I’m currently out of the country so I’m only catching up on the greatest disaster in the history of Australia. Apparently cancelling a contract is the sort of thing that can do world-wide damage to our country’s reputation.
No, I’m not talking about Scott Morrison’s decision to cancel the subs deal with France. That was fine. No, I’m talking about Dan Andrews cancelling of the Commonwealth Games which has apparently sent shock waves everywhere including countries who aren’t in the Commonwealth and can only watch with the sort of envy that makes them wonder why any country would demand their independence from Britain when we have such wonderful side benefits as our own games. Something that rivals US baseball’s World Series which only includes American teams.
Speaking personally, it did strike me as strange that most of the criticism was about the cancellation rather than the original decision to bid for them. Particularly as it came from the same quarters who’ve been complaining about the Victorian government’s spending and debt. As I see it this is like me putting down a deposit on a Maserati only to discover that this didn’t lock in the price and that, while I could sell my house and close the deal, I’d be homeless and unable to afford the upkeep of the car. By all means, attack me for being silly enough to put down the deposit but surely you shouldn’t be telling me that withdrawing from the sale was a foolish thing that’ll ruin my credit rating.
Anyway, I’ve been keeping up with what’s happening in my home state via the media which seems to only be able to find people critical of the decision. Even the good old ABC is only balancing the people who are highly critical of this decision with people who are highly critical of everything that Dan Andrews has ever done.
Phil “Gladys Saved The Nation” Coorey wasn’t content to rebuke Andrews, but suggested that Victorian voters were fools and insisted that Dan had gaslighted Victorians just like he did with the pandemic when he dared to adopt a different strategy from Phil’s “let her rip” heroes of Scotty and Gladys. Ok, in real terms neither of them were ever prepared to totally let it rip, but it always struck me as odd that the same people who were advocating no lockdowns were also hypercritical of Andrews for the virus escaping hotel quarantine.
Sure. People have a right to criticise Andrews but to suggest that anyone who disagrees with him is somehow mentally defective seems a trifle arrogant. Like I always say I don’t expect everyone to agree with me all the time but when they start disagreeing with themselves in the space of one opinion piece it’s a worry. Like when people who are complaining about laws against misinformation are censorship and an outrage, only to turn around and demand that Big W stop selling a book because they think it should be banned.
When they do it in the space of one post on Twitter, it’s an even bigger concern…
Without naming the person and leading to a possible pile-on, there is one person who keeps popping up in my Twitter feed and I’m trying to work out why unless it’s part of Elon Musk’s cunning plan to drive all the woke people off Twitter. Said person has been railing against the Labor government calling them communists, socialists and evil people who are dividing the country. Albanese is even worse than Whitlam who destroyed the country. Included in her tweets was:
“We are all aware on Tweeter (sic) that not everyone agrees with our views. But there are people who are also mentally unstable and have their own agendas to challenge anything to create a situation”
Which would be fine. Everyone’s got a right to an opinion, etc. However, today this person posted the following:
“The abuse that is levelled at people who are against the “voice” is sadly indicative of the intolerance towards people who have a different opinion. It’s the most divisive issue that we have ever seen.”
So, it’s all right to suggest that some of the people challenging you are “mentally unstable” but just make one or two little comments like “this will give the Indigenous population “the power to challenge any decision or legislation of the government of the day”, and people start suggesting that you might be racist because you seem to be ignoring that the status quo is that anyone can already do that, so why should we be concerned that a Voice with no veto powers could do what everyone can already do… Ok, people may not get very far, and the Voice may get a bit more media coverage if they suggest that what the government it doing lacks input from the people most affected, but the point remains.
Anyway, I’m sure that I could spend several useless months picking up all the inconsistencies of people and talk at length how confirmation bias means that two people can look at the same by-election and conclude that Fadden was a poor result for Dutton because he only got something like the expected swing in spite of spending ten times more than Labor, while someone else may look at it and think that it was a great result for Peter because he received more first preferences than the percentage of people who have him as preferred PM…
Whatever, I recommend taking a stoic path and deciding that you can’t do anything about the inconsistency of others, so you’re best to control your own. It might be wise occasionally to take a step back and say, “How would I feel if the other side did this? Would I justify it? Would I say no big deal? Or would I be demanding that King Charles break with protocols and declare martial law until a government who understands the meaning of integrity is returned, no matter how many elections that takes.”
