In light of the deficit levy and the PPL levy and the increased Medicare levy to pay for the NDIS and the increased fuel excise and the co-payment for doctors and medications (aka sick tax), I thought it might be interesting to revisit Tony Abbott’s words.
Thanks to the ABC and Crikey. I have also added a few more to their lists.
August 22, 2011: “It is an absolute principle of democracy that governments should not and must not say one thing before an election and do the opposite afterwards. Nothing could be more calculated to bring our democracy into disrepute and alienate the citizenry of Australia from their government than if governments were to establish by precedent that they could say one thing before an election and do the opposite afterwards.”
January 31,2013: “So my pledge to you is that I won’t say one thing before an election and do the opposite afterwards because fibbing your way into office is what’s brought our public life into disrepute.”
August 25, 2013: “We will be a no-surprises, no-excuses government, because you are sick of nasty surprises and lame excuses from people that you have trusted with your future.”
October 28, 2010: “We stand for lower, simpler, fairer taxes, not great big new taxes that damage Australia’s economy, not great big new taxes that are yet another hit on the cost of living of struggling Australian families.”
January 2011: “Why should the Australian people be hit with a levy to meet expenses which a competent, adult, prudent government should be able to cover from the ordinary revenues of government?”
February 10, 2011: “The one thing that [people] will never have to suffer under a Coalition government is an unnecessary new tax, a tax that could easily be replaced by savings found from the budget.”
February 23, 2011: “We honour the victims of the floods by being a competent parliament and a competent government. We do not honour them by imposing an unnecessary new tax.”
May 12 2011: “People can be confident that spending, debt and taxes will always be lower under a Coalition government because we have the record to prove it.”
August 15, 2011: “This is the week in which we will mark the first anniversary of the Prime Minister’s infamous promise to the Australian people before the last election: ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead’. This is a promise that will haunt the Prime Minister and the Government every day until their ultimate political death. This Government fundamentally lacks legitimacy and not because it lacks a majority but because it lacks integrity and nothing more highlights the Government’s lack of integrity than this monumental broken promise.”
August 16, 2011: “A very clear message is going out from the Australian people to this government: there can be no tax collection without an election. If this government had any honesty, any decency, that is what we would have: an election now.”
August 16, 2011: “There is one fundamental message that we want to go out from this place to every nook and cranny of our country: There should be no new tax collection without an election.”
August 22, 2011: “I have often said, and members of this House will no doubt hear me say it again, there should be no new tax collection without an election,”
September 14, 2011: “I say to this Prime Minister: There should be no new tax collection without an election.”
November 23, 2011: “This government thinks that somehow you can build prosperity with new taxes. No country ever got rich by increasing taxation. No country ever built a strong economy by clobbering itself with tax after tax after tax.”
November 24, 2011: “Our objective can be stated quite simply and quite clearly. It is lower taxes, better services, more opportunities to work and, above all else, stronger borders.”
March 14, 2012: “What you’ll get under us are tax cuts without new taxes,”
May 10, 2012: People who work hard should not be “hit with higher taxes“.
September 19, 2012: “The time for big-spending, big-taxing, big-fibbing government has gone. We will give the Australian people the decent government they deserve.”
January 2013: “And when this government claims that its attacking middle class welfare, its just attacking the middle class because the family tax benefit and the private health insurance rebate are tax justice for families, not handouts.
May 16, 2013: “We want taxes that are lower, simpler and fairer and will take proposals for further tax reform to the following election,”
Real Solutions pamphlet, 2013: “We pledge to the families of Australia that we will never make your lives harder by imposing unnecessary new taxes.”
Liberal Election Policy 2013: “But only the Coalition can be trusted to actually deliver tax cuts and genuine tax reform that will boost the economy and ease cost‑of‑living pressures for Australian families”
July 8, 2013: “The current government is addicted to regulation. They’ve never seen a problem that they didn’t think a new tax or a new regulation or another bureaucrat could solve.”
August 6, 2013: “Taxes will always be lower under a Coalition government.”
August 9, 2013: “The only party which is going to increase taxes after the election is the Labor Party.”
August 11, 2013: “The only party that will raise taxes after the election is the Labor Party.”
August 15, 2013: “I am determined not to increase the overall tax burden. I am absolutely determined not to increase the overall tax burden on anyone.”
August 15, 2013: “There will be no overall increase in the tax burden whatsoever.”
August 17, 2013: “Now I say the tax burden isn’t going to increase. Well, we are going to abolish the carbon tax, abolish the mining tax, we will reduce the company tax – of course the overall tax burden is going to go down.”
August 18, 2013: “I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that our objective when the fiscal circumstances are right, is to lower all taxes. We want to lower all taxes. We really are the party of lower, simpler, fairer taxes – look at our record in government.”
August 19, 2013: “We’ll build a stronger economy so that everyone can get ahead, and part of building a stronger economy is cutting unnecessary taxes, abolishing unnecessary taxes,”
September 2, 2013: In three years’ time, “because taxes will be lower and regulation reduced, economic growth should be stronger” if the Coalition was elected.
September 5, 2013: “Right now the best thing we can do for our country and ultimately the best thing we can do for people around the world is to strengthen our economy and that means cutting taxes, building the infrastructure of the future, because if tax is lower and infrastructure is better our economy will be more productive and a strong Australia is going to be a much better international citizen than an Australia which can’t really pay its way.”
September 5, 2013: “Economic policy will be geared towards stronger economic growth than it currently is. If you reduce taxes, if you reduce regulation, if you increase productivity, you will get stronger economic growth.”
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We could also add
Abbott, May 2011, on Labor’s move to freeze the indexation of welfare payments to families earning $150,000: “These are class-war cuts that the government is inflicting on people.”
Hockey on Labor’s move, 2011: “… the politics of envy.”
Abbott in his budget reply speech, May 10, 2012: “The fundamental problem with this budget is that it deliberately, coldly, calculatedly plays the class war card … families on $150,000 a year are not rich, especially if they’re paying mortgages in our big cities.”
This week, Abbott said families earning over $100,000 should no longer get welfare payments, a surprise announcement that experts say probably means cuts to the Family Tax Benefit system
Abbott in a speech on April 28, 2014: “But the best way to help families on $100,000 a year is long-term tax relief and more business and job opportunities, not social security.”
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No!
It’s TONY THE TAXER!
Pathetic isn’t it! But will he get away with it?
http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-a-Psychopath
A psychopath cannot really be accused of lying, they’re just having an ongoing, chaotic “episode”.
