1 What can one say or do when the leader of the party you support makes such a complete fool of himself so early in an election campaign. All you can do is remind those you come into contact with that, unlike his opponent, he has apologised. Then you can add this suggestion: The wrong answer to a simple question or a perverted liar. You choose.
Ask those you talk to make a choice. Put those of an opposite view on the spot with another ‘gotcha’ question.
Tuesday, April 12. The Murdoch media is captivated with headlines like this in The Australian: ‘Vague promises’: Is Albanese up to job, Libs ask? (Paywalled).
“Josh Frydenberg and Simon Birmingham have seized on Anthony Albanese’s unemployment stumble to argue that the Labor Party doesn’t understand the economy.”
Anyway, let’s not dwell on it except that it was not what one would expect for a man of Albo’s experience.
2 As reported in last Tuesday’s The Australian, last year the Coalition cut bulk billing for psychiatry consultations funded through Medicare. Labor plans to reverse the decision. And so they should. It is vital for the treatment of mental health.
3 I, like many others, have been wondering since December just how the Prime Minister managed to save 40,000 lives during the pandemic. Well, a factcheck by The Guardian puts some light on the subject.
As opposed to Albo forgetting figures, the Prime Minister readerly embellishes them with ease or in this case, he conveniently left out the 2022 figures. Oh, and he didn’t factor in how many more lives might have been saved had he placed the vaccine orders on time.
The factcheck went on to say that:
“Morrison’s figure is accurate but it obscures Australia’s more recent Covid deaths. Australia’s health outcomes during Covid were excellent, but it’s not a commonwealth government success story, it’s a federal one.”
4 On the same day as Albanese’s stumble:
“… the Prime Minister says Tudge is still a cabinet minister, despite the fact that he does not sits in cabinet, collect a ministerial wage nor exercises ministerial powers.”
Just how he arrived at this would baffle even our finest minds.
What is even more outrageous is that after having an affair with a staffer, Rachelle Miller, an investigation found Tudge “had not breached any ministerial standards.” He retains a position in the cabinet, and the lady in question walks away with a cool half-million dollars plus expenses being paid for with our taxes. But the Prime Minister says Tudge is still a cabinet minister. If Tudge had not breached any standards, why is she being paid such a considerable sum, and who authorised it. Can someone answer, please?
5 Queensland MP George Christensen, who quit the LNP earlier in the month, has now decided to join the Red Head and stand for One Nation in the Federal Election (and receive $105,000 for his efforts). He cannot win at number three on the ticket, but it would entitle him to fill his pockets.
Important to note on George Christensen, because he’s contesting IF he loses he will get a taxpayer-funded payout of six-months of salary – equivalent to $105,000 💰. If he’d just quit he wouldn’t get this… pic.twitter.com/7pXyLf2AD6
— Lanai Scarr (@lanai_scarr) April 13, 2022
Mr Christensen told 7 National News that:
“In 2022, the Liberal National Party – as an extension of the Liberal Party – seems anything but conservative and thus it is no longer my party.”
6 On Tuesday evening’s news reports, Morrison was characterised as a gloating immature man who had just had his first victory over his brother playing marbles. The worst aspects of Morrison’s personality have driven him to one catastrophe after another.
His stubbornness leads to a failure to react positively when a crisis occurs. His leadership fails, and he doubles down. This leads him to blame others for his mistakes and take no accountability.
Wanting to have everything his way leads him to politicise everything. He puts politics above people to wedge issues that shouldn’t be. He allows ministers to remain in his cabinet who he should have sacked.
His lack of empathy is well known. Therefore, his leadership is poorer, so he comes over as arrogant and ruthless. That wouldn’t matter, except it all gets in the way of good governance.
7 The Murdoch media will be going for gotchas like there’s nothing else to do:
From the Murdoch mob:
‘Anthony Albanese has left many stunned by his comments on people smugglers this morning, with his claims branded “very dangerous”.’
I read on, for a brief moment.
Who claimed it? Peter Dutton.
Where? On 2GB.Please spare us. #ThisisNotJournalism
— Michael Taylor 🇦🇺🏴 🖤💛❤️ (@AusIndiMedia) April 14, 2022
(The “many stunned” referred to in the article were none other than Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison. Pathetic, isn’t it?)
That’s all for now. Remember, it’s not a race.
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My previous diary entry: And so it begins. Election 2022: a personal perspective.
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My thought for the day
The right to vote in an election is the gift that democracy gives. Therefore, it is incumbent on the voter to have a rudimentary understanding of politics and take an interest in the political landscape.
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Morrison should be asked What is the current national debt and what was it when the Liberals took over Government in 2013.
The Ministerial Code of Conduct requires that :
2.30. Ministers must not engage in sexual relations with their staff. Doing so will constitute
a breach of these Standards.
https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/statement-ministerial-standards-8-april-2022.pdf
Alan Tudge had an affair with a member of staff and is said to have roughly ejected her from bed, she says :
Tudge maintains that he did not have sexual relations with Ms Miller, the staffer in question, and thus he has not breached the ministerial code and Scott Morrison supports him wholeheartedly.
Ms Miller is currently negotiating a settlement estimated to be in the region of $500,000 – Mr Morrison knows nothing about this.
Serious Question : in your opinion (it’s your money) did Tudge breach the ministerial code and what does comprise sexual relations (no Uncle Arthur jokes please – this is serious stuff !).
I sympathise with you, lord.
Why are labor giving scummo mini-miracles by projecting themselves as idiots?
Billy blew it by new policies and now albo.
Scummo has recovered, as the polls will show, making Albo’s job harder.
This morning the ABC had albo’s gaff accompanied by his arm waving like a winner surrounded by cheering red shirts. Why that image?? Looked like he’s crowing long before sunrise.
