Mandy Vanstone is off and running in the New Year with a whinge about… whingeing.
“Australians used to joke about whingeing Poms but I fear we have adopted that rather unattractive trait as our own. True enough the federal Parliament, indeed most of the parliaments, did not cover themselves in glory in 2012. I am not defending that.
It is just interesting that so many people who are happy to put the boot into parliamentarians do not appear to have tried to excel in their own work. We have a new class of people who appear quite happy to just be critical of others for not meeting the excellence bar.
Yes, it’s the old “Parliament is a disgrace” gambit, and no, Mandy doesn’t ascribe blame. She just has a whinge that the parliament is a joke. By parliament” she means Question Time.
But the truth comes out in her statement: “I am not defending that.”
Why would Mandy feel she owns some of the responsibility for the goings on in QT? She’s not a parliamentarian anymore, so it can’t be that.
But Mandy is still a Liberal, and it’s the Liberals who have gone out of their way to wreck QT and this parliament. No wonder she feels it necessary to – almost – apologize.
Pointless points of order (most of which are struck down); defiance of the Speaker resulting in record numbers of ejected members; heckling and all the rest of it are all played out to a bored Press Gallery, sitting in their reserved box seats like so many indolent Roman patricians, who maintain the fiction that QT is the most important gauge of governance… why?
Because they can. They have the privilege of the ringside seat, so they flog it for all it’s worth. What’s important – and pointedly, exclusive – to them, is what rates in parliamentary and political coverage.
So it’s all QT’s fault that the nation has turned into one whingeing, seething mass of dummy-spitters, says Mandy.
Wrong. It’s the trash-talk about everything – the economy, industrial relations, retail sales, and yes, parliament – that does it.
It is self-evident that a government concerned with re-election, running the country, keeping the economy on an even keel and passing its legislation through the parliament, would NOT wish to trash-talk its own efforts to maintain peace, order and good government (Can-Do Campbell, with his notable “Queensland is the new Greece” ejaculation, being the exception that proves the rule).
So who is doing all the wrecking?
It’s the side of politics that never has anything good to say, that puts out the message to do nothing – sit on your money – until they get into power, that makes up outright lies about the effect of the Carbon Tax, that threatens continuous elections just to restore us back to “Australia, circa 2007”, that says interest rates are always too low or too high, that tells us no matter how good this month’s figures are that next month’s will be the worst on record, that introduces scandal, smear and outright abuse of the Courts in shady efforts to alter the numbers in their favour, that plays with the lives of boat people just to score political points… in short, the side of politics that never stops whingeing and moaning… they are the ones to blame for the depths to which our nation has sunk.
Once upon a time there may have been a point to it. There was a chance that if they could king hit the government early, convince the independent members to switch sides or express “No Confidence” in the government, we might have had to go back to the people (who elected the hung parliament, after all) and sort it all out. That option expired by about mid 2011.
After that it was just a mindless pursuit of bad polls for the government so that their captive journo mates could write up the next election as a lay-down misere. If the result was so certain then there’s no need to talk about government policy because the government won’t be around long enough to carry it out. There would be no need to talk about Opposition policy because Oppositions don’t “do” policy until the campaign. With no need to consider either government or Opposition policy, we could get down to The Vibe, such an easy ride for all concerned.
- Writing about The Vibe means you can just spew out whatever comes first into your empty head and pass it off as critical analysis.
- Writing about The Vibe means you can run the next election endlessly, day after day, week after week, quoting the same polling numbers each time, saying there’s no hope for the Prime Minister.
- Writing about The Vibe means you can fill columns with you personal political biases, your likes and dislikes, and get it into the newspapers.
- Writing about The Vibe permits you to dismiss the government and to treat the Opposition as the government-in-waiting, or even the co-government, even though the Opposition has never won a substantive vote or passed a serious motion in the House for the entire time since 2010.
- Writing about the vibe means you can then blame the government for all this, or at worst, not have to blame the Opposition.
Unfortunately, writing about The Vibe has a downside for it purveyors. Your readers lose faith in you, they stop buying your newspaper, you go broke. As for the wrecker-politicians, their approval ratings tank to almost unprecedented levels. The Economy sags due to low confidence levels. The nation stagnates.
