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The Weak In Politics!

Yes, yes, I know, all right! I was channelling Donald Trump who, this week, referred to Biden as a “week president” even though he’s been there for years now, which is much longer than a week. Unfortunately, it turns out that another post where one-time Trump lawyer was called a “cereal liar” was not one of Humpty Trumpty’s at all. It was, in fact, a parody. However, these days parody is just as plausible as reality.

For example, take Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s praise for Lachlan Murdoch:

“Of course Lachlan Murdoch, whose family have provided a beacon of light in a sea of woke darkness, via the necessary media platforms that deliver genuine, common sense and fact-driven News reporting for our benefit.”

Admittedly this was prior to the defamation settlement with Dominion, where in a victory not seen since Christian Porter took on the ABC, Rupert and Lachlan managed to not only have a massive win, but they also managed to save Dominion from embarrassment in court by settling and offering to pay them a figure in excess of a billion dollars… Of course, when it’s converted to US dollars, it’s a lot less. And if you think that it’s not that much less, let me say that I would be more than happy to live on it.

Anyway, I didn’t want to focus on the Murdochs because, as we all know, their days as a significant news organisation are over and they’ve been reduced to publishing the local newsletter for the Liberal Party. I was more concerned about the sins of the Labor Party today.

I could start with Dan Andrews. For those of you not in Victoria, there was recently an IBAC inquiry into the awarding of a contract to a union before the 2018 election because it was suggested that there was pressure put on the public servants to ensure that the union got the million-dollar gig. While I’m sure some of you remember that the Morrison government assured us that ministers should be making the decisions rather than public servants and that it was perfectly fine to give billion dollar contracts without tender to companies that had nothing more than an office in a bathing box at an unspecific location, this was given to a union, which is different because while unions are dodgy, no company in the history of the world has ever been involved in corrupt behaviour, including the one who paid me to write that sentence.

Anyway, the inquiry found that, while the approaches by certain staff may have put undue pressure on public servants, the pressure fell short of corruption as IBAC defined it. This was outrageous… Of course, when I say that it was outrageous, that’s because lots of Liberals and fellow travellers were outraged because when they set up the rules governing IBAC, they were in power and so they set rules that made it almost impossible to find a politician guilty of anything unless they’d already been charged, convicted and written a memoir where they admitted everything. This high bar was not meant for the Labor Party and it’s outrageous that the same rules apply to them.

The trouble with politics is, of course, that we don’t apply the same standards to everyone and that we tend to approach it rather like our support for a football team. We don’t think that there’s a problem when our team gets away with something that should have been penalised, but when the opposition do it, then the whole system is corrupt and the officials are probably in cahoots with the opposing coach.

Speaking of sport though, I must say that I used this analogy today and that I was rather pleased with myself: The Liberals are like a team that’s at the bottom of the ladder and losing badly, but content themselves with the idea that other teams have been there and played finals just a short time later. However when asked whether they need a new coach or better recruiting or a new game plan, they tell us that it’s all fine and they may even get their past captain out of retirement because he was the one who led them to all those wins back in… what year was it again? Anyway, he’s an icon…

And while sport is a game, politics is about people’s lives. While some have the luxury of saying that both sides of politics are just as bad as each other, I’d like to point out that the very phrase “both sides of politics” shows just how much we treat it like a sporting contest. There are a lot more than two sides and it’s about time we started insisting that politicians stop trying to win and we get a bit more bipartisan consensus… Yes, I know it’s those other ones who are causing division; I’m on the same side as me…

Labor were foolish to go into the last election promising to preserve the Stage 3 tax cuts but it’s too late to be wise in retrospect. Now they’re stuck between the desirability of – at the very least – tinkering with them, and the inevitability that if they do something as simple as say we’ll stagger them over the next three years, they’ll be attacked by the Opposition with support from some in the media who are currently saying that the tax cuts are unaffordable and inflationary, and if Labor can’t balance the Budget then they should give up and give the Coalition a chance because they’re such sound economic managers that they’ve… oh, did I mention that the Coalition stopped the boats… or at least, Scott Morrison stopped any news about boats…

When it comes to raising the rate of unemployment benefits, there’s not really a case against it. Ok, I can think of several but then I can also think of several arguments for getting someone to wander into a meeting of the NRA and shouting that there’s a shooter loose with a gun and can someone just take him out?

