What lazy bastards they are
In the six years this government has been in office its performance has been akin to taking a cold shower and then being handed a cold wet towel every morning.
One would think that the way in which a government performs would make up a large part of the way you view it in an upcoming election.
Apparently not in Australia’s recent election.
And if the 4th Estate serves to represent the people then it isn’t doing its job by just ignoring it.
Since being in-comprehensively elected for another term, the government, instead of improving their day-to-day performance has continued on its merry way completely oblivious to its actions of the past.
One only has to look at the headlines in the mainstream media or check out the more analytical articles from this site to know that this government leaves a lot to be desired.
Hardly a day passes that doesn’t bleed into the next without a whiff of scandal.
Before I go on let me explain why those who viewed my piece on The AIMN; Labor lost some skin but it’s still in the game but couldn’t read it or share it Facebook.
The post was prevented from being shared on Facebook. I share to 100 pages and from there my piece is shared down the line.
It is a lot of manual work. Before I had even finished posting a message appeared to the effect that the post didn’t meet community standards.
It wasn’t hard to work out that one or more people I don’t know had corrupted my article in total. They had reported the piece and Facebook acted unilaterally without even reading it.
It is a simple thing to do and anyone can do it. No wonder Facebook comes under so much criticism. I have no recourse on the matter as Facebook make it almost impossible to lodge a complaint.
There is nothing in it that doesn’t meet community standards and Facebook should restore it immediately.
For my part all I am doing is exercising my right to free speech in a truthful and honest way. Facebook will never disclose who the mindless culprits are so they are free to do it as much as they like.
1 The news yesterday that the government is trying to balance the books on the back of pensioners by fiddling the deeming rate comes as no surprise. Their history of economic management has been woefully demonstrated in six years of poor decisions and terrible management.
Labor has a far superior economic track record than the Coalition. It is presentable and provable and Labor should throw off its reluctance to challenge the government on its economic history. Why Labor politicians avoid fighting the Coalition when they lie about this and other facts is beyond me.
2 Social services experts like many others are deeply worried about the consequences of the third round of the governments tax cuts. The cuts that will make the rich even richer.
The big worry is how they will be paid for. Will it be with tax cuts to essential services like health; housing, education or welfare payments?
Do people comprehend that analysis has found that $77 billion of the tax cuts will go to helping the top 2.9 per cent of income earners.
The notion that a few privileged individuals can own the vast majority of a countries wealth and the remainder own little is on any level unsustainable, politically, economically or morally.
With a salary of $550,000 the Prime Minister has much to gain. Meanwhile, a hospitality worker in his electorate gets a $1088 tax cut, but loses their penalty rates of $5000 a year.
And of course there is the Left’s argument that $158 billion could have funded enough aged-care packages to fill the current vacancies, allowed Medicare to cover dental services, and increased Newstart.
All the actions on tax this government is taking are going to have massive impacts on inequality.
The government’s fixation on a surplus is a ticking time bomb that could see more cuts to public services and further dilapidation of trust in our political system.
As the tax cuts demonstrate, when 55,000 people ring the tax office after their $1,000 … the fools are not ringing to complain the system is unequivocally unfair.
3 The same goes for the incompetent practices in management of the Murray Darling basin. Anyone who watched the ABC Four Corners program on Monday night would be staggered at the money given to private enterprise for its benefit rather than improving the river itself. The sad thing is that the general populace takes little interest in these things unless it affects them personally.
4 Employers welcome in a conservative government ably supported by industry groups. They immediately want to reform the trade unions. There are no strikes anymore. We have record underemployment. “Its all Labor’s fault” is repeated and repeated. At a time when wages are at an all-time low and unions have traditional means of seeing then rise and the economy is a complete mess they want to follow the American trend of reducing wages further.
Only 1.5 million people belong to trade unions, but the government seems determined to wipe them out all together.
5 You might recall the Australian Federal Police raiding the offices of the ABC one Winter’s day late in June. The broadcaster’s head of investigative journalism was waiting. John Lyons responded to the raid with 50 tweets of the raid live. A novel way of reporting.