There has been almost no interrogation by the msm of Abbott’s broken promises. Political reporters, Kenny and Hartcher, have either made excuses or defended the Coalition’s extraordinary back downs. By contrast, the media reiterated Abbott’s mantra about the “carbon tax” lie which was a carbon price and was underpinned by a moral imperative to reduce damage to the environment. This important aspect of the debate was almost totally avoided.
A careful reading of most of those statements will reveal the loopholes and wriggle-room he gave himself. Weasel words for the disengaged, incurious masses…
“Trust us” said Matthius CONman to the mug punters and golly, gee whizz,,52% of the mug voters did.
They were betting on a sure thing, weren’t they?
They were betting on no new taxes and the abolition of some and now they are waiting with bated breath till budget day to see how much their losses are.
Perhaps when they start to feel the pain, they then can reflect how equitable it is for the Big Miners that their tax contribution is helping the miners with fuel excise subsidies of around $2BILLION A YEAR, while they’re making SUPER PROFITS.
Go figure we were giving half a bil to the auto industry that employed thousands to keep them afloat and we give the miners $2Billion to add to their super profits.
By the miners reckoning, they should be given the excise subsidy because they don’t use the roads. By the same token everyone who buys and services labour for work on their house should not have to pay GST on the materials and labour because it’s on private property.
If the miners can’t live without corporate WELFARE they should be shown the door as One Term Tone showed to Holden and Toyiota.
Did anybody happen to see this week’s Media Watch on the ABC? It was remarkable to see the different response from Alan Jones in regards to broken promises. After calling Julia Gillard “Juliar”, he finds it OK to break promises.
What we are witnessing in both politics and the media these days is hypocrisy writ large.
Yes I articles of Kenny are spineless and very one sided. A little objectivity would help.
Tax: synonyms: levy, excise, contribution, charge, fee
April 3, 2014 Julie Bishop rules out fuel excise re-indexation
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2014/s3977262.htm
A lot of people accept that it’s a problem left behind by the last govt… which tony has to fix. Can’t blame anyone but Labor apparently…
“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion. ”
~Arthur Koestler
Yes Roswell it certainly is hypocrisy writ large. So much so he ought to be nominated for the Doublespeak Award. Read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak_Award
Common give us a go you only found 33 statements and that’s a small fraction of the billions of words that are spoken by honest people every day so on the law of averages, and Sweaty Mans statistics thingy, your quotes are statistically insignificant having failed to reach the desired significance level of factual Rabbit-ism replicable proof and truth. Ergo I cannot possibly lie under any circumstance, in any respect, regarding the nature of Taxation and the implicit rite of a Rhodes scholar (Mr Smarty pants Me) to produce profound and well reasoned answers to your obvious nonrepresentational deceptions.
How’s that Sweaty man.
You make me come over all funny when you are assertive like that Brear Rabbit.
Whoa hold on there mate getting a bit risque hey?
Oops sorry just a metaphor you know.
You my dear, Ugh gotta get the bile outta me mouth, friend Ms, Mrs, Miss, whatever, Lee belong to the nonrepresentational droolly-speaking back door scribbler types that Rupy would eat alive. Na, na, nee, na, na I got all the cards.
After all Mr Smelly Pelly just loves me and he has got real backside contacts with big brother.
Shit I’m good.
Ergo I cannot lie.
“…the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world…”
Noble sentiments no doubt. Just wondering how this speech gels with spending $24 billion on fighter jets, over $10 billion on roads and another $10 billion to lock up asylum seekers, $200,000 for every one-use orange life raft, $3.4 billion in grants to polluters to upgrade their factories, $600 million on new bigger planes for Tony so he can accommodate the Murdoch press and his personal film crew in VIP luxury, a fleet of bomb proof BMWs for Tony at a cost of about $5 million, $16 million to Cadbury (a pollie pedal sponsor) to reinstate factory tours, $10 million to the Manly Sea Eagles where Tony is number 1 ticket holder, $5 million to Rupert Murdoch’s broncos, $4.3 million for a research company to trawl through millions of Australian social media posts to advise the government on its immigration policies, air fares for Tony to fly back and forth from Canberra because he chose to live in Kirribilli House instead of moving to where his job is ($18.4 million for John Howard, the only other PM to do this)
This reads like a Monty Python sketch. All we need is John Cleese acting as Tony Abbott
What a chip off the old block looking after us simple folk.
I don’t know how he can lie straight in his bunk and the Federal Police Academy: with any luck he will never get to move into the refurbished Lodge.
Step up Malcolm.
You forgot the one stating he preferred a carbon tax over the trading scheme.
Good work, Kaye Lee. Labor have tons of ammunition to use for the next election… Let’s hope they have the sense to use it all.
Liar. Liar. Pants on fire.
Abbott’s trousers must be generating enough heat they could kickstart a star.
Joe,
Just read your comment. I know you share my concerns about just how to get these monsters out of power.
Just when are Labor going to use the ammunition; and where have they shown a concerted and insistent willingness?
Meanwhile each day, e.g., the repugnant Pyne defends the uniformly iniquitous budget proposals as necessary measures against ‘the disastrous deficit and debt mess left to us by Labor’.
Is it just that in their normalisation of this gangster regime, the MSM do not report or feature Labor’s responses? The lies have to be countered; or else Abbott has 2 terms assured.
Am I missing major inroads into this Media nonsense made by Labor because of my inability to stomach the MSM-corporate drivel?
This is not a fair world; as others have observed, Labor needs slogans, and needs them now. The next election must be won, or this country will be in ruins.
Does this man ever tell the truth? Tell one lie and you will lose your credibility … Tell many lies and you will lose the next election … Get that message through your thick head ABBOTT and your LibNat-zi government …
She’ll be right mate loosing all those manufacturing jobs will go a treat. Mining sector may be a problem. And to top it of unemployment tidal wave expected in next two years. Doing a bumper job there LNP.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/the-economy/unemployment-tidal-wave-feared-in-next-two-years-20140509-37zkk.html
Maybe the truth will be more troublesome than the lies.
