“I am your Prime Minister. I am the elected leader of the Australian people.
It has been said, and said many times over, that we do indeed, now, because of COVID-19, live in unprecedented times.
The political divide that has riven our country for the last decade must end now. No more is there room, in our current circumstance, for the pettiness of point-scoring, or for the ideological need to be ‘right’.
I stand on a mandate given to me by roughly half of the Australian people. And I do realise, that I cannot speak for all of you, I realise that I can only speak for a percentage of you.
We now, as a nation, need the combined voices of reason to steer our country through a period that represents nothing less than a direct challenge to everything that we as a society hold dear. We now, as a nation, need the best that all of us have to offer.
So effectively tonight, in the immediacy of this moment of now, the National Cabinet will be re-constituted to fully represent The Australian People.
The leader of the ALP, and the leader of the Greens, will now sit in the National Cabinet, with full and equal input.
All of us, as political leaders, and as representatives of you, The People, listening to the best of the advice of our health and economic experts, will endeavour to steer our country through these unprecedented times.”
Yeah, I know, some of you are going to say ‘dream on’. But we sure as shit need for something like this to happen in the current circumstances. The decisions that are being made at the moment are being made by people who do not fully represent the Australian people, they only represent a percentage of The People.
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I have zero doubts that the reason for re easing the parliament (at this time when we need them most) is so that Morrison can rule without argument.
He is a frustrated dictator as his ridiculous obsession with schools demonstrates.
He didn’t like Dan and Glad challenging him.
Hungary is a nasty warning! Jackboots getting polished?
Not going to happen in our lifetime
Normally, an argument that the aim is to keep politics out of the National Cabinet might wash – except for the fact that its composition is everything to do with politics. The exclusion of Labor from it and his “committee of pals” is about Morrison trying to appear to be the guy in charge. This is his moment in the spotlight and he isn’t going to waste a second of it by letting Albanese or any union representative tell him what he doesn’t want to hear, draw any attention away from him and steal his thunder. For a fraud like Morrison, COVID-19 is manna from heaven. He gets to read from his jumbled script, pretend to be a statesman and our fearless leader and try to rebuild the personal brand he shattered during the bushfire crisis. I might add, only one of the two Morrisons on display in those two crises is the real him and I know which one I think that is. But, tragically for Australia, I think this boosts his chances of being re-elected in 2022 and that means more years of an incompetent, unaccountable and corrupt LNP government and that means Australia being dragged even closer towards being a totalitarian state.
Optimist!!
The more likely response could be:
Friends, Australians, country people!! Lend me your ears.
Today I bring you the absolute best solution for the economic depression that we had to have. The Liarbral Nazional$ COALition misgovernment will close all businesses that are not essential to get the people used to having no work, then we, the misgovernment, will wait for a month before paying improved Newstart thus allowing the banks to make a profit from loans made to hard working Australian business people foolish enough to believe that Australia has a future as a capitalist economy. They will support all the former workers who cannot get a job now that the businesses have permanently closed and Australia has finally become the worst third world export economy in the OECD.
It has taken us almost seven (7) long years of hard work lining our pockets with every pecuniary interest that we can grab to bring this great country to its economic knees so that, in desperation, owners of former businesses in Australia will sell off their assets, including the businesses, for any low price offered by white foreign carpetbaggers keen to continue our fine financial achievements.
We continue to support the Big Four banks with their foreign shareholders and money grabbing policies of bankrupting landlords and business owners, secure in the knowledge that there will be a cosy overpaid sinecure within those organisations for compliant politicians having no abilities acceptable to the employment market.
A new day is dawning where Australians will become the white trash of the Western Pacific, reduced to the same irrelevant economic status as other Pacific Island nations. Remember, we are all in this together ….. and I shall be soon resident overseas in Hawaii enjoying the ill-gained profits from my betrayal of the Australian people. How good is that???
Yes, Keith Thomas, dream on because only labor people treat politicians as colleagues when it is a toss up which is the enemy..