Now we find that on 58 occasions they have used national security laws to access the metadata of journalists. The purpose apparently was to pressure the Morrison government into strengthening press freedom.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that:
As Labor demanded answers over revelations the AFP asked Qantas to hand over the private travel records of a senior ABC journalist, documents submitted to a review of Australia’s mandatory data retention regime have for the first time revealed the extent to which police have examined the communications history of reporters.
6 Every survey in every newspaper or magazine before and during the campaign said the environment was front and center in people’s thinking. Was it? Well not enough to vote for the only party who had the capacity to do something about it.
Instead of being proactive we tend to wait for disaster. Even in politics.
Maybe they don’t realise that the Coalition intends to do nothing about reducing our emissions and its too late now to do anything about it. Well short of riots in the streets and that won’t happen because we are a nation of laconic followers. Depressing, isn’t it?
Never be afraid to step over the shadow of your negativity.
7 With three policies, taxes, free speech and trade unions seem to be there only targets for the next three years. I can see you thinking that those three things wont occupy Ministers for three years.
Well you see with their capacity for stuff-ups the public service will be working overtime to fix them. There might even be a bit of overtime involved.
My thought for the day
We live in a time where horrible things are being perpetrated on us. The shame is that we have normalised them and adjusted accordingly.
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Return to home pageAnd yet ……. On Tuesday (9/7) night, on ‘The Drum’, a whole segment was devoted to Labor’s election loss, & lack of performance. Still!!
The Labor representative, a failed Senate candidate if I recall correctly, said Blah Blah Blah Blah.
The conservative representatives cut through with the ‘Retiree Tax’ (yet again!), & Labor’s ‘confusing’ position on the Tax Cut Legislation last week. The Labor rep did not challenge any of these points, & sat there like a rock.
What hope, when Labor does not have a clear, concise message to deliver.
Some people may not like Tony Abbott, but they will never forget ‘Great Big Tax’
Some people may not like Scott Morrison (personally I think he is a reptile), but he delivers a clear, concise message, & will not be put off it. He delivers (his message)!
Brainwashed, disheveled demoralised like mushrooms in a shithouse, that’s how I would describe the ‘laconic’ australian voter. Sorry Mr Lord but that’s how I see the present state of our democracy. And Murdoch and the rest of the bastards and whores in the media are on a mission to never let that situation change. Labor’s message will not get through.
With a mealy mouthed sycophant in charge of the ABC, what hope is there.
This is what Australia voted for. Aussie Aussie Aussie shame shame shame!
Henry: When Kerrie Ann Kennerly starts working at the ABC you will know then; that we are truly fcked.
Endless bashing, lying and mixed messages are deliberate policy of conservative controllers, the better to confuse, divide, coerce, subjugate, repress. Voters were reduced to contrived stupidity and voted for worse rather than a path to better, More unfair taxing, more pushing of unproven, stupid, primitive superstition, more cuts to services by those in office to serve all citizens; this is a front, a fence, a camouflage, a coating, an illusion, for it is a development of corporate controlled, delivered by rented arseholes, FASCISM. It stinks, yet large numbers of low grade thinkers made up their minds on voting day to stay with the unwiped arseholes who gave us the smelly mess. Is it a case of the good slaves, teachers pet types, who want to be less whipped, more chosen, more noticed, more lollies??
The MSM has been, for a long time now, turning politics into a daily SoapOpera/Mini-Series something like “Dallas”.
Our Hero is always the LNP leader and the evil, scheming bad-guy is always the Labor leader.
I’ll say it again and again, FASCISM, got that, FASCISM is the new world order. If Mr Lord, you had posted an article regarding Labor, usiing all manor of expletives and projorative language you would have been flagged straight through, no questions asked by faceshit. It’s time brain dead, all 49% or whatever of the population that inadvertently voted for the fascists woke up because in my opinion we’ve passed the tipping point. No revolution yet!!!!! BTW I love yours and all AIMN contributors articles and posts. Reading here definitely inhibits senility, lol.
Watching ABC News 24 just now and they are announcing a new series of Drought Sob Stories that they about to screen next week.
See? Its not “News” or “Current Affairs”, its just a creepy kind of infotainment, with theme music by Tommy Emmanuel.
(The “Drought” is the most expensive TV production ever made. It costs billions.)