As I mentioned at the start, I’m out of the country but we did receive our energy bill while away making us wonder if it would be cheaper to extend our holiday indefinitely even if it meant moving to a five-star hotel. I do remember sometime last century, Jeff Kennett privatising everything he could manage in order to make it all more efficient and cheaper. Imagine how expensive it would be if it were still in public hands…
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With countries deciding to leave the Commonwealth perhaps it is time to admit the Commonwealth has had its day. Let Charles fork out for this non-event. Australians have more pressing issues. Good onya Dan.
Yes, Rossleigh,you ain’t on your pat malone,there’s so much bullshit out there,including the brainless stenographers in the so called Media.If any disinterested outsider was viewing the machinations of our planet at the moment,say ,from another,better informed galaxy,they’d have to wonder whether they were looking at a black comedy or an insurrection in a loony bin..
Appreciate your little backhander at Kennett…like the lying rodent, we’re still reaping the repercussions of their hatred of the common good, and their warped view of how things aught to be.It’s no consolation that they’re both out there still braying excuses for their travesties.
Turns out ‘the broad church’ doesn’t tolerate views outside of their savagely narrow, blinkered bigotry.
And Kennett should not be allowed out in public without a hood,he’d scare children.
Think even the Olympics (outside Oz) have had their day when in many places, blink and miss it…..
Caz:
Given the 45% pay increase Chuckles has been granted from the public purse, he could quite easily pay for it. And host it. Shooting and equestrian events at Balmoral, athletics at Buckingham Palace, swimming at his Cornwall estate …
Dan did the right thing. Pity he won’t take it futher and cancel the ludicrous F1 GP as well.
It’s time for an Australian Republic having an Australian borne Head of State.
Dan did the correct thing by cancelling. Let the whingeing athletes fund thdir own games!!
Student: “How do you spell intitled, Sir?”
Teacher: “A t h l e t e.”
Student: “Wooden it start with an I, but?”
Teacher: “An iButt!? Geeez! What’s the world coming to?”
Daniel Andrews is absolutely right in cancelling the Commonwealth Games in Victoria! History has proven that the Commonwealth Games have been a financial drain on every city that has ever hosted it. Sadly, the Commonwealth Games fail to attract anywhere near the international interest of the Olympic Games. Unless you have infrastructure already in place, the Commonwealth Games rarely provides any benefit to the host city. The DISADVANTAGES of hosting such huge sporting events such as the Commonwealth Games far outweigh any advantages, viz:
Disadvantages of Hosting the Commonwealth Games:
** The cost of building large, expensive stadiums (if none exist);
** The inevitable probability of Short-Term use of such facilities;
** LOCAL businesses suffer due to major advertisers focusing only on the businesses providing direct support to the event, many of which are foreign owned;
** The potential for negative publicity against the Host City;
** The inevitable inconvenience of traffic, road and public transport congestion;
** The ENORMOUS additional cost of Security just before and during the event;
** Higher taxes forced upon taxpayers (particularly in the State hosting the Games) to cover the enormous financial costs to host the event and bear the burden of its inevitable and eventual deficit!
History has, indeed, proven that hosting the Commonwealth Games has just about bankrupted every country unfortunate enough to put their hand up to host it particularly if they do not have the required infrastructure in place! Although Daniel Andrews was right in cancelling Australia’s selection to host the Commonwealth Games, admittedly, Victoria should NEVER have expressed interest in hosting it in the first place! The Commonwealth Games has never – and will never – be able to compete with the Olympic Games as far as widespread public interest and international competition is concerned and the enormous expense and commitment involved in hosting it is understandably falling into the lap of wealthier nations within the Commonwealth such as the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India, which nations are expected to take the onus of the Commonwealth Games because other smaller and poorer nations within the Commonwealth (particularly those on the African continent) cannot afford to do so!
Perhaps it is OVERTIME that the Commonwealth Games find a PERMANENT home in England which is, after all, the MOTHER of the Commonwealth. In order to maintain any existing infrastructure and/or facilities within England to host the Commonwealth Games, other nations within the Commonwealth could pull together and provide some financial assistance to the UK when and if required. Whilst we are on this subject, it may even be a good idea to give the OLYMPIC GAMES a permanent home in Athens where it belongs!