Sadly there is no doubt in my mind elected smirko and have a plan takes no mind that it may guarantee the lnp government in the new decade.,
Our labor gov has been great in the crisis and the loonies gave preference to everyone with the slogan ‘put labor last’
ps
a qld national often regales me with rightwing nonsense that he considers accurate his latest find is a bit long but :
ITALY’S COMMUNIST RECIPE FOR DISASTER
Published March 24, 2020 | By Giacomino Nicolazzo
Montecalvo, Lombardy, Italy.
As I sit here in my involuntary isolation, it was just reported that overnight 743 more people died and 5.249 new cases have been reported. This brings the total cases of infection to 69,176 and the body count to 6,820. We take relief in knowing that 8,326 people have recovered so far. (Numbers as of 3/24, 8:30pm in Italy.)
Most towns here in Italy, from the upper reaches of the Alps to the ancient shores of Sicilia and Sardenia, while not deserted, are closer to being ghost towns than the bustling centers of tourism, business and daily life they were just a few weeks ago.
Stores and shops have been shuttered. Restaurants and coffee shops no longer serve customers. Schools, universities, sporting arenas…even our museums and theaters…all closed. Even the Vatican City has closed its gates and armed patrols monitor the 20 foot tall walls that protect it!
Streets and roads are now empty for as far as the eye can see. Normally they would be filled with crazed Italian drivers in tiny cars and scooters (the ones that sound like demonic insects) darting here and there, reaching the limits of centrifugal force on our roundabouts. In the piazze of our towns and cities, there are now officially more pigeons than people.
Many of us know someone who has been infected and recovered. Some of us know someone who did not recover…now they are dead. But everyone knows someone who has been affected by this microscopic monster in one way or another.
Sixty million of us are in lockdown…it is like a war zone here. We are being held prisoner in our own homes by an unseen enemy that sneaked in unnoticed…by most of us. As you will read in just a few more minutes, there were those who knew something like this was coming…or at least they should have.
So who is to blame? With all this craziness swirling like a whirlpool at our feet, I just had to find the blame answer. And so I have spent my free time (of which I have a lot in these days) digging and researching. I was literally shocked to discover how this has come to be.
I am not going to bore you with talk of Patient ‘0’ who spread it to Patient ‘1’ and how mathematics efficiently explains the rapid expansion of infection. No…I am going to tell you how (as I see it) the virus came to Italy.
It has everything to do with communists. Allow me to explain.
Beginning in about 2014, Matteo Renzi, the imbecile ex-mayor of Firenze (Florence) acting as the leader of the Partito Democratico (synonymous with the Italian Communist party), somehow managed to get himself elected as Italy’s Prime Minister. To give you a proper frame of reference, Matteo Renzi was so far left, he would make Barack Obama look like Barry Goldwater!
At the same time that Renzi was leading Italy into oblivion, strange things were happening in Italy’s economy. Banks were failing…but not closing. Retirement ages were being extended…for some reason the pension funds were dwindling or disappearing. The national sales tax we call IVA (Value Added Tax) rose from 18% to 20%, then to 21% and again to 22%.
And in the midst of all this financial chicanery, the Chinese began furiously buying up Italian real estate and businesses in the North.
Now the reason I mention Renzi and the Chinese together is that strange things were also going on between the governments of Italy and China. A blind eye was being turned to the way the Chinese were buying businesses in the financial, telecommunication, industrial and fashion sectors of Italy’s economy, all of which take place in Milano.
To be brief…China was getting away with purchases and acquisitions in violation of Italian law and EU Trade Agreements with the US and the UK…and no one in either of those countries (not Obama in the US or Cameron in the UK) said a thing in their country’s defense. As a matter of fact, much of it was hidden from the public in all three countries.
In 2014, China infused the Italian economy with €5 billion through purchases of companies costing less than €100 million each. By the time Renzi left office (in disgrace) in 2016, Chinese acquisitions had exceeded €52 billion. When the dust settled, China owned more than 300 companies…representing 27% of the major Italian corporations.
The Bank of China now owns five major banks in Italy…all of which had been secretly (and illegally) propped up by Renzi using pilfered pension funds! Soon after, the China Milano Equity Exchange was opened and much of Italy’s wealth was being funneled back to the Chinese mainland.
