The Prime Minister for Announcements and Photographs
If you are sick of the disappointment and white noise of a presidential style campaign where two rather ordinary men vie to be the chosen one, pre-poll voting starts May 9.
It gets to the stage where there is nothing left to say.
I wrote this two years ago. It’s kind of tragic that, despite the cast changing, the futility of it all remains as stark today as it did then…
Spokesmodel Christian Porter has been all over the airwaves announcing the government’s latest…ummm…announcement, which is that they want everyone else to sort out the “known problems” in industrial relations and to do so, they will form not one, not two, but five new “working groups” to come up with recommendations to add to the kazillion other ignored recommendations from countless previous reviews and inquiries and reports.
Unlike during the Accord, the government is not offering anything. In fact, they are, in advance, very much limiting what the “known problems” up for discussion are.
We won’t be discussing the minimum wage or the superannuation guarantee. We won’t be discussing the level of Newstart or the cutting of penalty rates. And we most definitely will not be considering sustainability in the “Jobmaker” discussion.
The task that ScottyFromMarketing has given the face of the latest advertising campaign is to, in Porter’s own words, “have a product come out of every working group.”
“…the product may in some instances be legislative, it may be budgetary, it may be a policy product, but whatever product there is, the purpose of the working groups is to try and garner as much agreement around that product as possible.”
And just in case you didn’t get the message of what these committees will do, Porter repeated the latest slogan over and over during his interview with Leigh Sales.
“They’re designed to deal with specific known problems in the system”
“There are known problems inside the system”
“What we’re concerned about is known problems”
“What we do have here is a known set of problems”
“why would we not try and limit ourselves to solving known problems”
The trouble with this approach is that the government gets to decide which problems to ignore.
Slogans like “technology not taxation” are not action. They are not even a plan for action. And they aren’t even true.
Spokesmodel Angus Taylor, whilst spouting his three-word script, is also pushing to spend taxation dollars propping up an expansion of fossil fuels. Even the very expensive Snowy 2.0 is to be powered by fossil fuels. The hydrogen industry will be powered by fossil fuels. The gas industry will be ramped up despite that being the major source of rising emissions in this country.
At some stage today, the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources are obliged to publish the December quarter emissions figures. Bushfire emissions will not be included but reductions due to the drought will be. Not that we should be “setting our hair on fire about climate change and all the rest of it” as whatsisname, the Deputy PM, chided recently.
Meanwhile, the Senate inquiry into the recent catastrophic fires is hearing how the “known problem” of a potential disaster was ignored by the government. Current fire chiefs are gagged from linking bushfires to climate change. Limit what they can say and you limit your response to areas that are more politically advantageous. It’s not fossil fuels causing climate change, it’s greenies stopping hazard reduction burning and wholesale land clearing. And those hundreds of arsonists.
When you employ the gas industry to suggest a road map for the future, you aren’t trying to solve a “known problem” – you are looking for affirmation of the irresponsible abrogation of our responsibility to tackle global heating.
When the pandemic hit, we listened to the medical experts and took action. Sure, they have formed countless committees, but they didn’t push decisions down the road six months until the committee published their findings.
We have thousands of reviews and reports and recommendations. We know what the problems are and how to go about fixing them. And it certainly is not by creating more committees to produce more reports telling you what you want to hear and coming up with more slogans to announce.
The greatest “known problem” in this country is that we are run by ScottyFromMarketing and his inept band of backup vocals.
Meanwhile, we could pray for salvation … or we could elect people who put the national interest before their own. Enough with the photos and the announcements of tuppence ha’penny for your trouble.
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41 comments
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New England Cocky -
Michael Taylor -
GL -
Kaye Lee -
Michael Taylor -
New England Cocky -
Mark Buckley -
Kaye Lee -
Keith -
wam -
Kaye Lee -
Bill Gregor -
Canguro -
Michael Taylor -
Terence Mills -
GL -
Kaye Lee -
totaram -
Michael Taylor -
Canguro -
GL -
Michael Taylor -
Michael Taylor -
Canguro -
Michael Taylor -
Terence Mills -
Stan -
GL -
Stan -
GL -
Kaye Lee -
Stan -
Terence Mills -
GL -
Stan -
GL -
GL -
Michael Taylor -
GL -
Terence Mills -
Harry Lime
Return to home pageOh dear, Kaye Lee you are naughty ….. referring to the ”esteemed” self-serving representative of the Nazional$ in New England as ”whatsisname”. The thinking Australian voters are attempting to correct this not good enough political ”known problem” that has the local rural socialists delirious with delight when it makes one of its too many public appearances at any local watering hole.