<
"worst government ever"
"stop the taxes"
"stop the lying"
I've told AIM readers before this is how Abbotts gang sees the world :
http://tytempletonart.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/mad-161.jpg?w=500
Anyone want to revisit the Labor election campaign that got such a panning for being “negative”?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/its-your-loss-rudd-tells-abbott-voters-in-bleak-ad-campaign-20130818-2s55l.html
Where are all the anti labor trolls now, comments sections everywhere are bereft of the libtrolls that flooded them pre election. Are they now aware of what dingbats they were or are they just ashamed to show their faces now that one term tones has done nearly exactly every morally reprehensible act that was predicted of him or worse. We said he would piss off Indonesia and he did, We said he would lie and back out of every pre election promise and he pretty much has. We said he would pander to the mining interests and decimate all forms of environmentalism and he has, we said he would ruin the NBN and they have, We said he would butcher the NDIS and he has. What I truly didn’t expect was the level of thuggery, secrecy and total BS that has accompanied each of these. Refugee treatment swept under the carpet as their racist backlash against the worlds vulnerable is ignored by the MSN and they die or are abused in custody, fortunately far enough away from the average punter for their cries to be heard. Thuggery as Tones tells the public service exactly what they are allowed to think and say for fear of their jobs. Lauding timber workers as conservationists. The sheer and unmitigated nerve of calling himself the prime minister for women when he has done nothing but set the feminist movement back 50 years. Calling himself the prime minister that cares for the indigenous, a sham so shallow that any investigative journalist worth a penny could have exposed it for the world to see and then spitting on them by ignoring his promise to spend his first week on ylongu land. Even Liberal diehards and anti Gillard Mysoginysts must be starting to realise that whatever they thought of labor that this government gives fascism a bad name. Up in the north mini-me Newman, a corrupt and morally bankrupt, small mans syndrome sufferer and his toy boy bleige the bastard defecate all over all forms of universally accepted legal rights such as innocent until proven guilty, guilt by association, right of free assembly and now double jeapordy laws, setting himself up to make Joh look like a saint. How did something so good go so bad. Maybe when the federal fascists launch the economy into recession with their razor gang the lesson may be learnt that there is nothing in this tinfoil wearing, flat earth believing bunch of tea party nutjobs for anyone but the uber rich that he owes so many favours to.
Do you think if Julia Gillard had said “There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead. We will have a temporary fixed price emissions trading scheme” that we would be in this mess? Could one sentence have cost us this much?
Rick – I think you’ll find that the reason they’ve blown the deficit out so much is to look good by the end of their term. Make out the debt to be much worse than what it is, introduce cuts, then change the projections immediately before the election and PROFIT!
I’m still trying to work out how people think that having a low debt/GDP ratio is a bad thing just because there’s debt?
What really blows my mind is how any sane person could believe him considering how often he’s been caught out lying and/or changing his mind about things. What ever happened to ethical politicians wanting the best for the country?
Rick
Shock, horror this can’t conceivable be true. You need to read your paragraph upside down for the LNP point of view to make sense of it. After all they are living in an anti-verse.
The Liberals are the repressive party, the truth is the first casualty when a hidden agenda is at work, what happened to the voting peoples integrity? I believe they assume people do not lie, the Liberals have speech writers and think tanks to manipulate the minds of the average citizen, you could see it for trickery and corruption, the Liberals are a party that has got illegal funding scams to get in at any cost in particular the integrity and trust of the people.
It makes me feel sick…………
Love the Video Kaye. Talk about fortune tellers. Shoulda had a bet on the TAB.
An interesting development….Lucy Wicks just banned me from commenting on her facebook page. (Tony and the Liberal Party banned me long ago) She is posting the provided Liberal propaganda. I am providing facts. Apparently that is not allowed even though she has sent me letters encouraging me to get in touch via facebook.
Just wondering how this fits in with their freedom of speech mantra, not to mention the fact that she is my elected representative.
If anyone would like to ask her you can do so here
https://www.facebook.com/LucyWicksMP
Kaye Lee
May 9, 2014 • 4:04 pm
Yeh. That’s exactly what I was trying to work out as I watched the ABC news at noon.
I was never really a Gillard supporter.. or Rudd for that matters. They weren’t the change I wanted after the horrible Howard years.
BUT…
Apart from the carbon pricing drama… what did Gillard do to the Australian voters that was so repugnant, so objectionable, so offensive, so unacceptable,so reprehensible… so UNFORGIVABLE… that they would tolerate this gormless thug’s avalanche of lies and broken promises?
It does my head in that so many people not only tolerate this neanderthal but, in many cases, try to defend him!!!
What did Gillard do, that made her so insufferable when compared to Abbott’s words and actions? I was never a fan, and I accept that many voters never liked her. I just can’t help wondering what darling Tony would have to do to become equally unappealing.
Does anyone know where to find the footage of Abbot on election eve with his condescending last minute plee to the Aussie voter that they need to change the government? You know the one where he points at the camera in an “Uncle Sam Wants You” kind of gesture?
Or what about Hockey delivering the budget forecasts on the last second looking like he was suffering from Malaria and then appearing on the project the next day looking as healthy as ever blaming his excessive sweating on “a fever”, then to be drilled on the fact that the forward estimated put the Coalition on par with Labor within the margin of error.
If any one has any of these video clips please share!! Thanks
Hockey has stated he is immensely proud of this budget.
It’s the same as this government saying they are immensely proud of their asylum seeker policy.
Both are terrible for the same reason and for these loons to be proud of them says a lot at about how very low they set the bar.
Did someone say something about tightening up means testing and including the family home?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCO26YQqPAk
mars, Gillard was loathed and despised by Abbott and Co. because she was the very antithesis of everything they stood for:
Female
Ambitious
Unionist
Career woman
Unmarried and living “in sin”
Redhead
Articulate
Childless
Atheist
Lefty
And she wouldn’t just lay down and die they way they thought she should have.
What a List Of stupidity Sad yet Funny We are the Ones suffering Because of this Buffoon The List is Quite unbelievable ,Beyond Belief , The Only Positive I can think off Is We are witnessing the Actions of The worst Possible PM Ever , He will be forever Remembered as The Man Of Slime , The Genuine Liberal MP’s must be shaking their Heads having to try ans sell His Captains calls with a Straight face
I detest Abbott so much I even had myself a custom bumper sticker made-up so I can proudly show the world. http://s27.postimg.org/7njbosy9f/Blame3.png
Thanks Kaye, I must say I particularly enjoyed this quote:
Back at ya Tones, you lying piece of shit!
