The edifice crumbles…

bushfirebill Uncategorized

 

Tony Abbott and his government were elected to restore “sanity” and “trust” to governance in Australia. But national affairs are becoming more insane by the moment. And trust is thin on the ground.

Abbott Fear

Abbott got in because, when he was asked whether he’d tip everything that Labor achieved upside-down, he said he wouldn’t. There were so many unity tickets you’d have thought it was a scalpers’ convention.

He lied about it all, pure and simple. He knew he was lying.

True, the punters were in a mind to at least try to believe him, because of the Rudd termite nest set up inside the Gillard government, but they were worried about Abbott’s soundness on a personal level. The polls all showed they didn’t particularly trust him, as if they knew he’d try to swindle them out of their vote, like a cheap back lane card sharp.

Then there was the interview with Kerry O’Brien, where Abbott himself warned the punters not to believe his own words.

So Abbott, confronted with understandable public scepticism, not only repeated the promises at every opportunity, but he reinforced them by giving a blanket guarantee to keep ALL his promises, a sort of meta promise. Could a man who made such an issue of confidence and trust (as Abbott did) possibly be untrustworthy?

Of course he can.

Liars lie. And they lie about being a liar.

It’s an age-old logical conundrum called “The Liar Paradox”.

In doing this Abbott set his own benchmarks impossibly high, especially for a man like him, who has a reputation for shrugging off commitments and loyalties like a snake sheds its skin.

Eventually the public twigs to this, and that’s what we’re seeing now in polling everywhere. The government has lost its lead, and then some, between the 2013 election and today. It is just not supposed to happen that way.

The Coalition is going into a horror Budget with no set plan, no real policies and no clue as to how they’re going to pull it off except by frightening the bejesus out of everyone. They’re even putting up a plan to tax their way to prosperity, although I’ve lost count of the number of times they told us that idea just never worked.

They’re setting out to scare people, keep them stressed, and to incite fear and loathing in the community by pitting one demographic against the other.

Throw in the absolutist, Bunyip Tea Party nonsense emanating from the Commission Of Audit, and you have the recipe for a perfect political storm.

It’s a relentlessly negative, bleakly depressing strategy, and the voters aren’t buying it. They’re sick of national struggle and being part of a community in a state of perpetual ennui. Labor was comprehensively voted out of office 8 months ago. Labor is no longer the government. The public wants to know where the new Golden Age that Abbott promised has disappeared to. This Golden Age was perhaps the biggest lie of all, given the petty ideological obsessions of the man who said he would deliver it.

It may suit Abbott’s purposes, and his natural style, to have the entire nation on the back foot – that worked well enough for the boxing blue, the self-described “Whirling Dervish” – but it doesn’t cut it for the ordinary punters. A Prime Minister is supposed to raise peoples’ expectations, not king hit them while they’re not looking.

Ultimately voters want to be “relaxed and comfortable”, not having to endure ever more national emergencies, existential threats, working until they drop, less pay for longer hours. We’re not living in an ant colony. We’re a society of human beings. Just because there are some fanatical workaholics in that society doesn’t mean we all have to be part of the Great Machine. Civilization requires time to ponder greater mysteries than how we can afford to educate our kids, or pay our bills.

Life is replete with con artists and the tricks they play, but as crazy and laughable as it may seem, some of the mugs who invest in their get-rich-quick schemes, horse racing software, Nigerian scams, Pea-and-Thimble games and dodgy miracle face creams, have no shame. They were promised something impossible, but that doesn’t deter them. They contact The Check Out, wanting their money back. This is when their anger outweighs their embarrassment.

Similarly, some of the voters, dupes for Abbott’s promises to keep promises, repeated ad infinitum, might not have any shame, either. He only needs a few per cent to return to their initial impression of him as an untrustworthy liar, and it’s all over for the Coalition. Eventually cognitive dissonance becomes simple recognition. And that’s when the electoral rot sets in. Abbott’s cronies and henchmen know this only too well: they invented the game.

Contrary to Julia Gillard’s hurried, half-baked promise not to introduce a Carbon Tax, Abbott turned his personal integrity into grand opera., the fulcrum of the nation by which he told us he was not only glad, but eager to be judged.

He contrasted himself against Labor, depicting himself as a beacon of maturity, diligence, hard work and propriety. The “adults” were going to be back in charge. You couldn’t tax your way to prosperity. They had hundreds of fully-costed and thought-out policies, ready to go at a heartbeat’s notice. His promise was sobriety and honesty. He repeated it so many times it became an over-arching promise in itself: the promise to keep his promises.