Scummo’s pictures were at aged care and with workers. The ABC producers here are rupert trained it seems the breakfast ABC show are as well?
The morning shows must have read your post as the were asking leading anti-labor questions at every opportunity. No, only kidding, lord, they wouldn’t read you, in case their faith in the LNP is shaken. Who is glad that Albo is eodem errore and hoping your thought has any reality?
ps michael how is your young fellow on Albo now and have you got his opinion on the viridis?
pps Waltz
he is lucky to have only cost us half a million.
What we need to bear in mind – whether or not you care – is that there is no mainstream media outlet -here or in any anglophone country, that is remotely left wing (or even remotely even-handed). Believe me, I’ve scoured the net looking for one – the only avowedly LW journal in England is the ‘Morning Star’. The only one of the MSM that is prepared to stand consistently against the excesses of Conservative Party in the UK is The Scotsman.
And the revered Metropolitan Police – that TV bastion of fearless law and order, is as traduced as the AFP. People in Britain who breached the Covid rules were fined £1200. Boris Johnson, when the bluebottles were shamed into Investigating the seemingly weekly breaches in Boris Johnson’s own household, found numerous breaches had occurred and Johnson copped a £50 fine. Corruption on a massive scale is rife in the UK as it is here. I know that references to the Nazis is seen as a copout, but the similarities in the contempt for government in pre-Hitler Germany is very like what we are seeing here today, and for the same reasons. The only difference is that the present-day corrupt politicians use Hitlerian techniques to hide it and suppress opposition. Propaganda has been adopted and refined, but it’s the MSM that dispenses it.
JL, campaigns are called campaigns because they allow all parties a long last opportunity to be analysed and considered before a vote is cast. It’s a marathon, not a 50 metre sprint. Candidates have time to trip, stumble, fall over, and still make it to the finish line first! Sadly the presidential style of campaigning means that only the leader is front and centre, and little attention is being paid to the candidates who will elect him Prime Minister. Shouldn’t the Murdock, Costello et al, media be asking questions about how candidates expect their vague claims to be be translated into real policies, what is their platform, and how will they drive these policies through the party mechanisms, and the idiots who for ideological reasons or simply because they oppose all change, will oppose them. My new Liberal candidate, from her election flier, clearly targeted at the kindergarten student educational level, is clearly running for the wrong party. Her focus on improving public health and other Labor party priorities is laudable but not one word is written on how she is going to do it. I will give her the benefit of the doubt, because I, unlike her Liberal colleagues, believe in giving every Australian a fair go. Yet I still question are these her actual values, or simply the carefully crafted spin doctoring of some party pr hack, happy to tell any lie to get her elected? Am I getting cynical in my old age or is the cognitive dissonance caused by her words, raising my fear that this is just another set of mis- truths, lies, and scomo induced tell ’em anything to get their vote type communication? The campaign will give me time to make further assessments. In conclusion JL, and friends, keep your faith, remember Albo is just a good bloke, occasional flawed like the rest of us,, and just trying to do his very best for his party, his supporters and the country. Isn’t that what we want from our nation’s leader?
The media acts as if – and it seems the people agree – ‘truth is the enemy of the people’. The sainted Obama, who seemingly could do no wrong, bombed Libya and Yemen, and presided over the persecution of more whistleblowers – the disseminators of truth – than all other US presidents combined. But he is revered.
The MSM is the lubricant that allows us all to be buggered.
Jack, I’m finding that many journalists in the MSM these days think they are the story.
A bit like AFL umpires: they have this strange idea that people go to the footy just to watch them umpire, rather than watch the game of football (that the umps are going to ruin as a spectacle anyway).
Michael Taylor
All AFL umpires and boundary riders are Tories and Victorians. I know of what I speak, after 25 years of injustices… all new rules are always devised to counter Port Power tactics, ever since Primus thrashed their ruckmen.
Ain’t that the truth, Jack. Ain’t that the bloody truth.
Actually, there is an AFL team for Tory supporters: the Crows.
The percentage of people employed is hardly a meaningful number when a person is considered employed if they have only been employed for an hour. Under employment is also a matter of concern. The way employment figures are taken was changed in 1982 to fit in with International statistics. There are even people not working whom are considered to be employed! So it is reasonable to suggest that Morrison doesn’t really know what the actual figure is for unemployment when the figures are smoothed.
The reference below was taken from an article I wrote in July 2018, it is more relevant now than when published. The article says we can expect worse, that is exactly what has been happening since 2018. We have the means to slow the worst of climate change; but politicians are not listening, and major corporations are green washing in a number of cases.
Nice polite comments about climate change are no longer appropriate; the number of fossil fuel enterprises lately approved by the LNP are a death sentence ,or cause some form of trauma for many people in Australia and Internationally.
https://qz.com/568450/fossil-fuels-kill-more-people-every-year-than-wars-murders-and-traffic-accidents-combined/?fbclid=IwAR2IRT7nh1tbwhUdY1nBb0Ei8oXldDeEaftJaehNLz8VMW3giIVFVxSRBc8
Well…dduuhh…
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-and-his-cabinet-are-frightened-of-an-effective-integrity-commission-20220415-p5adro.html
Bandt’s answer to the journo at the press club was perfect, “just google it mate” then went on to give a good rant about inane questions.
Alot of people have no interest in Politics, so will vote with no interest. As long as the outcome does not affect them.
This smells more of Twiggy finding some new way to cash and rake in more untold millions that he couldn’t spend in ten lifetimes. I might be wrong but…
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/no-one-s-married-to-coal-how-forrest-is-taking-on-the-world-to-save-the-climate-20220415-p5adoo.html