“she wouldn’t just lay down and die”
and there we have it. Gillard was not what a woman should be according to Abbott. He has always found feminists, or perhaps women he can’t intimidate, extremely threatening, along with gays. He hated women in positions of power…the vast majority of us would prefer to stay at home cooking, cleaning and ironing apparently. I have no problem with people who choose this path as what best suits their family. I have a HUGE problem with being told that by a cocky Tony Abbott who thought that women were for f*g and gays should just f* off. And don’t tell me he was young….I was there…I am the same age….and NOBODY thought like him except Tony with his audience of sycophantic goons who got off on throwing their weight around abusing people like kids, full of their own importance, who had just been let off the leash which is exactly what they were and seems to me still are.
Gee that feels better 🙂 I have been trying so hard to just be factual and not emotive….I thought about it….I consider I still am doing that.
Anomander:
All honesty ceased with the a puff of 33 tortuous soundbites of self-deceptive and confused misspeak under which the weight of embarrassment would drown most reasonable people. A thick hide and concrete head prevents you, dear Tony, from regain any sense of decency.
What ever sins Julia had, she was under constant pressure from the opposition,s mantra of “No”! some of the possibilities labor achieved was the insulation batts, although 3 people died, one died of dehydration, I think this death cannot be blamed on labor, the other two deaths were most likely faults in wiring, also in any industry such as transport their are always some deaths.
The computers for school kids were a gift of knowledge the value of this as educational and knowledge based is remarkable, may be never happened before any where in the world?
The instigation of solar energy contribution.
These are just three aspects that come to mind, that is not to say labor has not faults, in contrast, Abbott, has from the inception began on a bad platform, the Liberals would have know the extension of the debt of labor, since coming to power, having blamed labor for the situation having to create taxation that should have been put to the electorate as to what is to be done and become policies that mislead the public as a fundamental flaw, to rise to power.
Anomander:
Thank you Kaye Lee, I always enjoy and agree with your postings and seeing those videos reminds me why every day I am thankful that I could never have voted for this moron.
The pink batts deaths were caused by greedy people….
If you want to take it up to their policies…. Let’s say it was due to not thinking it through properly.
Greedy people took cheapest options which wasn’t pink batts. It was untrained labourers hammering in wall insulation into the roof rather than proper insulation.
The Noalition’s only tactic in dealing with Labour over those 6 years was to be negative to EVERYTHING.
There’s video evidence of Tony No Abbott stating that he’d rather have a carbon tax than a floating price on carbon.
He was against the NBN, he was against any option for asylum seekers.
Why did so much of the electorate hate Gillard, and revile her Government?
Because they were told to. The assertive dislike merely pretended that the idea was their own; whereas it was submissiveness to their Media masters.
The danger is not that the electorate’s intelligence could be overrated but that intelligence is considered as a function at all. It is not even stupidity. It is a cultural condition beneath that. Their youth would go back to Gallipoli again if they were told. They never learn.
In 2014 they stand out in the rain for the next Queen of England.Take 5 bucks from them, or dent their car – and they’ll kill you. Squalid maniacs on the radio always pull the ratings. Always.
It has to be taken seriously;because if Labor is to win the next election they need to appeal to it. Politics is a dirty business because the public are.
This is a fun exercise. I just saved $185 billion on the budget and got us an $81 billion surplus.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2014/may/09/budget-cuts-revenue-interactive?CMP=twt_gu
“Mr Hockey is essentially arguing that when Mr Abbott promised no new taxes he wasn’t really promising that because he was promising to bring in an extra levy on corporations. Which actually means Mr Hockey is saying Mr Abbott was lying back then… or he’s saying Mr Abbott is lying now when Mr Abbott says the debt levy is not a new tax because it is a levy and only temporary. Why? Because Mr Hockey just admitted it is a “new tax”.
It also suggests that Mr Hockey thinks when Mr Abbott was talking about no new taxes on people that promise was void because they were promising a new tax on corporations and thus logically corporations are people too.
I think.
It’s best not to try too hard to follow because it is really “the sky is not blue” level of crazy.
Part of me worries that Mr Hockey realises his logic is utterly bereft and he is just another duplicitous politician. But then another part of me worries more that maybe Mr Hockey believes what he said makes perfect sense. In which case we really should ponder the intellect in charge of the Treasury.”
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/05/09/comment-hockey-playing-politics-budget-heres-why
Instead of raising funds for a newspaper (online?) of its own Labor would do well to pay Kaye Lee and selected cohorts,a stipend to continue producing their blogs,
I am guessing ,I know, but I suspect they would attract more readers than a Labor paper continually bleating on and on.
I wonder if Ms Wicks will print my comment on her website about banning Kaye Lees comments!
“Mr.” Hockey is a piece of moral crap, and even the banalities of psychology are too good for him.
Listening to Scott Morrison yesterday, he seemed to be elated and energised about how we were dealing with our international responsibilities to asylum seekers and, with our financial muscle how we have subjugated the independence of PNG and Nauru and bent them to our will.
I was saddened and ashamed that we had stooped so low in pandering to what surely must be a red-neck minority within our community.
In achieving this result, Abbott and his gang of thugs have diminished Australia internationally, have severely damaged our relationship with Indonesia and have adopted a crass colonial attitude to PNG and Nauru, and to further diminish us, we are now engaged in bribing the Hun Sen regime in Cambodia to take these unfortunate people from Nauru.
Mr Morrison, you have nothing to be proud of and those of us who don’t speak out are party to your corrupt and degenerate behaviour : IN OUR NAME.
And now we know why Joe was against the smoking tax.
“It is going to increase the cost of living for smokers, but smokers could be pensioners, low-income people, it could be smokes and beers might be the thing that is important to them,” Mr Hockey said. “I want to know what the impact is on lower income people of just increasing their cost of living.”
http://images.smh.com.au/2014/05/09/5413644/cigarpictureright-620×349.jpg
Complain about petrol and supertax levies, support carbon tax and MRRT ? Does the Left tire of hypocrisy or must you race to the bottom of the barrell.
Carbon pricing helps deal with action on climate change and changing behaviour to reduce pollution. The MRRT gets some return on the superprofits mining companies make developing the finite resources that we own. Yes I support both those taxes.
Increasing fuel excise will hit everyone and force up the cost of living. All prices will rise. I am not sure what you mean by a supertax levy. I assume you mean the income tax increase for those earning over $80,000. I would have no problem with that if the money wasn’t then being pissed up against a wall on fighter jets, PPL, roads to nowhere, bribes to polluters, countless spin doctors and image consultants etc etc
And therein lies the difference between the left and the right. The left spends money on things to help the people like education, health, welfare, action on climate change, public transport. The right spends money on tax concessions and subsidies for the wealthy and big business.