In progressive circles he is known as ”Beetrooter” for his confessed adultery, chronic alcoholism and misogyny, all personal traits to endear him to the corporate sector as willing to accept ”political donations” aka ”political bribes” to build white elephant infrastructure projects at enormous public expense without any business case for financial viability being necessary.
His principal political interest appears to be gathering Parliamentary allowances for travelling to Indian weddings held by coal barons, for which his passion for building dams seems to have sprung. The sincerity of his rural socialist fan-base accept without question that dams east of Walcha on the eastern fall can generate hydro-electricity to pump the minimal flow back over the Great Dividing Range and into the MacDonald River for use by agriculture on the Liverpool Plains and naturally the expanding Gunnedah coal industry.
But his generosity with taxpayer funds even extends to Queensland to provide water for the opening black holes owned by his corporate mates. Agriculture has morphed from the traditional production of food and fibre to digging up the black gold of environment destroying coal, and it is necessary to ”support” this growing industry operated by foreign owned multinational corporations that are too poor to pay any taxation in Australia thanks to the many legal minimisation provisions in Australian taxation law.
STOP THE LIES VOTE LABOR … and give your grandkids a future
I wasn’t here during the 2019 election campaign and I was without internet access, so may I ask if Morrison sounded and behaved as desperately then as he does now?
He’s at B(rown)T(rousers)Con 4 desperation this time around.
I don’t think so Michael because there was no expectation he would win. He just kept saying “this is the Bill you can’t afford”.
Thank you, Kaye.
Deep down I couldn’t have imagined it more cringeworthy than it is now.
We didn’t get internet access until 6:30pm Australian time. Carol and I sat there gobsmacked as we watched the results come through.
Carol, stunned, kept saying how bad the next three years would be. I was a bit more optimistic: “Surely it can’t be as bad as you’re suggesting.”
I should listen to my wife more often.
@ MT: You mean you get a choice?? Really, you must let us in on your secret …..
The greatest “known problem” in this country is that we are run by ScottyFromMarketing and his inept band of backup vocals.
One observation I would make is that everything is as before, except for the victim. I don’t mean the entire population, but his opponent. Never underestimate the power of the never-ending bullying of Morrison. He is often pictured pointing his finger at someone unfortunate, or clenching his fists, in apparent rage.
He is a big man, and he is, although he looks soft under all the bulk, imposing and to many, intimidating. I was reflecting recently on how personal his attacks on Albanese are, which caused me to reflect on Shorten’s experience.
Months of intimidatory behaviour. The personal focus, the name calling, the open aggression, the lack of basic courtesies. Remember his turned back towards Tanya Plibersek.
This is the sort of man you might meet in the toilets at the footy. Pumped up with aggression, nasty, a bully. No wonder he bull-dozes everyone, and everything before him. Most of us are just not equipped for the level of naked aggression this man brings to his political game. He needs to be removed from power, because he is innately dangerous.
Remember Morrison’s space invader move in the leaders debate?
A famous American linguist:
“So, Donald Trump, for example, is perfectly aware of the dangerous effects, in the short term, of global warming. So, for example, recently he applied to the government of Ireland for permission to build a wall to protect his golf course in Ireland from rising sea levels.”
“I don’t know what word in the language – I can’t find one – that applies to people of that kind, who are willing to sacrifice the literal – the existence of organized human life, not in the distant future, so they can put a few more dollars in highly overstuffed pockets. The word “evil” doesn’t begin to approach it.”