The critical 5% of punters who make up the difference between a vibrant economy and one in the doldrums are too miserable to get out of bed in the morning – Mandy uses this exact “Get out of bed scenario”. They don’t go shopping, or get to work. What should have been an optimistic, energetic place to live becomes a dull ache somewhere in the backs of people’s minds.
Funnily enough, I agree with Mandy, at least half agree with her.
There does need to be a resurgence of confidence and a cessation of whingeing. But it has to come from a recognition of the causes of the nation’s ennui. Australia needs to get a grip on itself and recognize that its salvation is in its own hands.
Confidence is highly under-rated as an economic output. We talk of prices and supply, taxation and industrial relations, market forces and government stimulus, but rarely do we consider confidence as anything more than some kind of waffly feel-good/feel-bad indicator, a product of an economy.
Confidence is not just a product of an economy, it is also equally its driving force. None of the other indicators matter unless the punters have enough confidence to literally get out of bed in the morning and believe their efforts will make a difference, and that their participation in the economy and society will benefit them, their families and ultimately, their society.
When conservative politicians continually trash-talk the economy for no good reason other than political advantage, a spike in the polls, a quip they can make about Pink Batts on Q&A, and when this results in too many people taking them at their word and staying in bed, the consequences can be serious indeed. We’re seeing that now.
A media that’s suffering decline seeks to spread its own misery to the rest of the country. Conservative – Liberal and National in particular – politicians continue a bad habit of negativity whose chance of success expired years ago. Economists, congenitally conditioned to never saying “Bet the house on this” take the easy option and tell their clients and readers, “Put you money under the bed, and then lie in that bed and stay put.” Here’s why: no economist ever got sued for advising their client to be cautious, even stupidly cautious.
Sound familiar?
Our economy is among the best in the world, our dollar is a reserve currency, our life style is rated No. 1, our debt is low, interest rates, taxes and unemployment ditto, we are on the Security Council doing good work around the world, our Treasurer wins prizes for his accomplishments, our Prime Minister is lauded all over as a Boadecia-like figure in the cause of women’s rights, big initiatives – the NDIS, Health and Education reforms, the NBN, anti-tobacco measures and many more – are either in train, or planned in a professional manner with proper consultation and hard bargaining… yet we are told we may as well stay in bed because Craig Thomson looks like he may have used hookers ten years ago, or the PM had a shoe malfunction, or her arse is too big.
Sound familiar?
The commentators are continually wrong about almost everything. Their predictions are laughable, and their errors are grievous. The government will fall, Rudd will come back, the states will never agree, the money can’t be found.
Sound familiar?
It’s not just Question Time or the parliament. It’s a national malaise, infectious and malignant, spread by political and business forces that have a vested political interest in maintaining their cosy pasts, to the detriment of their own present and future self-interests.
Working an extra hour and a half a day – Mandy’s suggestion – should not be the cause of recovery from this illness, it should be the result of it. But it can only become a reality if the conservative political forces that have so far been spreading it start helping to clean it up.
And to do that we first have to face the reality of where this disease is coming from, keep the carriers and spreaders of it from office, and drive a stake through the cesspits they have in place of human hearts.
THE PUB 
I’d also like to know that, C@t. See you tomorrow.
I had a haircut yesterday.
The bloody news wouldn’t play on iview, except for the first minute and a half and then just stopped. I had no idea there was a fire in the Ballarat area today. I tried a couple of other programs to see if it was my computer, but it wasn’t. Sometimes that happens on iview, but it’s very annoying when an episode in a series won’t play.
CTar1
Is that Rummel, or one his co-firies? Wouldn’t like being in their boots, looks like preparing for inevitable battle.
kez – Who knows?
They all look the same in uniform!
(Doesn’t look nice is right. The wind has dropped here now so I hope they can stomp on the fires tonight.)
Interesting
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been negotiating with Telstra over an AU$13,000 bill for global roaming that was originally charged to the taxpayer.
Turnbull, a well-known gadget geek who is often seen using his iPad during Question Time, travelled overseas in 2011, and, like many Australians travelling abroad, returned to find a large bill waiting from Telstra for mobile use while overseas.
http://www.zdnet.com/au/turnbull-repays-massive-roaming-bill-charged-to-aussie-taxpayers-7000009493/
What’s brave about telling the world you were in an IVF program and Tony Abbott let you store your medicine in his fridge, fer Chrissake?