Does the Left tire of hypocrisy? Yes, we do.
But it is obvious the Right don’t.
As an example of the “race to the bottom” of truth and integrity (leaving aside ICAC for the time being) have a look at the spin the Coalition are trying to sell to people like anaryl. The following are their graphs that they are feverishly circulating at the moent about “Labor’s mess”. Why they are wasting money producing glossy 64 page brochures about Labor when they are almost a quarter through their term can only be explained by Credlin and Textor.
http://www.laborsmess.com.au/#keyfacts/3
These figures come from MYEFO which gave projections based on the Coalition policies of scrapping the carbon and mining taxes and another $2.9 billion in revenue from things like the FBT on car business usage and taxation on superannuation for people who earned over $100,000 a year in retirement. They also include the increased Coalition spending on PPL, roads, Operation Sovereign Borders, Direct Action, and giving the RBA $8.8 billion – a decision which costs us $300 million a year in interest. These projected deficits are an assessment of Coalition policies. PEFO, prepared independently by Treasury and Finance free from political interference, uses the policies of the day (Labor’s) to make projections and it showed a net deficit of $38 billion over the forward estimates. The blowout from there is partly due to changed assumptions by Mr Hockey but mainly due to the Coalition’s policy decisions. And saying that Labor left a debt of $667 billion is completely false. To quote MYEFO, again, Hockey’s own document, “Net debt is forecast to be $191.5 billion in 2013-14 and reach $280 billion in 2016-17.” – MYEFO December 2013
How can they keep brazenly employing this tactic which is blatant false advertising and get away with it?
I mentioned before that the Unitarian Church had commissioned the Australia Institute to do their own People’s Commission of Audit. This is very worth the read.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/governments-agenda-is-to-look-after-its-own-20140509-zr7ox.html
Terry2:
Sadly, it’s probably NOT a minority….
QUOTE: …60% of Australians also want Canberra to “increase the severity of the treatment of asylum seekers”.
Groups most strongly favouring harsher policies are older Australians (aged over 70 years – 68%), and self-employed people (71%)…
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/world/article/australians-want-canberra-to-treat-boat-arrivals-more-harshly-poll
Coalition supporters agree on turning back boats 68 per cent, with only 21 per cent disagreeing. Greens supporters gave the opposite response, with only 15 per cent agreeing to turn back boats while 77 per cent oppose.
Labor supporters were 27 per cent in agreement and 61 per cent opposed, but Labor intended voters appeared less passionate in their opposition than Green voters, with only 38 per cent of Labor voters declaring themselves strongly opposed, against 59 per cent for the Greens.
Of Coalition intended voters, 65 percent agree with no settlement while only 24 per cent oppose the proposition. Green intended voters hold even stronger opinions but in reverse, with 75 per cent opposing the ban and only 16 per cent supporting it.
The real division was among Labor voters. Overall 48 per cent of intending Labor voters oppose the new Labor policy while 40 per cent support it. Labor has made a major policy shift to ban asylum seekers who arrive by boat from settling in Australia, but either Labor supporters have yet to adjust their position on the new policy, or just as likely, there are differing opinions on the subject within Labor’s support base.
Since 2001 the Labor Party has struggled to produce policies on asylum seekers that straddle the divide between being tough and being compassionate. This struggle is reflected in the Vote Compass data for intended Labor voters.
Clear differences in attitudes also appear based on education and income. University-educated voters are more likely to oppose the new policy, while those without a university education are twice as likely to be in strong agreement.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-21/antony-green-vote-compass-asylum-seekers/4901936
Abbott unveiled, and we don’t like what we see By Tim Dunlop
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-08/dunlop-abbott-unveiled-and-we-dont-like-what-we-see/5438346
Kaye Lee,
You have saved: $193b And reduced the forecast deficit to: -$89.5b
And I didn’t touch the diesel fuel rebate. And they say this Treasury gig is difficult. Hah!
Kaye Lee, thanks for that information.
“Overall 48 per cent of intending Labor voters oppose the new Labor policy while 40 per cent support it.”
But it seems that even those who oppose the policy aren’t particularly distressed about it.
As out political landscape currently stands… I believe the the die has been cast. The electorate has spoken. Neither of the major parties will risk losing by appearing soft.
Only something momentous will [might?] shift public opinion on asylum seekers. And I fear it will be something quite horrible.
“With student debt being what it is nationally—a whopping 23 bil—I have strategized a way to wipe the slate clean within days. Simply retroactively invoice every older person who supports the deregulation of university fees with the full balance of their free, or heavily subsidised, degrees. Yes, the best ideas usually are glaringly obvious.
I’ve compiled the data, and will be sending out invoices shortly, starting with my four personal faves within the Abbott Ministry……”
http://www.spookmagazine.com/how-much-would-cabinet-members-pay-for-their-degrees-today/
LOL
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@Kaye Lee
Food for thought ? …. or just the headlines.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/recovery-will-come-sooner-than-joe-hockey-expects-says-reserve-bank-20140509-zr7kz.html
and by the same Author 1 day earlier :
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/message-in-the-jobs-data-economy-is-weaker-than-you-think-20140508-zr6ze.html
But the real icing on the cake here in Queensland is the newman LNP sacking 14,000 Queenslanders because the Queensland debt was "$80 billion" 2 years ago …… and now 2 years later the Queensland debt is ….. wait for it ………………… $80 billion.
This is now 12 months old :
http://raws.adc.rmit.edu.au/~e81843/blog2/?p=2516
mars08,
It’s a good idea for all progressive Labor supporters to occasionally remind themselves of just how complex a beast “Labor” really is. For every progressive there’s also the person who, whilst being all for worker’s rights and unions, is also pretty much a social boofhead, supporting things like the demonisation of the unemployed, to boot camps for young people to inhumane immigration and refugee policy. Basically, Labor’s version of insular, jingoistic bonehead racists. Having been a life-long frequenter of hotels and bars I know these types intimately, because that’s where you’ll often find them. Such types represent a solid chunk of Labor’s traditional heartland. They’re a sort of weird mix of social conservative and unionist leftie.
This presents a major political problem for Labor with respect to its asylum seeker policy and the proposition that it should abandon it if not turn it on its head. It’s almost a Sophie’s Choice-like situation for them. They could do what the progressives would see as a courageous and humane thing and commit to an about-face, but that would represent a huge political risk at this time. Can we afford that risk given what it is that’s being risked – a second term of an Abbott Government? If this Government is going to go even close to being the terrible evil that we’re portraying it as being, is that risk an acceptable one?