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky made the above comment when being interviewed o Democracy Now.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/27/noam_chomsky_on_mass_media_obsession
what you missed, michael was a mob of screaming harridans on the commercial news broadcast morning, noon and night repeated day after day culminating in a screaming demonstration in clermont. “I never expected numbers like this,” admitted central Queensland MP Michelle Landry. “Thank you, Bob Brown, is all I can say. He came up here trying to tell Queenslanders what we should and shouldn’t be doing, and it actually drew together the agriculture and mining sectors — I’ve never seen anything like it.” The two labor seats in townesville – gone: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBD_en-GBAU890AU890&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=2019+adani+protest+in+townsville&fir=bgIUbTbKlojbLM%252CJ9YXr-j26m8z4M%252C_%253BVfhGwZf9aa3saM%252CnbWb4WLjGDJ9hM%252C_%253BHe4UQYgruRE5lM%252CIq_jl_SWWBhstM%252C_%253B6i-e5lCfknC3JM%252C0uBG6idhJK2WxM%252C_%253BhC1jLVa1-DpIjM%252Cuf0JABO7od8DmM%252C_%253BNfoLNZ9FoCgAoM%252Cuf0JABO7od8DmM%252C_%253BNZxwlh3phFjduM%252C3QbYFLNghLwzzM%252C_%253Bki9x4yugPn73EM%252CrrkbNF_k5HIPGM%252C_%253BeOMzAUoIwC_AxM%252CahusQdpv_sjj_M%252C_%253BVh4HO5HS8Y4weM%252CO7bogMX0PCcr5M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kSDzm46AZ-aroc5VjLUs74_bV8s0Q&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP2oiw8rv3AhWzH7cAHfwFCisQjJkEegQILRAC&biw=1421&bih=686&dpr=1.35 ps michael
our family had 1990 in seal and whenever visitor came we headed to scotland where the people are open – we lived above a grog shop called basil’s and it wasn’t until our farewell party in end of nov that he told us his name was john
Michael,
That is wam’s oft-repeated version.
“When we look at the reception we got in Queensland, there were 5,000 people in the rally in Brisbane, which along with our rally in Canberra were the two biggest turnounts in the whole of the election campaign,” Brown says. “And where you see leadership taken on climate change by the Greens, or Zali Steggall, or [Helen] Haines in Indi, the vote went up. Where there was indecision and internal ructions, like the CFMEU attacking its own party in central Queensland, the vote went away from Labor.”
Mark Buckley – I very much liked your description of Scomo’s mob as ‘an inept band of backup vocals. I witnessed an example of this yesterday when the hopefuls for my electorate of Robertson on the Central Coast turned up at at our local Community Hall for a meet the candidates event. Eight out of eleven were there, with The Labor, the Greens and the Animal Justice party candidates speaking well and with passion. Some of the other smaller party candidates were for me not very convincing but the incumbent Liberal was, I thought, beyond embarrassing! All I could think of was a ventriloquist’s dummy with guess who as the manipulator!
wam, I believe you were a teacher in a past life, so you’ll know where I’m coming from. Sloppy presentation drives teachers nuts… they’d rather see cleanly presented work.
In the spirit of addressing such issues, I’ll attempt to offer this little bit of HTML coding… let’s see if I can get it to work without it disguising itself.
Spelling it out, laboriously: A left-facing chevron followed by an ‘a’, (no space), then space, followed by href=, followed by (no space) “URL”, followed by a right-facing chevron (no space), followed by ‘text’ (no space), then another left-facing chevron, (again, no space), then a ‘forward oblique’ and an ‘a’ (no space), then a right-facing chevron to finish. Delete the single quote marks, retain the doubles for the insertion of the URL address. The result is seen below.
text
Your spaghetti melange of eight lines (!!!) of URL code can then be presented thusly:
2019 adani protest in townsville
Much better, don’t you agree?
Ah, yes, Bob Brown’s caravan. I’ve since heard the claim that he lost the election for Labor. We will never know if it’s true or not, but I’d prefer to blame Clive Palmer.
Michael
I live in far North Queensland and Bob Brown had no influence here in 2019 but what did have an impact was the scare campaign about a Labor death tax promoted by the LNP.
I remember speaking to a couple of pensioner friends who walk their dogs in the same area that I do and they were adamant that they would not vote Labor just to see their limited savings go in a death tax rather than to their grandchildren.
I tried to tell them that it was all a scare campaign but they linked it to the controversial franking credits tax which they didn’t understand and which could never have affected them but the scare was on.
Morrison will try it again and has already started to say that the Labor housing initiative means that ‘Anthony Albanese will own part of your home and will make money when you sell’.
I’m starting a collection for a farewell gift for Morrison : his own hardhat and hiviz jacket so that he doesn’t keep having to borrow from others !