What was he supposed to do? Tell her “No, you can’t. It’s against my religion”?
(As someone said), “Get an Esky”?
When she asked if she could use his bathroom was she expecting him to retort, “As long as you clean the toilet seat, y’know, ‘after’“?
Or, “Can I get pregnant if I use the loo?”
I mean, this is ridiculous.
It was a straight out political article, designed to show that #sensitivetony has a kinder, gentler side, laundered through Marie-Claire and (falsely) presented as a heads-up for what was coming in the magazine later on in the week.
Good luck to Peta Credlin, I hope she has a dozen babies, but this was pretty blatant.
cool breeze here in Adelaide tonight. Someone on my Mother’s street broke into a yard and stole one six-week old husky pup.. It was lucky they didn’t take the lot, including the Mum. That has happened too before today.
I am so angry with the human race.
Dishonest, selfish, self-entitled lowlife sewer-rats. Since The Lying Rodent and his acolyte Abbott have infected our national psyche, gratifying desires at the expense of others has become a national sport, along with our Olympic Gold event, Relay Whinging.
Earlier someone was enquiring about a senate committee on the ABC.
A commenter on the Peta Credlin And The Streisand Effect article left a link to the committee in question as well as some details about it.
Knock your socks off.
http://thedailyderp.net/2013/01/06/peta-credlin-and-the-streisand-effect/comment-page-1/#comment-469
please delete my email address from my comments. I put a new hard drive in the laptop and I have to reinstall stuff including the gravatar link.
This was a blatantly political and orchistrated PR exercise, which is Peta’s stock and trade… Being cynical about it seems like a natural and sensible reaction to me.
I know, I thought it was nuckin’ futs of cassandra Wilkinson to say that about Credlin on The Drum. It was like, “Oh I know what it’s like to be a Professional Woman, all hard striving and overweening ambition that controls your life, so it was so brave of Credlin to share, you know?”
From one Pro to another, Cassandra, I know. Just working to keep your meal tickets punched. 😉
Anyway, I’m going to try and sleep. Good night good people! Looking forward to a better day tomorrow. 🙂
Aguirre:
I have modem issues too. Are you with telstra by chance?
As posted earlier today. Susie O’Brien does not buy Abbott’s latest stunt
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/of-course-opposition-leader-tony-abbotts-cheer-squad-backs-him/story-e6frfhqf-1226549101769
It is rather a personal sort of thing. Maybe you need some imagination or empathy to see that.
Confessions – no, Optus. I think I’ve figured it out. I’m using a dongle and I think it’s just getting old. It gets hot – physically hot to the touch – about 10-15 minutes after I go online, and once it does that it tends to seize up. It’s unpredictable though – sometimes my icon tells me I’m online but I can’t do anything (can’t even log off and on again without pulling the dongle out of the USB); sometimes it just drops out, sometimes it works ok.
I just got Skype and my modem didn’t like it at all. One second of connection and then frozen picture, no function.
Anyway, they’re sending me a new one at no cost to myself. Should have it by the end of the week. If that doesn’t fix it I’ll probably drop the whole dongle thing and get a proper wireless modem.
By the way, whoever put me on to the Gutenberg Project site, big thanks. I’ve been slowly working my way through classic books, and some of them have proven a bit hard to hunt up, but Gutenberg seems to have most of them.
Aguirre, only out of copywrite books and other assorted writings are on the site. Being a proofreader is interesting too.
Yes, I know it is copyrights but I prefer my spelling for the written word.
Trove is an interesting site too. I was looking up some newspaper stories from the 1920s and 1930s about my family and found. because the material is scanned in, the OCR software doesn’t always get it right. Had some fun there correcting names and incorrect spellings.
Ashby Equiry Now,
I have empathy for her inability to have a child, but she went public with the story voluntarily, being cynical about her reasons for that is reasonable (and probably accurate).
Yup, like I said a scurvy cause—getting that simian–browed knuckle dragger into the Lodge.
Aguirre:
Have attempted several responses to you, but always cut out. If this finds you it does, if it doesn’t then meh.