As much as I’d like to see Labor go back to sensible, compassionate policy that is respectful of international convention, I don’t have a ready answer to that question. I totally agree that it’s going to take something monstrous for the whole thing to be turned around without great political risk for Labor. Sadly, they are largely to blame for being in such a situation.
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Anyone looking forward to the "big infrastructure" headlines on Wednesday ?
The Victorian State government has already let the cat out of the bag as to how they are going to fight the next State election.
So be prepared to be swamped with Abbott's promise to be the "Prime Minister for Infrastructure".
The Abbott promise to "stop the taxes" will not be mentioned.
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@Dan Rowden
You should remember/realize that Labor gets most of its support from the little to non existent educated.
Bjelke-Petersen kept Queensland in the dark ages by not building High Schools.
John,
I’m a Queenslander; I get it.
An interesting paper well worth reading:
The Australian Labor Party and its Various Constituencies
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/apsa/docs_papers/Aust%20Pol/Scott.pdf
I saved $180 odd billion too Kaye Lee with a very handsome surplus. Reminds me of that movie DAVE where the 2 friends sit down and rewrite the US budget so that it works ! Nothing this government says makes any sense, nothing can be believed – but we all knew that before they took power. Well, those of us with any brains knew it. The rest who voted for them believed the lie that they would get $500 back for the dropping of the Carbon Tax. Sounds like 30 pieces of silver to me.
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@Dan Rowden
Looking at the graph for Labor support over the years shows that it climbs when an unpopular conservative PM is at the helm.
Next election Labor has to improve on their numbers and hold onto them.
No doubt in my mind that Abbott and his so called "conservatives" will be universally unpopular, it now remains for Labor to discover a "popular" PM as well as rediscovering the platform it was originally built on, it is a platform with a strong, sound base.
Dan & John,
Douglas Evans provided a very interesting link on another thread.
http://www.challengemagazine.com.au/jenny_mcallister_speech_what_is_labor_s_objective
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I could only save $121 billion.
And I have to ask ….. what sort of economic dry bastards are you lot ?
lol
Kaye: I got the $185 Billion savings. Now that wasn’t too hard. This is a great interactive and demonstrates just how ridiculous the whole great big debt rave is. So simple yet so obviously at odds with the LNP spiel.
Dan: Tim Dunlop is right no sniveling excuses about being under pressure before the election. Where was the sympathy for Julia’ while they attempted to destroy and vilify her in the most cruel and unethical way.
The IPA list and the Commission of Audit are now in the public domain and their is no escape clause – soft budget or not. It is all unfolding much quicker than both you and I thought. Their egos know no bounds while they rabidly chase after their ultraconservative agenda of gifting big business the banks and the rural sector while shafting ordinary Australians.
As for Richard Dennis the Commission of Audit is not based upon flawed premises but downright misinformation, complete manipulation of the facts and straight out deception and lies. Reducing the minimum wage is an abomination of epic proportions which should be attacked for what it is. The impoverishment of low paid workers.
Mars08 As for asylum seekers Anthony Green can certainly be trusted so while we focus upon the problems of governance to replace Abbott and the LNP progressives must simply keep bashing on about refugees in an attempt to drag public opinion towards the left – both left and right. This requires patience and long term planning whereas getting rid of Abbott is of immediate concern. That is not to diminish the plight of refugees but to realistically asses the appropriate strategies needed to achieve specific goals. I am as mad as hell about refugees however bashing people over the head is just going to make things worse.
Right on Kaye the goal is to exclude those pesky working class kids so that the Universities are overloaded with the privileged elite. It is disturbing how everything they do is geared against the majority of Australians.
As for the Labor mess graphs they must be openly challenged by Labor and his wish wishy washiness Shorten. You have all done their job putting together the necessary pieces at AIMN so Labor has no excuse for failure.
AIMN should have direct input into Labor’s policy development to provide necessary intellectually rigorous public input. Most public submissions will not have the depth of coverage of AIMN so I would suggest Labor desperately needs to embrace streetwise, intellectually competent, progressives.
Once again Kaye I am in awe of you and fellow bloggers for excellent work for exposing lies and uncover the truth.
Trust whom? Campbell Newman? Abbott government? Of all people to ask, how about 2GB’s Alan Jones? 😯
http://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/43916#.U218BSgRUwf
Hey guys so much interesting stuff I think my head is going to explode. Finish one just to get a whole lot more. Anyway keep it coming.
“Looking at the graph for Labor support over the years shows that it climbs when an unpopular conservative PM is at the helm.” There’s the secret to Labor popularity. Lose elections.
“Next election Labor has to improve on their numbers and hold onto them.
No doubt in my mind that Abbott and his so called “conservatives” will be universally unpopular,”
The gangsters are not 1/4 into their term. How do you have “no doubt”? The budget before the next election will be relatively generous, to self-centred and insular mentalities – i.e. most voters who could swing.
And they have already set up their theme for the next election: you can’t leave the economy in the hands of Labor. The receptive audience are the mug public: they obey what they are told. And they will be told this incessantly out of every major news outlet, including the ABC.
They repeatedly re-elect Pyne, don’t they? Apologies to Horace McCoy
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@Kaye Lee
Re Jenny McAllister speech.
For most of my working life I have been in awe of people who love the job they are doing and would do it for little recompense, and I am talking about jobs across a wide range, professional and nonprofessional.
The "greed is good"/American way is so impregnated in Corporations, with the obscene wages, that it is now just the normal way of life ….. and some have the audacity to talk about baksheesh/corruption in other countries.
Looking back on what I have just written reminds me that the first paragraph is what The Australian Independent Media is all about.
And I dips me lid to you all.
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Dear randalstella
I talk to, and listen to, people outside my immediate sphere.
You should try it sometime.
Not true. In 1957, there were only 37 high schools and 34 secondary departments for the whole of Queensland and the expansion of secondary education only came about with the demise of the Gair led Labor government. (Can’t find a link but the thinking at that time, particularly in Labor circles was that secondary education was unnecessary for those destined for life on the land.)
By 1980, there were 135 high schools and 68 secondary departments. Joh was in power from 1968 to 1987.
The expansion of ‘secondary’ education can be traced to a number of sources, including a post-war ‘baby boom’ and the emergency of an economy not completely reliant on primary production. Also the retention rate for the total years of primary school was in the order of 85%.
