly effectively over his eleven years in office. Unfortunately it’s left the Liberals with a mindset that anyone who ever disagrees with them on anything must be on “the other side” and therefore not worth listening to. Sort of like people who argue that their faith healer has assured them that all non-natural medicine is an impurity and their fingernails falling off is just one of the healthy detoxing effects of the potion that their drinking as is the itchiness.

However, let’s not forget that while we’ve been talking about jobs and growth – in particular, Tony and Rebekah’s jobs and the growth of things that Tony has screwed up – let’s not forget there’s a decision on Syria to be announced in the coming days. After due consideration, we will be joining the US in air strikes on selected targets. (Where do I get these leaks from?)

Yes, while the world was shocked by the photo of the child lying dead on the beach. Abbott was using this as a justification of his “successful” turn back the boats policy. If the European countries were as successful as Mr Abbott, this boy wouldn’t have been shocking people by laying dead on the beach, he’d have been safely back in Syria awaiting our bombs to liberate him.

Strange that we can be aware of deaths and drownings and all sorts of terrible things and there’s no outrage, but it takes just one photo to make it real for many people. I guess that’s why it’s so important to keep journalists and cameras away from our detention centres. We might actually discover that there are real people in there, with real atrocities being committed.

Lots of bombs were dropped in South-East Asia during the Vietnam conflict, but it was only that photo of a naked distressed girl that made some people aware that bombs have consequences for human beings.

Of course, we’ll have precise targets with our bombs and it’ll help stem the flow of refugees because once you quell those people who are worse than the Nazis, Syria will be safe under the nice Assad government once again, who’ll then stop bombing his own people.

If you don’t believe me, ask Mr Abbott.

 

Like what we do at The AIMN?

You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.

Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!

Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.

You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969

Donate Button

11 comments

Login here Register here
  1. M-R

    I earnestly desire that reporters stop referring to Murdoch as ‘an Australian’: he turned his back on us in order to make more money. He is an American, and that’s that.

  2. Carol Taylor

    These being tactics straight from the JW Howard Handbook. Howard’s solution to the appalling conditions at the Woomera Detention Centre was to ban “outsiders” taking photos.

    In 2002 there was a big hunger strike, some stopped eating completely for days, and over 30 people, including children, sewed their lips together. During the hunger strike some started drinking shampoo and attempted suicide.

    Australia has been doing this for quite some time…

  3. Terry2

    You’re spot on . It had occurred to me when I heard of Rebekah Brookes being resurrected that incompetence and an inability to attend to the detail of your job – or indeed to bother to read emails or attachments – was now very much an attribute highly sought in the executive and governing class.

    Arthur Sinodinos was proud to say that he recalled nothing and had not been aware of anything for which he was directly responsible as Chairman of Australian Water Holdings who gave money to the NSW Liberal Party of which he was Treasurer : I remember feeling sorry for him, he looked like a nice man and I assumed that early onset dementia had deprived him of his basic faculties.
    But no, Arty’ was resurrected and now plays an ongoing role in the day to day governance of this fine country as an adviser to our Prime Minister……..hmmm !

    Strange that Deyson Heydon – don’t get him a laptop for Christmas – when gauging the credibility of Julia Gillard over matters she had been engaged in some twenty years prior – suggested that her familiarity with the material and her degree of preparation somehow devalued her credibility. Perhaps, if Ms Gillard had said that she recalled nothing, had failed to read any of the documents that passed across her desk and had no knowledge of the matters under review by the commission, she would have been drawn to the bosom of those who get away with evasion and prevarication.
    But then, and I may have overlooked this, she was a Labor Prime Minister and that may make a difference…..what do you think ?

  4. Gilly

    So now we know where Tony Abbott learned hi negotiating skills.

  5. Kyran

    “Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. Napalm is very powerful, but faith, forgiveness, and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope, and forgiveness. If that little girl in the picture can do it, ask yourself: Can you?”
    Kim Phuc, the Vietnamese girl in the photo, said that.
    Malala Yousafzia is another inspirational orator, whose words are amplified by the horror she survived.
    The luminaries you cite prefer the unconscionable over the ungovernable.
    War, huh! What is it good for, absolutely nothing.
    Except politician’s, media barren’s and a global military industry. It’s ok though, our super funds invest in these enterprises, so we all benefit.
    Wonderful work, rossleigh. Take care

  6. susan

    Di Natale made Bolt look an idiot on his own show this morning. Very impressive!

  7. jim

    Great post again, I get a feeling that Australia is under attack from the enemy within, no need to mention any names here, else it would be “who’s side are you on,smack…. wink ….who’s side are you on?”.

  8. Free-Thinker

    The ultra-Machiavellian Murdoch sees things only in his business interests. It was ever thus.

    Wars sell Murdoch’s papers. Australian government’s come and go, and Murdoch behaves as though this nation is his very own client state.

    Barak Obama lived in Indonesia in his youth but he is no more Indonesian than Murdoch is Australian. He renounced his citizenship here almost three decades ago.

  9. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    This LNP Government under Abbott has made me angry every day for the last 729 days. (Labor’s lack of lustre and irrational fear to be wedged by the unconscionable LNP has added to my anger.)

    Who cares what Uncle Rupe thinks? Most of us don’t and that is pissing the demented, old bastard off. I actually take his announcement that Australia is ungovernable as a badge of honour because he is identifying the power of the Crossbenches, the growing alternative minority parties and us, the proud social commentariat.

  10. mmc1949

    susanSeptember 6, 2015 at 12:04 pm
    Di Natale made Bolt look an idiot on his own show this morning. Very impressive!

    OMG!!!
    I watched this to see Di Natale and he sure was impressive.
    But Bolt??? I’d never seen his TV show before. Do people really watch him? And they vote? God help us. No wonder we’re in the mess we’re in.
    It’s enough to make you rue the life of John Logie Baird. 🙁

  11. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Di Natale nailed Bolt. Di Natale nailed essential elements of why we need pro-active, compassionate asylum seeker policy that allows prompt and fair processing of true refugee claims.

    Well done Di Natale. You didn’t let Bolt talk you down.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page