Then he started breaking them. Can he ever be trusted again after some of the weasel words that have come out of his mouth in vain attempts to justify his political anarchism?

First he tried parsing his own words, telling the punters that what they thought he promised, wasn’t what was in his own head as the promise he made.

Then he tried the “shock-horror” stuff… look, it’s a rat’s nest in here! Who knew?

Now he’s down to outright breach, simply because he’s changed his mind: the “That was then, this is now” gambit (a phrase Abbott has used himself, about his own changeability).

He makes it up as he goes along. The only narrative is chaos. Thought bubble after thought bubble pop out of his brain and even his own ministers don’t know what’s coming down the Abbott pipeline anymore. He’s the bull who’s loose in his own china shop.

And he’s only just beginning to flex his muscles. They haven’t even gotten to their first Budget yet and it’s already utter confusion out there.

“Sometimes it’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission”…

… only gets you so far. Just about everything Abbott is doing is more like the former, and less like the latter. He’s embarrassing his own people with his brain farts, and they have to clean up after him, making like they agree with him (which, for the most part, they don’t). One day they’ll get sick of making excuses for Abbott and throw him out altogether, or else the people will (with the rest of his party along with him… that’s the scary part for career politicians).

The Insiders this morning asked why he seemed to be in so much of a hurry.

It’s a combination of his natural style, which is to pick as many fights as he can, as often as he can, and a haunting ghost in his head that whispers to him that he can’t keep on fooling all the people all the time. His days are numbered, so he may as well go the whole hog.

Abbott’s entire career has been based on surviving the day. Thus, a three-year term of government must seem like an eternity to him. I don’t think he can really grasp how long a period “three years” is. He is acting as he has always acted, as if there’s no tomorrow. His classic style is to go for a knockout in the first round, to throw a haymaker at his opponent, even as he shakes their hand, except the Australian people are not supposed to be his opponents.

The ultimate victory of the alleyway spiv is to fleece his victims of their money and then disappear, chuckling to himself that there’s a sucker born every minute.

It’s a good way to get through the day, but it’s no way to run a country.

561 thoughts on “The edifice crumbles…”

  3. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
    Now how did this get through?
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barangaroo-building-plans-double-in-size-20140506-zr59y.html
    This discussion will be quite polarising I would think.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/fit-note-could-replace-doctors-certificate-20140506-zr5nk.html
    Mark Kenny supports Abbott breaking a major promise. More like breaking a swarn undertaking.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/deficit-levy-tony-abbotts-broken-promise-on-tax-is-in-the-national-interest-20140506-zr5fq.html
    Lenore Taylor says that Abbott is close to losing voters’ trust.
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/06/abbott-government-close-to-losing-voters-trust
    If the UN wants to be useful than it should get its act together and apply whatever powers it has to get rid of disgusting, disgraceful archaic societal behaviour like this. How can it be understood, let alone tolerated?
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/young-woman-to-be-flogged-for-adultery-by-acehs-sharia-police-after-being-raped-by-eight-vigilantes-20140507-zr5x3.html
    I wonder if this guy has any political connections. After all it is Sydney.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/a-banker-the-executive-a-jog-and-the-insider-trading-claim-20140506-37uon.html
    Tinkler ”carpets” Gallacher. More from Kate McClymont.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/whatever-it-takes-icac-hears-nathan-tinklers-plans-to-get-rid-of-labor-mp-jodi-mckay-20140506-zr5pe.html
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/icac-halts-inquiry-to-investigate-former-police-minister-mike-gallacher-20140506-zr5p4.html
    More from The Guardian on ICAC.
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/06/mike-gallacher-implicated-in-alleged-serious-electoral-funding-irregularities

  4. Section 2 . . .

    Looks like there is public pressure on the police to pursue the Gyngell/Packer brawl.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/james-packer-david-gyngell-fight-pressure-for-charges-20140506-zr5nu.html
    This could become a perfect example of the cost accounting “death spiral”.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-post-boss-floats-userpays-mail-delivery-20140506-zr5qd.html
    Fairfax continues to go after Hockey’s fund raising activities.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/joe-hockeys-budget-day-party-for-private-donors-20140506-zr5o8.html
    Ross Gittins rips apart the ideology of the CoA.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/audit-commissions-rationalist-market-approach-a-glimpse-into-a-less-caring-future-20140506-zr5hv.html
    This is as instructive as it is pathetic.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/abbott-government-freezes-unions-out-of-budget-lockup-20140506-zr5t6.html
    Jonathon Holmes on the difficulties of good journalism.
    http://www.theage.com.au/comment/investigative-journalism-why-we-need-it-more-than-ever-20140506-zr588.html
    David Pope with the “Reverse IKEA”.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0.html
    Pat Campbell. Is this Abbott heading for a dead cat bounce?
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/pat-campbell-20120213-1t21q.html
    Ron Tandberg with some beauties on the Libs’ fundraising efforts.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/ron-tandberg-20090910-fixc.html
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/ron-tandberg-20090910-fixc.html?selectedImage=0

