5 comments

1. Jack CadeJune 29, 2020 at 8:47 am

   Sadly, your poem makes depressing reading because it is true.
   There will be no more Goughs in the politics of this country. Flawed as they were, those in the that ALP government – Whitlam, Cairns, Hayden, Cameron, Uren, Connor scared the shite out of the holders of this nations wealth- mainly foreigners – with their dream to ‘buy back the farm’, and the United States of America because they had the temerity to ask it what the eff it was doing with Pine Gap.
   Unfortunately that ALP woke them up; they dozed, because Menzies seemed impregnable, and the opposition was led by ‘two Wongs don’t make a white’ Calwell. They haven’t slept since, and won’t. We no longer have a peoples party. Not Hawke, not Keating, not Rudd/Gillard.There will be no more Goughs. We don’t deserve one, and if one emerged he or she would be crushed by the Corporates, the MSM, and Uncle Sam.

2. wamJune 29, 2020 at 9:52 am

   Spot on start, jack,
   Trish has delivered a sad read.
   When profit heads the recovery, the haves take the opportunity to consolidate their control and maximise ‘heir’ profits. Qantas becomes jetstarred, the unions busted and the skilled redundant become scabs re rehired via ‘agencies’ at bargain prices.
   ming had russia to spread the fear and dlp to take the vote. Scummo has china and the loonies to consolidate the fear and take the votes.
   There is unlikely to be change of government till a recognised disaster. How people can’t see the disaster already is a measure of the false fear of ‘labor and the greens’.

3. Terence MillsJune 29, 2020 at 10:24 am

   Maybe I’m just suspicious by nature but when I hear Communications minister Paul Fletcher announce on Insiders that more than 100 regional newspaper publishers and broadcasters across Australia would receive funding grants through a federal government scheme called the Public Interest News Gathering (Ping) program, I thought is this just another way of this government funneling money to the Murdoch media interests.

   The breakdown of the funding by sector is $20m for television, $18m for publishing and $12m for radio – but the government is not revealing the individual business names at this stage because the grant agreements are yet to be signed.

   As the Murdoch organisation has already closed down over 100 regional newspapers with job losses in the order of 500 it was interesting to hear Fletcher, when asked by David Speers, say that the grants would only go to these newspaper publishers (read Newscorp) on condition that they reinstated their print publications (i.e. not their digital and paywalled preferred business model). I’m not holding my breath on this, are you ?

   You may have noticed that Murdochs subscription based Sky television broadcaster has moved into free to air television in regional areas through WIN. This means that the totally unbalanced and one-eyed Sky after Dark will probably be one of those television broadcasters who will benefit from government largesse. At a time when the ABC is being starved of funding, is it right that a self declared conservative leaning broadcaster should be getting taxpayer funding ?

   Watch this one closely as this government already have form on handing money to Murdoch
   interests : remember the $30million that went to paywalled Foxtel to supposedly promote women’s and minority sports when it could have achieved much greater impact if given to free to air broadcasters like ABC or SBS.

4. Ill fares the landJune 29, 2020 at 12:55 pm

   A very eloquent summation of the incompetence, perverted ideology and blatant corruption of this government. However DESPITE all of that, we are still in a position where if an election were to be held now, the LNP would probably be returned. What is wrong with this country that a bunch of religious right nut jobs, spivs, cheats and liars would still be the preferred government solely because of the ability of King Morrison of Smirk to sell himself as something he patently is not – a competent leader. This is despite the now nearly $3.0 billion spent on programs that have largely been nothing but LNP pork-barrelling (including corrupt behaviours by Barnaby Beetrooter, Angus Taylor and Littleproud).

   Morrison’s COVID-19 performance was quite sound – but he read from a simple script and had a simple message to sell (notice how Greg Hunt was cast aside – no-one allowed to steal any attention from the self-coronated King). There seems little doubt that is an environment where he is able, chameleon-like, to adopt his “wartime Churchillian” persona and control the narrative. Once the worst of the crisis was passed, he and his government’s attempts to “stimulate the economy” are all massively flawed, targeted as they are to either tradies (who get generous treatment because they tend to vote for Morrison and they, tending to number an abundance of self-entitled “work hard, play hard” boofheads in their rank identify with a kindred spirit), favour the fossil fuel industry and, despite exhortations and the phony advertising using a fellow Hillsongian, the package for the arts sector is at best mean-spirited and too little too late. Figures suggest that $1.0 million spent in health and education create 10 times as many jobs as that same amount spent in construction – noting that sector has been the beneficiary for decades of policy settings that have artificially boosted the housing sector and will continue to do so. But despite what King Morrison says, the LNP’s policies present a very different picture.

   The changes to HELP disguise that what is really happening is the continuation of an attack on the university sector. The notion of promoting STEM and marginalising Arts seems to be nothing more than an attempt at social engineering. Of course, no attention gets paid to the now nearly 700 job cuts at CSIRO – one can only wonder where these future scientists will get jobs. No attention is paid to the renewable sector suggesting major job losses. Of course not, the LNP’s major supporter, the fossil fuel industry wants to see the renewables sector struggle all based on false premises of course, but ideology is the only thing that matters to the LNP – Morrison rewarding his favoured and punishing everyone else.

   The lies about increasing ABC funding were not sold as lies by the compliant Murdoch and Stokes press and his embellished shrieking about cyber-attacks were intended to present another crisis from which King Morrison would save us all (despite that his government is actually one of the most frequent cyber-attackers in Australia and that his government does not have an up-to-date policy on cyber-attacks). He did not have to say “China is responsible”, because he knew that is the inference that would be drawn.

   The most recent AFP raid on an NSW State Labor MP possibly needed to happen, but to my mind I would like to be convinced that the timing was not designed to damage federal Labor in the lead up to the Eden-Monaro buy-election (deliberate misspelling). What happened about Pentecostal Big-Ears Robert and his wife each receiving $50,000 watches from Chinese supporters or Andrew Robb taking a consultancy from the Chinese company that was allowed to lease the Darwin Port.

   On grants for regional media, I suggest that the only winners out of this crisis will be already powerful media figures who will be allowed by the LNP to acquire further regional interests in order to spread more widely an abjectly abysmal LNP performance as the governance Australia needs and only King Morrison can deliver. The utterly risible adoration of King Morrison by journalists like Simon Benson (who thinks King Morrison will go down in history as one of Australia’s greatest PM’s) is but an example of the mountain Albanese and Labor have to climb.

   In a very Trumpesque way, King Morrison has successfully dumbed down the calibre of political debate in this country, which means he can sell blatantly false but simple propositions to his cult of quiet Australians. Those show are more informed and discerning see what Morrison is doing, but many don’t see his for the conniving manipulator that he is. What he tries to sell as Australia-together, is in fact nothing more than promoting division.

5. Baby JewelsJune 29, 2020 at 2:03 pm

   Spot on Terence. Well done, Trish.

   I think we all know we’re screwed. Do we have the fight in us to change the status quo?