Yes Wobbley, FASCISM.
Anyone who is in any doubt needs to have a look at Germany in the 30s. Hitler was the saviour for the masses – until he wasn’t. But by then it was too late.
So many Germans said “we didn’t know ” when the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed, but they did – they simply chose not to see because they had installed these monsters and wanted to pretend they hadn’t and his propaganda machine kept telling them what a great nation they had. Sound familiar ?
What will our revelation be ? The total death of the Great Barrier Reef ? The destruction of Medicare ? Minimum wage of $5 per hour ?
I dare anyone to say they didn’t know.
They vote for Hanson and Palmer who pass their votes to the Liberals because they think they will ‘stick it to the government’ believing that in Labor they get more of the same bureaucratic bullshit. They are fooled by appearances believing that these individuals stand up for the ‘little guy’ with their racist and rude rhetoric when it’s obvious Hanson suffers from relevance deprivation and is determined to matter to somebody, while Palmer needs more money because he doesn’t have enough of – well anything, as anyone can see by looking at him and he was of course once a lifetime member of the Liberal party and they will green light his mines.
They vote for the Liberals or the Nationals because they believe them to be the better economic managers – it’s what everyone says. They vote for them because ScoMo seems a ‘good bloke’ and can kick a footy, high fives the kids and says things like “How good is that?”. They vote for the conservatives because they either listen to Alan Jones and Ray Hadley, read Murdock’s rags or don’t really give a flying fester about politics anyway and although they’re not sure, they think the Prime Minister is John Howard. Some of them do it because they know they hate that Shorten bloke – Shifty Shorten and tell him so to his face, thinking he’s ‘the other bloke’ and besides – “Labor’s taxes are coming for my pocket – my retirement!!”
They’re miserable but they don’t know what to do about it but it doesn’t really matter cos it’s football season and The Bachelor’s on soon and they just got a look at Sharon’s new holiday pics on Facebook. Looks good. Now where’s my $1000?
John, then Abe Lincoln, “I see in the near future a crises approaching that unnerves me and concerns me to tremble for the safety of my country—- corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruptions in high places will follow and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed” as for the 4th estate, Gore Vidal, “The grip on opinion in the US is one of the wonders of the western world. No first world country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent..” and when a certain media tsar came to set up camp that went in overdrive to the next level, the rest is history, a people viscerally angry, divided and prejudiced (creed, colour or other) against each other, ever widening social inequality, unravelling of social fabric, disengaged and disenfranchised from the political sphere. It took the US a couple of decades, not many, to get here but they got here any wonder they were so very ready to support Trump in his attack on the democratic institutions and the 4th estate and journos way way way to late fighting a rearguard action for relevance and totally perplexed at the total distrust of them and would you believe they’re not half as indentured as over here, the rear vision mirror of the tsar and moneyed corporations for Australia.
So does anybody really honestly still believe the media tsar hoovered up print, screen, radio sport including to edict brand democracy informed, fair equal, open and safe and not just at the ballot box, really?. The media tsar and moneyed corporations are in a very great hurry for brand democracy of divisiveness, smear, sneer fear and prejudices (creed, colour or other) and his indentured disciples skilled to nth on their edict to play dead ball, when Australia was being prepared for the 21st century, price on carbon, digitisation, educating future generations with the 21st century toolkit, fairer deal for the natural resources, spared the ravages of the GFC. If that was not enough they came after all hard fought gains that made for a fair equal society and viciously attack against anyone who had/has the temerity to go against brand democracy of and by the media tsar and moneyed corporations, recall the RC and raids on Unions, CFMEU, AWU, NBN, forget not the art form of from the gutter down the drain pipe into the waiting sewerage farm and jeeez their faux outrage against as the RC Institutional Child Sex Abuse or Banks, (hell the fox was invited into the hen house) as without fail the journos of the media tsar played the dead ball or displayed faux outrage as needed.