  5. This quote in Gittins’article sums up the right’s thinking:

    The rich need more money as an incentive and the poor need less money as an incentive.

  7. Indonesia uses the event The Idiot was supposed to attend to give him a kick. It looks like that allegedly ‘cordial’ phone call to SBY did not work in Abbott’s favour. Note – Abbott made that call only after the Indonesian government said they had received no formal explanation for Abbott refusing to attend the meeting. The longer this stand-off continues the worse Abbott looks.

    Indonesia says Australia allegedly adding passengers to asylum seeker boat a ‘serious development’

    Indonesia’s foreign minister says the apparent addition of three extra passengers to an asylum seeker boat turned back into Indonesian waters is a “very serious development”.

    The asylum boat’s crew reportedly told Indonesian navy investigators that two Australian warships put three extra people on board their boat – an Indonesian and two Albanians – before they were escorted back to Indonesian waters on Sunday.

    Speaking at a leader’s summit in Bali, foreign minister Marty Natalegawa said the information that people were put on the boat by Australian authorities was yet to be confirmed.

    “I am informed that apart from the apparently original 18 asylum seekers who were in the original two boats, apparently some additional three individuals were added to the boat that was forced back to Indonesia,” he said.

    “So this is – if confirmed – obviously this is a very serious development

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-06/marty-natalegawa-on-boat-extra-passengers-serious-development/5434540

  8. Not that Tony and Joe will take any notice, but……
    OECD warns government against harsh budget

    But the OECD on Tuesday said resource-sector investment in Australia – which has been one of the main drivers of the economy in recent years – will keep declining as key global commodity markets cool.

    At the same time, non-mining parts of the economy are unlikely to pick up.

    That means the Abbott government should not dampen the economy’s chance of a recovery by cutting too heavily, too quickly

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/oecd-warns-government-against-harsh-budget-20140506-zr5rk.html#ixzz30yNwCWTs

  10. Love that Mark Kenny article, BK. It’s great to see that all that ‘negative campaigning’ Abbott did for the past six years is no longer ‘brilliant politics’. Nowadays it just gets in the way of ‘good policy’. It’s also great to know that it’s no longer wrong for a politician to lie in order to get into office. Not if they have a ‘change of heart’ afterwards.

    Kenny might just as well say that Abbott shouldn’t dismiss carbon pricing just because he campaigned against it prior to the election. It’s ok to break that promise because it’s good economics. I’m betting he doesn’t though.

  11. I’m no economist, but I think Stephen Koukoulas has it all arse-about. Hockey is taking us to bigger deficits because his actions will weaken the economy, not strengthen it.

    Hockey’s plan was always to hit hard, hit soon and hopefully chip a bit off that deficit. The same deficit Hockey has blown out with his unnecessary extra borrowings. The same deficit he deliberately inflated just to make Labor look bad. Hockey’s lying MYEFO can’t be relied on either, Hockey manipulated that for the same purpose – to make Labor look like poor financial managers when they were the complete opposite.

    If Hockey’s cutting, slashing and asset selling do lower the deficit – and I don’t think it will – it would allow Hockey to promise a few goodies in 2016 to tempt the ignorant. The goodies would never actually appear, of course, after that election we’d be told we couldn’t afford them. The usual Coalition tactic – Treasurer Howard did it with his notorious fistful of Dollars election campaign. , Treasurer Costello did it with his non-core promises, Treasurer Hockey will continue the tradition by repeated the tired old lie that only the Coalition can manage the economy and the punters will continue to fall for the lies.

    I hope all those AAA ratings are taken away soon after the budget. We certainly won’t deserve to keep them. Australia is already an international pariah because of Abbott’s policies, we might as well become an international laughing stock as well because of Hockey’s inept financial management.

  12. Just when you thought this government could not sink any lower there’s this, from the only government happy to talk to Tony Abbott. We are now siding with torturers, murderers and human rights abusers and we are supposed to be proud of that.