What is worse, it that there can be no doubt that this beat-up about Daniel Andrews’ justifiable cancellation of the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, is now being RAMPED-UP and PROLONGED by the LNP and their ever-reducing army of shrieking, totally irrational right-wing puppets, as a desperate attempt to create a DISTRACTION against the LNP’s own appalling depravity, ineptitude and scandalous rorting, theft and outrageous waste of billion$ of taxpayer dollars over more than 10 long, tedious and deplorable years of LNP’s despotic rule and total mismanagement of our nation! It gives the LNP (and their supporters) yet ANOTHER weak excuse to create yet another DIVERSION to take public attention AWAY from the catastrophic fall of the worst, most corrupt and nauseating bible-thumping hypocrite in politics (Morrison), the fact that the ONLY thing the LNP left Australia (following its decimation in the last federal election) was a WHOPPING national deficit of more than $1 TRILLION; the international disgrace of Abbott, Morrison and other pathological liars within their regime; the inhumane fall-out of the abysmal Cashless Welfare Card and, worst of all, the EPIC FAIL of Morrison’s ignominious ROBODEBT scheme – a horrendously callous and ILLEGAL Witch Hunt that remorselessly hunted down, persecuted, traumatised and reputably caused the preventable suicidal deaths of more than 2,000 of the poorest most vulnerable Australian citizens!
Seriously, who cares about the bloody Commonwealth Games? There are FAR MORE IMPORTANT things going on right now and the overwhelming majority of decent Australians want to see the NACC undertake a thorough and retrospective investigation into Abbott, Morrison and other self-serving rorters in the LNP and, most importantly, see justice done by having that political psychopath Morrison DISMISSED, CHARGED and JAILED for Manslaughter – and we want it NOW!!
https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/2030-people-have-died-after-receiving-centrelink-robodebt-notice/10821272
Looking forward to the next summer Olympics or two, Paris & Los Angeles, expect a correlation with the northern hemisphere heat domes and whether athletes have enough nous to refuse to compete when temperatures are hovering over 40C., should be quite the shit fight… team managers insisting on their competing, disgruntled competitors dropping like flies in the heat. Could be the death knell for this bloated display of splash, jump, run, lift, whack & tumble; a circus which generally impoverishes the host country or if not, denies the allocation of massive amounts of public monies that could be much better spent for that country’s own benefit. If nothing else, also way beyond time to bury the tired trope that being a host country will have the rest of the planet hustling to pay a visit to sample the delights. Goodness me… the planet’s on fire or under flood and the high priests of culture & commerce remain huddled in the lockup planning how to market bread & circuses to keep the peasants distracted!
Kennett. The name alone always triggers my gag reflex.
Phil Coorey’s ‘opinion’ article was appalling. Certainly doesn’t rank as journalism. Its kick-off a wanton display of bile filled bias, not followed on by any objective cause / effect analysis, but padded out by a barely linked scattergun of utter irrelevancies. Pathetic.
And who pushed Kennet’s button – he’s beginning to look like a cracked, nearly decomposed pile of manure, much like the policies he nearly ruined the state with. Next thing the desperate RWNJs will be wheeling out Alan Stockdale to reek his havoc. After all he has nowhere to go, and didn’t before he became Victorian Treasurer after being unceremoniously ditched by the construction industry from whence he crawled.
Good onya Dan, you might have been a tad enthused and discombobulated by the blue-sky bean counters at the sign-up. I’m quite sure your games strategists and more risk averse number crunchers have been more realistic in their advice, after all it is likely in the upshot to be microscopically examined. And as for the big-chesting advice and fluffy numbers of the Queenslanders and the Birminghamers, I take those with a grain of salt as a multitude of circumstances are different. Things are moving fast here in Oz, and you did well to have the courage of your convictions to ditch the games in favour of more important and enduring infrastructure for the community in need.
Rossleigh: “Like I always say I don’t expect everyone to agree with me all the time but when they start disagreeing with themselves in the space of one opinion piece it’s a worry. ”
Once again Rossleigh, well said. If only we make note of such events we will all be better off. But for many people, it seems to be so hard.
Clakka: the less said about Kennett and Alan Stockdale (the geniuses of electricity privatisation), the better, although I am amazed that many people still haven’t figured out how we were all robbed. These “geniuses” should be unable to show their faces in public. But, believe it or not, they are wheeled out from time to time to tell us that “Dan Andrews and the Labor party in Victoria are finished”. And after they were not “finished”, people still don’t realise how fake these “leaders” and their pronouncements are. Truly amazing.