I mean, it would be nice to balance the Budget, but given that it hasn’t happened lately and I’ve been completely incapable of balancing my own budget since secondary school when I spent my lunch money on Twisties and kept the balance, you can sort of see that there’s an argument that somehow balancing a budget may not be the healthiest option – either personally or for the nation as a whole.

Yeah, I guess we don’t want the unemployed living on Twisties…

 

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8 comments

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  1. margcal

    Since the UK phone hacking scandal in the UK taught the Murdochs nothing, and their response to the Dominion case shows the same, life will presumably go on at newscorpse, chasing the money above all else. Yes, I know they closed News of the World but I’d say that was another Murdoch win… no fight with employees about the closure due to the dying off of print media.

    Regarding the Vic IBAC report and everyone focusing on a union getting a contract without going to tender…
    I’m not across the detail but the union getting funding for what was a union proposal seems to me to be in a different category to contracts going to tender. To me, that’s one that should have been examined for its value then ranked with all other requests for funding. So by all means question procedure, but that doesn’t seem to be the question about what was or wasn’t done here.

    And those Stage 3 tax cuts. Albanese, so far, is wimping it. As I mentioned recently, he said he was going to do what was right, not what was easy. I’d have thought feeding and housing the hungry and homeless was right. Not generating more funds for the rich to spend on luxuries or send to the Caymans.

    Albanese is a huge disappointment… on many fronts.

  2. Andy56

    What no coments on the RBA? How they screwed us over by allowing the asset price bubble to grow beyond belief. Lowe sayng ” nothng to see here”. So now we will follow ” worlds best practce” when the rest of the world hasnt escaped from madness either. Just imagine the wage growth that wouldnt be necessary if only you didnt have to borrow an extra half mill. I suggest that the boom and bust cycles have been stretched out with the bust coming being the biggest ever. I also suggest we just let jucinta have all the rope she needs. We have bigger problems coming our way.

  3. New England Cocky

    Ahhh Rossleigh …. if only the Albanese LABOR government was as imaginative as your regular gems of wisdom, then Australian egalitarianism would be revived in days.
    .
    Sadly margcal above is correct ….. Albanese is a great disappointment.

  4. andy56

    so today we hear from Michaelia cash, back from her bush weekend i see. Straight into it, not a shrill left out. This token woman of merrit is such a try hard, hahahahahaha.
    “we want the AG’s report”, oops…….” we want the AG’s report”…….oops” we want the AG’s report”. If at first you dont read what you want from the report, you ask again to see the report because its says what we say it says, hahahahahaha
    what a try hard. This shrill has no credibility what so ever and everytime she opens her mouth, more shit comes out.
    The libs can have 3/4 of their cabinet as women, but the same shit will happen because they are all cut from the same shit base of stupid people who crave power.

  5. Clakka

    Aaah, I was wondering about structural reform. Now enlightened; it’s turning a cut lunch into a bag of twisties. Can’t wait to digest the budget spread.

  6. Wayne Turner

    Albo is weak as piss. Sadly odds on,the rest of the Labor party are too.

    Raise JobSeeker to a better rate eg: What was recommended by that committee.

    Dump 3rd stage tax cuts.Grow a pair,and give the following reasons:-

    *Unaffordable.

    *Will be inflationary.

    *Will increase inequality.

    Labor be the party to lessen inequality.

    Also’-

    Labor if you want to change the country for the better: Start dumping the hand outs to the well off – The welfare for the wealthy egs: Hand outs to billionaire mining companies, negative gearing,etc…

    Get over this obsession, with keeping bad promises,you should never of made. Instead become obsessed with doing what is right for this country.

    Too frightened to do the correct thing,a bunch of cowards.

    Albo and co need to be told they won the last election only because people finally got sick of the corrupt lazy Libs, especially ad man SloMo. Labor won In spite of being so timid. Plus,in a two party system,they are only ahead now because of Libs and Dutton are so horrible.Not because of Labor being so spineless.

    At this rate,whenever the Libs get there act together, sadly but rightfully Albo & co will be finished.

    Federal Labor stop with giving us Liberal Party policies.It’s basically the Liberal Party governing from opposition.

    WAKE UP Labor.

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