Chinese state entities own Italy’s major telecommunication corporation (Telecom) as well as its major utilities (ENI and ENEL). Upon entry into the telecommunication market, Huawei established a facility in Segrate, a suburb of Milano. It launched is first research center there and worked on the study of microwaves which has resulted in the possibly-dangerous technology we call 5G.
China also now owns controlling interest in Fiat-Chrysler, Prysmian and Terna. You will be surprised to know that when you put a set of Pirelli tires on your car, the profits are going to China. Yep…the Chinese colossus of ChemChina, a chemical industry titan, bought that company too!
Last but not least is Ferretti yachts…the most prestigious yacht builder in Europe. Incredibly, it is no longer owned by the Ferretti family.
But the sector in which Chinese companies invested most was Italy’s profitable fashion industry. The Pinco Pallino, Miss Sixty, Sergio Tacchini, Roberta di Camerino and Mariella Burani brands have been acquired by 100%.
Designer Salvatore Ferragamo sold 16% and Caruso sold 35%. The most famous case is Krizia, purchased in 2014 by Shenzhen Marisfrolg Fashion Company, one of the leaders of high-priced, ready-to-wear fashions in Asia.
Throughout all of these purchases and acquisitions, Renzi’s government afforded the Chinese unrestricted and unfettered access to Italy and its financial markets, many coming through without customs inspections.
Quite literally, tens of thousands of Chinese came in through Milano (illegally) and went back out carrying money, technology and corporate secrets.
Thousands more were allowed to enter and disappeared into shadows of Milano and other manufacturing cities of Lombardy, only to surface in illegal sewing shops, producing knock-off designer clothes and slapping ‘Made In Italy’ labels on them. All with the tacit approval of the Renzi government.
It was not until there was a change in the governing party in Italy that the sweatshops and the illegal entry and departure of Chinese nationals was stopped. Matteo Salvini, representing the Lega Nord party, closed Italy’s ports to immigrants and systematically began disassembling the sweatshops and deporting those in Italy illegally.
But his rise to power was short-lived. Italy is a communist country…socialism is in the national DNA. Ways were found to remove Salvini, after which the communist party, under the direction of Giuseppe Conte, reopened the ports. Immediately, thousands of unvetted, undocumented refugees from the Middle East and East Africa began pouring in again.
Access was again provided to the Chinese, under the old terms, and as a consequence thousands of Chinese, the majority from Wuhan, began arriving in Milano.
In December of last year, the first inklings of a coronavirus were noticed in Lombardy…in the Chinese neighborhoods. There is no doubt amongst senior medical officials that the virus was brought here from China.
By the end of January 2020 cases were being reported left and right. By mid-February the virus was beginning to seriously overload the Lombardy hospitals and medical clinics. They are now in a state of collapse.
The Far-Left politicians sold out and betrayed the Italian people with open border policies and social justice programs. One of the reasons the health care system collapsed so quickly is because the Renzi government (and now continued under the Conte government) redirected funds meant to sustain the medical system, to pay for the tens of thousands of immigrants brought in to Italy against the will of the Italian people.
If you remember the horrible earthquake that decimated the villages around Amatricia, in the mountains east of Rome in 2015, you would also remember how the world responded by sending millions of dollars to help those affected.
But there is a law in Italy that prevents private donations to charitable Italian organizations. All money and donations received must be turned over to a government agency, who in turn is to appropriate the funds as needed. But that agency is corrupt just as are all the others.
Most of the money never reached a single victim in the mountains. The Renzi government redirected the vast majority of those funds to pay for the growing immigrant and refugee costs.
As the economy worsened under the burden of illegal immigration, compounded by gross government spending and incompetence, unemployment rose quickly…especially among young people. The unemployment rate for men and women under age 35 is close to 40%.
So more money was diverted from the health care system and used to pay what is known here as guaranteed income. Whether you work or not you are paid here, especially if you belong to the PD! The government simply raises taxes on those who do work.
Let me give you a quick example of the height of insanity to which Italian taxation has risen. If you live in a building that has a balcony or balconies…and any of those balconies cast a shadow on the ground, you must pay a public shadow tax! I will say no more!