Certainly in the ‘Joh era’ we saw the rise of fundamentalist pressure groups such as ‘Society To Outlaw Pornography’ (STOP) and ‘Committee Against Regressive Education’ (CARE) with leaders such as Rona Joyner and Angel Rendle-Short, and their ‘extreme’ views were entertained and encouraged. Thus we saw the banning of MACOS and restrictions put on SEMP.
Dan… I’m grateful for your perspective on the asylum seeker question. The way the “issue” was framed by the Howard government makes it a political landmine.
“Having been a life-long frequenter ofhotels and bars I know these types intimately, because that’s where you’ll often find them…”
I’ve been working for over 35 years. The vast majority of that time has been at a major nexus of the type you describe. Their reactionary nature has gotten worse over the years. Oh how I’ve come to detest them and their willful ignorance.
Bacchus:
Great find. Allan Jones and facts. Who woulda thought. It is just appalling. Newman is so corrupt its laughable.
I’m in trouble. I just ‘liked’ Jones.
Yep Newman is Joh personified.
mars08,
I know what you mean. Over the years I’ve had to walk a distinct diplomatic line with them. It’s either that or drink alone and accept the status of a social pariah. There have certainly been periods when I’ve done that, but it’s pretty tough to sustain if there’s the slightest gregarious element to your personality. It’s often hard to hold/bite your tongue; sometimes you can get away with not doing so if no risk of losing an important social acquaintanceship is at stake, but at other times that risk is real and not so easy to ignore. I always stand my ground when it comes to matters of philosophic principle, but on politics I’m a little bit more flexible 😉
There remain a number of venues at which I know I am not especially welcome by the “locals” which is a shame because it speaks to a rather sad human trait of not being willing to accommodate a differing opinion (not to mention adherence to the idiotic anti-intellectual cultural notion of never discussing religion or politics in a pub – two of my favourite conversation topics! Ugh).
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Matters Not
"1968 – Teachers vote for strike action after the state government
responds to a teacher shortage with the Emergency Teacher Scheme,
which would have placed teachers in high schools after just eight
weeks training. The plan was withdrawn, but the dispute prompted
the Union to call for compulsory teacher registration."
"1973 – Threats of strike action force the state government to agree
to the progressive reduction of class sizes, down to 36 in 1974 and
eventually to 32 in 1977. Around 10,000 teachers stage a half day
stoppage in protest at the state government’s unacceptable salary
offer of between 7.5 and 12 per cent. The Industrial Commission later
grants rises of up to 23 per cent."
"1976 – The state government under Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen
sacks three Charters Towers teachers for smoking pot. Rolling strikes
take place at 52 schools as a result." …. take this one as you will.
"1978 – The Bjelke-Petersen government bans MACOS, a social
study course, and SEMP, a social education materials project, from
Queensland schools. A public outcry led by the QTU forces the
government to appoint a select committee on education."
And on and on it went through the corrupt Bjelke-Petersen years.
Bjelke-Petersen built schools in electorates where he wanted to bestow favours … to cash in at later dates.
It had nothing to do with the educational needs of Queensland.
Bjelke-Petersen was no friend of the education system in Queensland.
John I never suggested that Joh was a ‘friend’ of education in Queensland or elsewhere. I was simply pointing out that Joh was not guilty of ‘not building high schools’.
BTW, I am very familiar with those disputes you mention, and sometimes was in close proximity.
Take MACOS as an example. Joh ordered the return of all MACOS materials. We had a number of sets so I ‘borrowed’ one. Still have it in fact.
Joh also ordered the setting up of a One Teacher school so that one of his close relatives had a place to teach.
Nevertheless as I stated, just before and in his era there was an enormous expansion of secondary education.
I don’t have ‘spheres’. I am sphere-less.
I am grateful for it – given that it is your reason for making the claim that Abbott and his mob will be “universally unpopular” at the next election. Your ‘spheres’ must be having you on. Perhaps they are just agreeing to get rid of you. A common problem with ‘debate’. Another is the schoolboy put-down as if argument.
Don’t be too surprised if early 2016 brings a bunch of mysterious terrorism warnings, and maybe some new investigations into union corruption.
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@Matters Not
It was where the High Schools were built that was contentious.
Not in the areas that were in desperate need of them …. only where it suited his political purposes.
A bit like buying 58 extra planes that are universally recognised as inferior.
An interesting comment that made me think from your point of view.
I didn’t have to think long.
Methinks the schoolboy put down is coming from you!
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@BobRafto
You would be well aware of the temporary classrooms at State High.
John
I’m not aware at all.
But I would like to be aware of how one tern tone is going to force me off my dis pen when I’m past pension age.
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@BobRafto
Don't you remember marching down to the classrooms on Merivale Street ?
French, German and some maths classes were in the buildings there.
So far the Abbott gang are saying under 30s on Dis pension will have to see a Doctor.
But they most likely will try to get you onto an aged Pension.
For a government who wants to reduce red tape, this idea of making people on a disability pension get re-assessed every few months will be a bureaucratic nightmare to rival the Emissions Reduction Fund and the PPL.
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@Kaye Lee
More security in government offices as well.
It is illegal for a NSW politician to accept money from developers, for good reason. It is not illegal for federal politicians like Malcolm Turnbull.
“Geoffrey Watson, SC, counsel assisting the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption says: “It is very clear that there were those in the Liberal Party who resented the prohibition which had been placed on donations from property developers.”
Their response was to use the FEF “as means of washing and re-channelling donations made by prohibited donors. This was clearly done for the purpose of avoiding the Election Funding Act.”
http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2014/05/10/the-party-donors-icac-doesnt-see/1399644000#.U23D4DeKDIW
Will it never end? Politics in this country gives meaning to the phrase “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark”.
John
You’re asking me to remember things of 50 years ago, I have a vague memory of that however these days I’m preoccupied with the hereafter. I go to the kitchen only to ask myself, what the fcuk am I hereafter.
hey bob, we ALL know THAT feeling. I just say to myself, go back to where you were….if it was important then you will remember.
bobrafto,
The “methinks” thing has long had its day. It begs the question. It was always the pretend rejoinder. Make an argument out of evidence and logic, or leave it alone.
How is Abbott ‘one-term tone’? How is he going to be “universally unpopular” at the next election? Because you say he is?
If the LNP were anything like “universally unpopular” at the next election, they would have to be as stupid as the public. They are not.
They make up slogans for the public to use. That does not mean they believe the slogans. It would be a weakness if they believed them. “One term Tone” is not much of a slogan, because it is such wishful thinking. The idea is to concoct a factoid; and repeat it for the Media to turn into fact for you. It has to pretend to some substance.