Anyways, I’ve got a new modem which is probably why I’ve got problems. It also overheats. After 30mins use. No idea what’s going on, but it’s highly annoying.
Gweneth from PB has been given a week to live. Some of you might know her from her twitter account.
https://twitter.com/Gweneth01
She was the first person I followed on twitter, and was a unionist right to the end.
Although I never met her, this news is devastating. First my uncle, then vera, now Gweneth.
I fucking hate cancer.
Confessions, I have a relative dying from cancer, it is eating her away and very soon she will fade from our live. It is a slow and horrible exit from life.
Campbell Newman sacking frontline staff – this is the type of action we expect from the liar Libs.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/prince-charles-hospital-cuts-25-nursing-jobs-20130108-2ceph.html
MsAdventure:
I have a second uncle battling cancer who was diagnosed a couple of months ago.
I hate this disease. Hate it.
This lovely lady has had ovarian cancer many years ago and then breast cancer and now bowel. She lost her husband from it too. Now she is just waiting for the end and is suffering and sick sick sick. Not fair in the least.
I prefer to look at Mr Slippers current travails from a different angle.
He was supposed to have committed the alleged offences when he was a paid up representative of the LNP. One of his better friends at that time, I understand it was pretty fair weather, was Tony Abbott….with apparent cameos from the Bishops, assorted movers, shakers and various other shivers in search of backbones.
When Mr Slipper undertook the third highest constitutional office in the land he also took on 800 or so years of Westminster Parliamentary tradition. A tradition that has seen Speakers executed, murdered, impeached, imprisoned and hounded out of office. The Speakership seems to be a very heavy mantle indeed.
So, on one hand we have a man, representing his constituents, allegedly dodgying up travel entitlements, yet, on the other hand, we have the same man undertaking the solemn responsibilities of 800 yrs of tradition. What changed?
My theory?
Once he left the LNP Mr Slipper, now at large in the real world, found that honesty, strength of character and backbone were indeed valid and desirable traits. Traits so alien to the LNP culture he knew so well. That he embraced them with such zealotry that a plot to destroy him was conceived, implemented and, ultimately, failed.
The saddest lesson in all of this?
If you’re strong. If you show courage. If you stand up to, understand and fight both the internal and external demons your life and your personality test you with, the LNP, its representatives, financiers, spivs, shills and ballot box supporters will move all of Heaven andall of Hell to destroy you.
None of us should forget it.
Re Gweneth,
That fkn sux. I hate all the fkn greedy arskeholes who pumped toxic shyte into our planet knowing full well it would kill people, and are still doing it. Then they spend that money on excessive lifestyles and dodging taxes instead of funding medical research and cleaning up the fkn mess they made.
While people like Gweneth spend their lives trying to improve the world and mitigate the the social effects of those sociopathic scums’ toxic behaviour.
May you rot in hell all you evil greedy sewer rats.
fk fk fk fk.
Ian,
Very perceptive.
A mid 40s woman I was talking to last year had lost a lot of her immediate family to various ills in the space of the last 2 years, including all her siblings. She was healthy. The only difference was she was away from home for a five year period during her late teens. She as worried of course. I pointed out that this indicated tosome sort of family exposure to a toxic substance while she was living completely away from the family, rather than anything inherited. (but keep up the testing of course). During that time her family had relocated to another area (in Australia) for a couple of years.
It seemed the only reasonable explanation for the pattern.
Wittenoom Wombat. I hope there is a nice wide gate into hell made especially for you.
so upset to read abouth Gwenyth.
i had been thinking of her a lot latley.
also smithe .
sigh , what can one say.
I too am sorry to her about Gwenyth.
I am also pleased that J6P has decided to keep this site open with the help of BB Fiona and C@tmomma. Thank you all.
Also Joe I like the new comment setup.
me to muskiemp
some one commented yesterday about the blog being may be selective,
my understanding is any one can blog here.
but i feel i can be myself here.
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sigh, why do we lose the good people we look around us and see so much evil in the world,
but then the good people will may be influence the world from another part of the atmosphere, i would like to think that is so
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BB how is your back, i would think your rather stiff this morning
have some treatment for it
Awful news about Gweneth. It seems like only yesterday she was going in for “tests”.
A poundingly bad result.