All this is proving is just how frightened and utterly desperate the LNP has become. The dirty tactics, screaming, and personal attacks are only going to get worse over the next few weeks as the shitberg of their own creation grows ever higher.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/frydenberg-calls-for-power-of-dark-blue-to-prevail-over-teal-wave-20220501-p5ahhj.html
Bill Gregor,
I also live in Robertson. When Lucy Wicks was first parachuted in as a candidate in 2013, she held a morning tea at which Bronwyn Bishop spoke. This was the reaction from someone who attended that function:
“Lucy Wicks was totally uninspiring and seemed like an impressionable kid that didn’t have a brain between her ears. The helpers there all seemed like young Liberals that were nice, but really, did nothing to add any degree of credibility at all. Dressed like they came off a refugee boat. Doesn’t some-one give them a dress code at all? As for Bronwyn, she was the main star and Lucy apart from telling us she worked in a factory in the Central Coast really had nothing to say. And it showed. Bronwyn did all the talking and Lucy shut up which is just as well I think”.
I spoke to a Labor MP a couple of years ago who agreed she is a waste of space, a box ticker warming a seat.
As everyone knows, the wam is in contact with the mystical infinite, from which they (wam) draw their knowledge and wisdom. Their style of expression lets us all know that this is indeed the case. All complaints and carping should be put aside, for those who are so blessed need not worry about such trifling matters as proper presentation (Canguro be warned).
If only the Labor party had employed “them” (wam, that is) as chief strategists in 2011, we would never have had all the problems that we see today. But sadly it was not to be. Thus do the hoi-polloi lose out in their ignorance and stupidity!
Even now, the deep penetration of their (wam’s) insight into the future would be of great benefit. Take heed all! Those who question the omniscience of the wam will repent at their leisure.
The government is in caretaker mode and they can’t even do that properly.
totaram you’re right wam is special and i am appropriately stuffed back into the box form whence i sprung, but i just have a little concern html aside that michael is being represented as a mob of screaming harridans on the commercial news broadcast morning, noon and night repeated day after day it’s not how i thought of him he seems such a nice man and he votes independent in indi for helen haines who is a lady and for that he gets my vote as one of the good guys except he’s not labor or one of those rotten greens who probably throw tomatoes at that mr morrison.
Jeez, Scummo is back on his “Anti-Picking on the LNP” bullshit bill.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/coalition-sets-ultimatum-for-big-tech-over-online-safety-20220501-p5ahgy.html
Canguro,
Yes, I’m voting for Helen Haines even though I’m a Labor person. Labor doesn’t have a hope in hell in my electorate: the last four elections (including the one on May 21) have come down to a battle between the Liberals or the independent.
On top of that, Helen is awesome.
The perfect scenario for me is for Helen to retain Indi and to work with an Albanese government.
I’m with you 100% Michael, and I hope you don’t mind being part of my mild sardonic riposte with totaram re. his comment over my comment to wam per his spaghetti melange offering. You know enough of me by now to know that I’m not a person who engages in ad hominen attacks or takedowns of other contributors… LNP pollies… another matter altogether.
Not bothered at all, Canguro. We all engage in banter.
As for wam, he’d be a bundle of nerves today after his (and my) team won a close game of footy last night.
The ALP Home Equity loan initiative is a very welcome move.
Under the scheme the federal government would provide an equity contribution for 10,000 aspiring home owners annually. The scheme would be available for low and middle income earners.
“If you have saved 2% of you deposit, we will contribute up to 40% of the purchase price of a new home or 30% for an existing home”, Albanese said.
This approach has been successfully adopted in Western Australia and some European and Scandinavian countries and is similar to the highly successful housing access scheme in Singapore.
Morrison has rubbished the scheme within hours of the announcement saying “Anthony Albanese will have equity in your home”.
“As your equity goes up, they’re going to keep it. They’re going to keep the equity increase that happens in your home.”
This scheme is workable and it has been road tested elsewhere and by initially limiting it to ten thousand a year it will go through rigorous scrutiny before it is extended to bigger numbers of low income aspiring home owners.
With the government taking an equity share in the purchase price of owner occupied homes (up to 40% on new homes and 30% on existing houses and apartments) it is only reasonable that the taxpayer recoup that equity when the house is sold together with a proportion of the profits (or losses) – that’s fair.
Morrison will try to create one of his scare campaigns but Australians are now on to this bloke and personally I believe that this is a scheme that should be trialled in Australia.
Any thoughts ?
Terence, Labor’s housing policy is another lame prop to inflate land prices. If the gov tips in 60% or 80% or 90% what do you think will happen to prices? This is all about increasing the equity of those already in the market. This is the main game of both Labor and Libs. I would like to see Labor make explicit their agenda of simply inflating land & home prices at the cost of more govt debt. Greens policy in this area sounds better to me. On the upside, the idea of further inflating Aust national debt will be like music to the ears of the IMF.