The point I am trying to make here is that not only did the Chinese bring the virus to Italy (and the rest of the world) it was far-Left politics and policies that facilitated it.
This should hopefully be a warning to Americans that while they work to rid themselves of the China Virus, they should just as vehemently endeavor to rid their government of any politician that circumvents the Constitution and ignores the laws of the land…plain and simple.
While not denying the strong connections between northern Italy and PRC, including Wuhan, Salvini has also been highlighted in the recent past for focusing too much upon ‘illegal’ migration to southern Italy while neglecting the funding of essential services including health care.
Further, the present govt. was slow to act in controlling intra Schengen flights or travel for potential COVID-19 carriers from PRC (after banning direct flights), and Italians neglecting regional quarantine measures in the north i.e. clearing off to other regions….
Elephant in the room was the spread, linked to Spain also, was a Champions League football match in February between Atalanta and Valencia in Milan, highlighted by many including the mayor of Bergamo, which spread the virus further in Italy, also helped kick it off in Spain, after fans returned home (35% of the Valencia squad and officials alone were infected).
Finally, cultural issue of tactile nature of personal relationships in both Italy and Spain, aged populations and in Italy, middle aged children living with elderly parents.
Many factors that can be correlated and also proven to be causative, let’s wait and see what the research finds.
I reckon the comments above have officially and undeniably confirmed that I am an optimist and a dreamer with no hope whatsoever of steering the political elite in any sort of positive direction. Having said that, none of you have given up, so I’ll hang in there too!
Wam – you need to write a book – that was an epic of a comment!
New England Cocky – the first word of your comment got me in one. Interesting days hey? How’s it going in your regional area?
IS SCOTT MORRISON THE ELECTED LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE AND IS AUSTRALIA A GENUINE DEMOCRACY?
He is not the elected prime minister (PM) nor even the elected leader of this country, he is ‘vicariously elected’ leader of the Liberal party at best; even they didn’t elect him, only the parliamentary few did (64 members of the House and 31 of the Senate by secret ballot). Actually it was less than that at the time of the leadership spill, as the numbers here are todays parliament after the General Election (so we are being generous).
That is effectively 0.00064% of the population of Australia who are enrolled to vote (95/14.9 million), AND even that is not the total eligible population, since an estimated 1.2 million (7.5%) are not enrolled). That equates to 0.6 persons per 10,000 head of enrolled population voted for Morrison to be party leader (not PM) in a party leadership spill before the general election).
The population of Australia in 2019 was 25.2 million, 10.3 million are not eligible or able to vote (41% of Australians), thus only 0.0004% (04 in every 10,000) Australians voted for Morrison as leader of the Liberal party (not PM).
The only people in Australia who directly voted for him as a Member of Parliament (not PM or leader) were his constituency – 59,895 (63.7%) of his electorate of Cook in 2019, which equates to 0.4% of the Australian population (enrolled to vote).
5.3 million (36.9%) of those who voted, voted for the Liberals in 2019, compared to Labor’s 4.8 million (33.3%). Barely one third of all Australians eligible to vote actually voted for the Liberal party and ZERO of 14.9 million enrolled Australians actually voted for Morrison as leader of the Australian people.
“I am the elected leader of the Australian people…” NO YOU AREN’T!
not my words keith. I have relatives who under donkey’s years of input have moved from abos, slopes to the nignogs oops shouldn’t have called them that I cannot expect any more from them.
But I have friends who are riich franking credit recipients with 6 figure incomes tax free and medicare levy of $0. They were/are nationals; office holders and sharewth me anti labor info and pro-lnp propaganda.
I, rather arrogantly gleaned from their words that they didn’t have friends and relatives who were blighted with the fear of ‘socialism’. xenophobic homophobic, sexist (one uxor cannot drive, has no money and will not make a decision outside of cooking and the man does almost all of that on his bbqs) used to send stuff on to torpid tanya and still do to john lord in a forlorn hope that they would see that very intelligent people believe in fairies and in the gullibility of the below average being corrupted by the ABC and left wing sources like the courier mail. Unfortunately my obtuse words led them to call me a right wing troll.