Who in their right mind would go into politics? Who would want to turn their life over to the petty, rancorous public? It is a far better life making perjuring officials accountable. They don’t come knocking on your door. Not yet.
I can only hope the public never get a vote on basic freedoms and due process.
And I bet no one from the Labor Party who confronts the media will be quoting any of these statements back at him. Labor is so slow on the uptake, all this ammunition to use but NO instead we have Shorten’s boring statements.
Labor is in desperate need of a good PR company that can tell them how to hone in on issues and make appropriate remarks instead of the dribble they do.
Honestly if they can’t crucify this mob and in particular Abbott with all their/ his lies then they don’t deserve to be the alternate Govt.
You say “they don’t come knocking on your door. Not Yet”.
Have you heard the Alan Jones tape? Understand I would not recommend listening to Alan Jones unless it was important. Everyone must hear this.
http://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/43916#.U22BATeKDIX
randalstella,
Seconded.
Tony, and the controlling elite needs to reassure their masters, America, that we are a faithful lap dog and when America whistles, we have to be obedient, although the jets are just problems we need to make the poorer section of the community need to pay for this in particular they are poor because they have 1/gone from Gods will.or 2/through being bad in a previous life time, unlike Abbott, who must be pure an truthful, although most of the Australian cannot understand the new penalties of being deprived of their money, God, or Tony Abbott, works in strange ways, and eventually you may or not understand, Punishment! for what you have done, it is of no importance you are no longer able to remember what you have done.
Even myself havin committed murder, and no longer know if I did or did not, as reality becomes increasingly ambivalent as to what is.
Randall
Methinks that you like schoolboy putdowns and that you’re a baiter to feed your perceived soperior intellectualism, which I might say you have some, But not enough to engage in sensible debate without a put down.
As for One Term Tone, keep repeating the lie….
One thing is for certain, One Term Tone will either crash thru or crash and burn and I hope its the latter.
Good point, I have the same disease, as on earth you are aware that many people seem sort of dead within, that is what ever happens to the individual their is a dead response, this supports that if people are biological alive but they seem as if the are dead, that when one is biologically dead you may become alive?
Where are the adults who were supposed to be in charge, all I see is white collar criminals, who seem to think every second lie cancels out the previous one ?
john921fraser said @10.38 am:
I pointed out that since 1957 and including under Joh 1968 till 1987, the number of high schools increased dramatically, refuting your claim that: “Bjelke-Petersen kept Queensland in the dark ages by not building High Schools”‘
john921fraser then said @2.29 pm:
Seems to me you are in retreat from your original assertion. You never suggested that the ‘location’ was the problem, rather it was the ‘not building of same’. But if you want an ‘historical account’ of what I claimed, I’ll give you a link.
http://education.qld.gov.au/library/docs/edhistory/stateedu.pdf
BTW, Greg Logan and Eddie Clarke are well qualified historians.
But it matters not.
Kaye thanks again for all your hard work 😎
And on a related topic “Corman says “Trust us”… WTF?” 😉
Cheers 😀
bobrafto/john92fraser
Petty ill will claims it has been “baited”. This is what I mean about the public.
I will not respond to your silly posts again.
disability pension reviews
The targets will be mostly under 35. We are drawing up procedures for all challenged pensioners to use, to minimise their vulnerability to unwarranted adverse review.
Kaye Lee,
I will not listen to that Jones prick. Mad and bad I need no more of. Thanks anyway. I get threats by the dozen.They are all much more polite whenever they meet me.
Randall
Petty ill will claims it has been “baited”. This is what I mean about the public.I will not respond to your silly posts again’
Why not? I reply to yours.
You likened Kaye’ Lee’s story as a school boy putdown, and I’m a dinosaur because I used the word methinks and if that’s not baiting I don’t know what is.
METHINKS I should view your put downs as ill will but I don’t and the reality is that you are trying to engage in banter, which this discourse is and then you spit the dummy when you don’t like what you hear.
I can state with absolute conviction that there is no ill will toward you but I have to ask the question did you take your paranoia pills yesterday?
Kaye Lee
Just a thought on opinion polls which have an unwarranted influence on our collective thinking : e.g. asylum seeker policies.
Bob Ellis wrote about last Thursday’s Reach Tel poll in the SMH. He noted that the poll was made by robocalls which most people hang up on: the calls are made to landlines only and I don’t know about you but my wife and I and our extended family around Australia gave away landlines in favour of mobiles some years ago: the calls for ReachTel were made on a Thursday night, late night shopping inevitably reduces the number of people at home.
The demographic that this survey reached is hard to define ; I’m in an older demographic but it would never have got to me as I don’t have a landline and would always hang up on a robocall: I remember one from John Howard some years ago, gave me quite a start, like having a zombie speaking to you from the grave, I hung up but I still have nightmares..
If we are to give polling the authority the MSM seem to think is appropriate,we really need to set some standards and, of course, know precisely how the questions were worded.
Good list, though a man with no morals is less of a liar then he is trustworthy.
Re “making people on a disability pension get re-assessed every few months”. What GP would want to do the assessment, let alone reach a conclusion. Being able to work is hardly a condition defined by medical guidelines.
And that’s before anyone wonders where being able to work stands in relation to being offered a job.
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@Matters Not
"Many economists disputed this claim and also pointed to Queensland’s comparatively low levels of expenditure on health, education, galleries and libraries."
Link : http://www.qhatlas.com.au/content/johannes-bjelke-petersen-straddling-barbed-wire-fence
This is a good history read :
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=V82YJo23528C&pg=PA252&lpg=PA252&dq=bjelke-petersen+and+education&source=bl&ots=SsR2z9lSTr&sig=KCqAI_G0FYayEnH7Ycf6IOgMeqE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=n7xuU_H8CZCtkgWJiYCIBg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAzgU#v=onepage&q=bjelke-petersen%20and%20education&f=false
No retreat here …. Bjelke-Petersen spent as little on education as possible and mainly in electorates where he wanted to win ……. against the Liberals as well as Labor.
Don't fall into the trap that Joh's party increased High Schools from 36 to 101 between 1953 -1969 .. …. without taking into account population numbers (post WW2) and where those numbers increased dramatically.
Bjelke-Petersen used every means at his disposal to gain & keep power.
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I can't see any difference between the way Bjelke-Petersen ran education in Qld and the way Pyne wants to run it now.