Anyone not putting Labor and Libs last on the ballot is still fast asleep.
Stan,
Any evidence to back up “…Labor’s housing policy is another lame prop to inflate land prices. If the gov tips in 60% or 80% or 90% what do you think will happen to prices? This is all about increasing the equity of those already in the market. This is the main game of both Labor and Libs.”?
GL, my apologies to you and others with a similar level of basic maths, Labor increasing the number of people who can go into debt which would otherwise be beyond their means, equates to less national-personal debt and therefore lower prices /sarcism. Fixed.
That’s alright Stan, I can now go back to upgrading my maths skills with my Cuisenaire rods until I’m allowed to use a calculator. Then one day I may be able to understand the high metaphysical plane of mathematics you seem to inhabit. /sarcasm.
If they really wanted to help housing affordability they would stick to their guns about changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax or abolishing stamp duty and increasing land tax. They could make concessions apply to new properties to encourage greater supply. Grandfather existing arrangements for a certain period. Investment has been skewed towards property for too long. It could be more productively directed elsewhere.
They could also improve the rental situation by regulation somehow incentivising longer term leases over short stay, by building more social housing, and by continuing/extending public/private partnerships like the National Rental Affordability Scheme which offers annual financial incentives for up to ten years, to rent dwellings for eligible NRAS tenants at 80 per cent or less of the market value rent.
GL, and I go back to learn how to spell tricky words like sarcasm; better if I sprinkled some ‘looks like’ in earlier posts.
Kaye, correctamundo. The dopes in power always fail to address this issue, that would be fair and they don’t like fair.
Kaye
I think they can only introduce their NG and CGT reforms once in government ; anything in advance gives Morrison ammunition to scream that mums & dads and nurses are being hit with new taxes – it’s a fine line.
As Jason Clare noted, these are still worthwhile initiatives but were repudiated by voters at the last election [so why persist in clearly unpopular yet sensible policies from opposition]
Remember how Howard said ‘never ever’ a GST yet he then introduced it when re-elected, as had always been his plan.
Stan,
I was not having a go at you about “sarcism/sarcasm” I was just using “/sarcasm” to let you know I wasn’t being serious.
Gasp! Remove negative gearing? That would cause the end of civilisation as we know it…shame on you.
GL, no prob, it’s one big circus.
Yep. One big circus of the damned and we’re one’s who are damned.
Oh look, it’s another one of the now interminable and tired Scummo’s “completely off the cuff and definitely not a photo opportunity” moments. That chicken is raw and the dish itself looks horrible. Where’s the usual photo of that gormless face grinning up into his phone and giving himself the thumbs up? Moron!
https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/huge-flaw-with-prime-minister-scott-morrisons-curry-dinner-revealed/news-story/dbd046e01f2b4b6ef0ca47eafd7f94b3
If anyone has experienced trouble when posting comments – such as an in-your-face message saying “Submission Failure” – I apologise for the inconvenience.
Some admin may have had problems with the site freezing when in our Dashboard.
Anyway, I think – fingers crossed – that the problem has been resolved.
Our friendly and helpful web host found that it was being caused by the “Views Counter” I’d installed at the bottom of each post, which was interfering with other functions of the site.
I’ve replaced it with a new counter but it only counts the views from when the new counter was installed (a few minutes ago).
Thank you for your patience.
Moronson strikes again…
https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/dangerous-prime-minister-scott-morrison-slammed-as-election-stunt-backfires/news-story/d751545bf1d0ed5c1beef53eafd3d5de
A litany of Scummo stupidity and desperateness and sucking up to the rabid religious –
https://www.smh.com.au/national/election-2022-live-updates-labor-calls-on-australians-to-vote-for-hope-and-optimism-coalition-woos-seniors-as-campaigns-reach-halfway-mark-20220502-p5ahn8.html
Looking at the captioned photo I note that these people (particularly the men) raise their right hands in a salute reminiscent of the 1930’s.
Are there other similarities in their worship ?
Terence,apparently there’s a Joy Division in Parliament Hose (sic) in the form of the “Prayer Room’.Would be no surprise if a Golden Calf was discovered in Scooter’s private trophy room,along with his”I stopped these” lump of rubbish.