This reference seemed so gleefully sent that I couldn’t resist ‘sharing’
@Keith Davis: Here in the Armidale Local Government Area (LGA) we have 1 infection in Armidale, 2 infections in Glen Innes, 100km north and 3 infections in Inverell, about 120km north west. All infections are cruise ship related to known sources. There does not appear to have been any local cross infections. The joys of living in a regional centre are blatantly obvious in situations like this present COVID-19 pandemic.
This speech will NEVER happen because the megalomaniacal, narcissistic sociopath, Morrison, does NOT want to share the limelight with anyone – especially the socialistic plebs in the ALP, eh? Despite the fact that Morrison’s Lying Nasty Party ripped off the same version of the Stimulus Package that they so loudly criticised, condemned and shouted against when Kevin Rudd introduced it. Morrison does not – and will NEVER – give the progressive, foresightful ALP one iota of credit or allow elected members of the ALP their justifiable RIGHT to have full say in the due process of addressing issues relating to the horrendous pandemic that we are all labouring under right now!
The fact is that Sloth Morrison and the LNP are SO ENTRENCHED in the confrontational “them and us” mode of divisive, argumentative and aggressively hostile system of politics (going back to the hate, venom and fear-mongering used by John Howard and made even more virulent by the truly inept and vindictive Tony Abbott). Morrison, and his non-achieving, self-serving cabinet of profiteering capitalists, followed the usual LNP MO and that is to run screaming into the hills at the first sign of a crisis whilst on FULL PAY – and earning $2,500 per day every single day of Morrison’s exclusion from the suffering by the rest of us, it looks like he (and his cabinet) have NO INTENTION OF SHARING OUR PAIN! The bitter fact is that Morrison is probably the ONLY so-called leader who is MIA during a pandemic crisis this country has never before experienced. When Morrison scuttled away to Hawaii during the massive, catastrophic bushfires, it was more than a single act of cowardice, it was a PRECEDENT of the type of disgusting, self-serving behaviour that we have come to EXPECT from the gutless Liar from the Shire!
The self-promoting, publicity-seeking Morrison – forever the cheap ‘n nasty marketing man – is delighted to use and abuse the Coronavirus as the perfect opportunity to GRANDSTAND – getting his smirk on TV night after night whilst sanctimoniously and pompously lecturing ordinary Austraians from afar. The Bogan with the Slogan, of course, always has ANOTHER cringe-worthy LNP marketing phrase ready and waiting to use in event of political expediency and it looks like “We’re all in this together” is the latest. All in this together are we? Well, NOT REALLY, Morrison! There is a growing number of desperate people out there who have been stood down or sacked without pay who would give ANYTHING to be on $2,500 per day instead of wondering how the hell they are going to pay the next instalment on their mortgage, rent or how to put food on the table when their holiday pay (if they are lucky enough to have accumulated it) runs out!
Instead of handing out a pittance of the funds you stole from NBN, NDIS and the defundment of Medicare and our children’s State education, Morrison, how about setting up a similar scheme as the one in the UK where people who have been dismissed (without pay) can access a decent weekly stippend instead of trying to meet the almost IMPOSSIBLE criteria set down by Centrelink – that is, if they are lucky enough to get to see them (on the long queues) or if the computer/telephone access to Centrelink hasn’t crashed for the hundredth time! The LNP promise the world but, behind the scenes, are making it harder and harder for ordinary people who are REALLY suffering to get access to the welfare to which they have contributed (in taxes) for years!
Wealth, huge fat tax rebates and benefits only TRICKLE UP in this capitalistic, neliberal version of LNP’s Australia when the ONLY thing that will work is DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM! Wake up, Morrison! The more desperate people become, the less they will spend – no matter HOW much of our taxpayer funds you hand over to BIG BUSINESS! When people become desperate and fearful, two things will rise exponentially: domestic violence and crime! Morrison, get off your backside and DO SOMETHING TO ASSIST SOCIETY !!!!
Good comments. Good people. That is the value of AIMN!
Keith, you are a bright light in a dark world.