As for Australian for journalism/journalistic (a with exceptions of a small, tinty minority) no intellectual rigor or integrity, the game was/is will be edict of the tsar and moneyed corporations misinformation, disinformation, manipulation of untruths to be truths as public monies was/is also being shovelled out the front/back/side window/door, Paladin, GBR, Hello World, MDBA, etc etc, yep Aesop nailed it, “We hang petty thieves and promote great ones to high office”. And for the three media amigos so very self absorbed with their own self importance now bleat on about the importance of press freedom in a democracy really?. Are they for real, they took the trust of the voter and sold it for a dime without so much as a by your leave and journalism/journalists miserable failed informed, open fair equal and the safety of democracy, shame on them, may future generations judge them harshly. Finally, John give you ten to one, there will be no march of masses in defence of press freedom as in dictatorship in dictatorship they know they’ve been had, in western democracy the voter go wtf what happened, we’ve been had big time.
Keitha, I am gunna bang on about fascism as long as anyone listens. Apart from the reality It’s an experiment to see if you say the truth over and over again will it have the same effect as telling a lie until the masses believe it true. Unfortunately I doubt it, sadly.
Never fear people Scumbag has just been to the Hillsong Conference and is praying for us all. I often wonder when people pray to whatever ” diety” they appeal to and the answer is not forthcoming what thoughts, if any, run through their mind. It always amuses me, since time immemorial on occasions such as Anzac Day, Easter and Christmas, the robed ones all pray particularly for world peace. As, when one looks around, this phenomenon is as far away as ever, what is their response? Is their God asleep, doesn’t care, they are praying to the wrong God in the wrong language? I have asked a well known American evangelist, a great believer in the fate of the Jewish nation and the fact that when they all return to Israel, Jesus will come again, a question several times with yet no answer. My question was if the Jews are the chosen people why did their God allow millions of them to die horrible deaths in the Holocaust? I was brought up in a strict religious sect and it took me years to rid myself of the nonsense. It is child abuse and the world would have a much better chance of peace if religion had never been a factor in so many lives and caused so many needless deaths.
Maybe Labor will learn how to cheat to win. Maybe Labor also believes the Coalition is a better economic manager ((secretly)). Maybe Labor should abandon whispering and go to ‘Shout College’. Maybe Labor … maybe ‘Maybe’ is Labor’s problem. Maybe Maybe Labor will learn how to lie to win. Maybe Labor will become conservative to win … and there’s Labor’s hang-up: unremarkably conservative countries have conservative governments.
I Stumble upon an interesting notion, springing from what you wrote perceptively — quote: “Do people comprehend that analysis has found that $77 billion of the tax cuts will go to helping the top 2.9 per cent of income earners?”
Maybe the era has passed when Democracies formed governments. Maybe our government is actually not a government but is really an elected lobby group. If that is so, then the answer to your question is ‘yes’.
Spot on John, sad but true ,we,re leaving a once great nation behind us baby boomers for our grandchildren to wonder’ wtf’ how did our ppl allow this to happen .but football meat pies kangaroos & Hyundai cars along with the 1 k carrot , has blindsided the deep thinking lnp
voting stooges.if it wasn’t for _aim to vent free speech I,d be fogged.
John Lord – I do like reading your articles.
This line is so true
“…its too late now to do anything about it. Well short of riots in the streets and that won’t happen because we are a nation of laconic followers…”
I agree, but add that the vast majority of the low and middle income earners are locked into huge debt, a mortgage and or in their Credit Cards, if they work they are in insecure positions, or in underemployment
If they are on welfare or pensions of any kind, they are fearfully of losing what pittance they get to live on.
The majority of the voting public have no understanding of the “Golden age” no understanding of the Great Depression, the rise of Unions in the 1870s and the terrible strikes of early 1900s,
Few understand where money comes from and few are actually interested.
There will never be riots in the streets the Neoliberal Agenda has seen to it that the majority of employees are poorly educated and kept in the dark.
Jennifer Demas – , well said.
Re:
Don’t think so. An underestimate of a significant number, I believe. In Queensland, the local Teachers Union (QTU) has more than double that number all by itself – with 96% of eligible teachers being financial members. Add all the other States and Territories and then include Nurses … plus members of … CFMMEU for example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construction,_Forestry,_Maritime,_Mining_and_Energy_Union
Not sure where you got that 15 000 figure from but it’s wrong. Not denying that things are bad but not that bad.