Just checked over at PB and find Gweneth’s real name. She has posted at PB and she has identified herself, she is Lynette Virgona and if you Google her name you will find that she has done a lot of good in her life.
It sounds quite trivial now, but I woke up this morning substantially fixed. Unbelievable how you can barely crawl to bed and next morning the acute pain is gon, leaving only a twinge, a memory of it..
Annoying thing is, I tried so many different sitting and sleeping positions last night, I don’t know which one did the trick.
Slipper’s trips to the wineries – I knew about this but assumed it was a single visit, not three. The documents filed leave not much room for sympathy – silly man.
He’ll get his wrist smacked for sure.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-08/slipper-to-be-charged-over-cabcharge-winery-tour/4456864#slipper
BB – Think carefully before any sudden movements today.
Good Morning Good People!
Looks like we’ll all be having a quiet drink today in honour of a good woman, Gweneth, then? 😦
As someone who has seen this dreadful disease drain the life away of their husband, as have others, I know, may I just impart some advice he gave to his family, myself and my sons, in his last week?
He said, “I know you’re going to be sad when I go. However, don’t let that grief take you over. I may no longer be alive but you all will be and you should continue to live life to it’s fullest. Be happy.”
And that’s exactly what we have tried to do ever since. Not just gone, “Meh”, he’s passed away let’s forget he ever existed, but we vowed to live our lives and carry on in the spirit he lived his. And, boy, are they big shoes to fill, but we keep trying to fill them every day.
I think, without being presumptuous, that Gweneth would want us to do the same.
Keep fighting the good fight! 🙂
Bushfire Bill,
No more swinging from chandeliers though young man! 🙂
However, might I also add that, if, as you said you were going to relent and take some codeine, then that may have contributed to the sort of muscle relaxation and general tension release from pain minimisation and endorphin release into your system that thus allowed the changed sleeping position to perform it’s magic. 🙂
dear cats mother , your surley, inspire me.
sigh.
what would the world do with out people like yourself, big shoes to follow
i think you are doing very well in that area, look no further than your sons
then look at your self, be proud what a great job you are doing
on his behalf and for the country looking after and bringing up children on your own, is in its self, an amazing achievement, and from the little you say about your boys they sound like they are chips off two wonderful blocks
good news bb
these things happen,, glad it has ,
bb now i am rather confused about the slipper stuff
is it old is it new,
whats it all about in a nut shell and what the fall our out for him and for]
the gov,
Good morning all.
Pleased to hear you found relief from your pain BB – doesn’t matter whether by foul means or fair because what ever worked this time probably won’t next time. 🙂
The farewell post from Gweneth (Lynette) moved me to tears and whilst I feel the bitterness of the unfairness of her illness and her imminent death, I cannot help but feel the warmth of the light she has shed upon all those she has touched in her life and will continue to touch in the legacy of achievements and memories she leaves behind.
Thank you Gweneth and when you go, may you go peacefully and painlessly.
Poor Gweneth! I too hate cancer with all my heart, especially that caused by tobacco. Lost my father and some friends to it, have an internet friend in California slowly deing of emphysema and lung cancer with a possible met to the bones.
I am so proud to support a government that introduced Plain Packaging, it is having a bigger effect than was estimated.
I’m getting rather concerned at the apparent ease that our AFP. get used to pursue trivia and “concocted” criminal accusations against govt’ allies and ministers.
I’m not saying there is any misdemeanor on the part of the AFP., but there seems to be too much influence via FWA. and others within the conservative parties to start investigations if only for propaganda and bad publicity for the govt’.
The fact the these vexatious actions are creating a degree of suspicion toward the authorities ought to ring some alarm bells in the appropiate departments..surely?
I am very sad to hear about Gweneth. As usual Janice, you have said exactly what I was thinking. A lot of us will miss her. I will go to PB and read what she has written.
BB
Glad you are better today, as C@t said, take it easy and no sudden moves. Just pretend you are 80 and move slowly and gracefully. 🙂
joe6pack
What problems do you think this site has (presentation wise). I’ve found it very easy to use. Don’t tart our Pub up too much, I love the simple comfy ambiance as it is.
denese…
Can’t help but notice that your posts seem to flow better than before …much easier to follow now. Am I imagining it?