MN, it looks like John left off a few zeroes. I just googled the answer and it’s 1,500,000. I’ll go in and fix it.
Another excellent piece mr Lord, thank you, pity it won’t be more widely read by the unconverted.
“The ABC also revealed on Monday that the Mine Health and Safety Advisory Committee has sat idle for six months because it could not reach a gender quota. In that time, four miners have died.” Of course the Queersland LNP opposition, all of the MSM, especially Sky, have made a huge deal of this fact….. as though some grubment committee meeting monthly in Brisbane to compare iced vovos with monte carlos, is going to enthuse mining corporations to adhere to health and safety regulations. Queersland mining is on a par with second world countries re OHS. Black lung anyone? Accidents, injuries, deaths off the charts … just like their profits. A safety committee? Yeah.
I can tell you that having spent 47 years around a safety dependent industry and nearly 20 years directly involved with safety compliance and implementation of safety regulations and ractices, Safety Commitees are without doubt next to useless, more concerned with compliance avoidance than safety compliance.
Right now, we have no opposition party in Australia, apart from the Greens, who will NEVER be a major force here.
I am totally opposed to the ALP being bi-partisan on ANY issue in Australia. The Coalition has done them like a dinner with the tax legislation, and Albanese will never be Prime Minister. Anything the Coalition gets through with Labor silent will just cement them as the government. Labor lost the election but is acting as though it was a landslide.
The only PM we have ever had who was not part of the upper middle class was Ben Chifley – the only PM who even had a proper job. Australians are, despite their self-image, natural underlings – they will never vote for a party with a leader like Albanese, who is too working class.
Keitha GranvilleJuly 10, 2019 at 10:23 am
“I dare anyone to say they didn’t know”.
Of course they know, just as the Germans knew, they just choose to not acknowledge it.
Some because they don’t have the capacity, some because they spend all their energy just surviving, some because they are brainless cretins, some because they think that by supporting a government that demonises those they don’t like they will get more for themselves. Typical humans.
Thank goodness for this site, its writers and respondents.
Whatever: yours reminds me of the USA feel-good tale, after another school shooting, of women whose self appointed task it was to comfort the bereaved parents. This was described in glowing terms, instead of what it was, a cop-out, sentimentalising charade, doing nothing to change the law.
Yvonne, why vote for the corrupt and stupid government? ‘Cos the slogans make the under educated feel comfortable- they have voted in those who are like them. Yes, reminds me of fascism for sure.
Keitha- add the off shore camps/inland detention centres for youths/ first peoples.
Aortic- many Jews did become atheists, said survivor witnesses. A few might have rationalised the human abattoirs by claiming God was punishing his people. That view was however pretty well scotched in Voltaire’s poem on the Lisbon earthquake, which hit on a Sunday when the devout were at Mass.
My tuppence worth: for me the worst of the water saga is that no nut, rice (most varieties) or cotton should be grown here at all, ever. It is a question of survival, not money. The Webster lot manipulate their finances thanks to the scheme to grow vastly more cotton – the selfishness is beyond belief.
Can someone explain to me what is the message Morrison so clearly delivers?
John Lord.
John Lord. Go to a site called AusPol. On Facebook. There you will see the rantings of the right in all its glory. It has never as far as I am aware, come under the scrutiny of the Admin of Facebook. Every post on this site is an outright lie. They have over 400 members. It is a snap shot of the ignoramus’s that helped put Morrison back in power.
Florence Howarth.
For mine, he convinced the voters who are in hock up to their necks, vote for me or lose your standard of living.
The media and Facebook did the rest.
Florence (comment at 16:23) – I didn’t say, or imply, that Morrison delivers truth, just clear concise messages.
Eg, Retirement Tax, Labor can’t manage money, (even last night on ‘The Drum’, weeks after the election!) The Bill you can’t afford, Labor is coming for your money, They have their hand in your pocket, Labor is coming for your ute.
All repeated over & over, without being challenged with clear simple messages by Labor.
I know some of these messages are ridiculous, but if you don’t refute them, they become truth.
Australia has become a democratic dictatorship. Liberal and Labor make laws to facilitate this process.
I read this earlier today. Has it become true?