    The Sri Lankan government has publicly thanked Australia for its “bold” decision not to co-sponsor a UN resolution to investigate alleged human rights abuses in the south Asian nation.

    According to a statement by the Sri Lankan high commission, Sri Lanka thanked Australia for the ‘‘bold decision of not co-sponsoring this year’s human rights resolution on Sri Lanka’’
    ………………………………………………
    During November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Australia did not join other major countries that crtiticised the regime’s human rights abuses. Both India and Canada boycotted the meeting, while the United Kingdom’s prime minister David Cameron publicly condemned the regime. In contrast, Prime Minister Tony Abbott presented the government with two patrol boats.

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/sri-lanka-thanks-australia-for-its-bold-decision-20140506-zr5n9.html

  13. ICAC probe inches closer to Abbott

    The Independent Commission Against Corruption’s investigation is inching closer to the Prime Minister’s office. Questions have emerged over Tony Abbott’s role in selecting Karen McNamara as Liberal candidate for the federal seat of Dobell despite doubts over her fund-raising claims.

    Mr Abbott was widely reported to be behind the decision by the NSW state executive on April 20, 2012 to appoint McNamara to replace problematic candidate Garry Whitaker. This was three months after ­senior Liberals received complaints of an unreported donation on the central coast and despite McNamara’s earlier claims of huge fund-raising which did not correspond with party records

    http://www.afr.com/p/national/icac_probe_inches_closer_to_abbott_tlnRTpGLPgO4FzI08Ha5BO

  14. I can’t log in to the SMH to comment on the Kenny article but if you’re reading this, Mark, the article’s hypocritical rubbish, as the comments on your site are pointing out.
    What this is, is classic liberal party spin & tactics extolled & defended by the media, as usual. Having broken everything & done anything that was required to get to power, & now faced with the prospect of retaliation in kind, it’s time for a more reflective, “kinder, gentler polity” where a kinder, measured discussion will be resolved in the liberal’s favour. If it isn’t it’s back to the bastardry as required. With full MSM approval & support.

  15. Leone

    You beat me again, that was a great article……we can only hope, but then the media aren’t blasting ICAC over the airwaves here in Victoria. How are the media playing ICAC in NSW?

    Oh and Libs are rah rah over Victorian gov budget, which would be an infrastructure nightmare. Talk back on abc not impressed at all.

  16. J Bishop gives the impression that she’s totally ineffective or powerless:

    Asked to describe the condition of Australia’s relationship with Indonesia, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said it was “cordial”.

    Ms Bishop says she spoke to Dr Natalegawa yesterday, but they did not discuss the returned asylum seeker boat or its passengers.

    “I speak to the Indonesian foreign Minister on a regular basis, we talk by phone, we text each other, so we’ve been in contact constantly, we were in contact yesterday,” she said.

    https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/23289287/indonesian-president-susilo-bambang-yudhoyono-wants-to-mend-diplomatic-rift-with-australia/

  17. J Bishop gives the impression that she’s totally ineffective or powerless:
    ___________________________________________________________

    gigi
    There’s a reason for that!

  18. “@SwannyQLD: When budgets are prepared in a methodical way they don’t get signed off by Cabinet in the week prior to release #budgetmess”

    Last minute papering-over is pure Abbott. He does anything to get through the day, or to make it to the next poll.

    The WA Senate by-election meant that the bad news from the CoA Report had to be delayed until almost Budget Eve. The kite flying that was supposed to have been done in February or March was put off until the last minute, in late April and early May.

    The Report and the Budget were crammed in together, like two fat people trying to get through the same door.

    Hockey released the Report, then almost immediately set about denying it meant anything. The designated softening up period had been wasted on trying to gain an extra seat out West.

    The insouciant Tony Shepherd barged on, regardless, delivering homilies on the virtue of working until you dropped, visiting the doctor too often (he made that one up, it was since revealed), and having the temerity to expect that the nation could assist with your education at university.

    Meanwhile, after telling all and sundry that taxation was no path to prosperity, Hockey and Abbott floated the idea of doing just that. A few years of the “temporary” Deficit Levy and the streets would be paved with gold again.

    They set out to scare the horses, and they succeeded. If they carry out their threats to break promises (after claiming they would never do so, under any circumstances, or for any excuse) the horse could well and truly bolt.

    If they don’t, then what was all the doom and gloom for? They may get marked down for that too. Take a look at today’s retail sales figures: “weaker than expected”, up only 1/4 of the predicted rise… and we haven’t even had the Budget signed-off yet!

    Whatever the case, it has become plainer and plainer that an Abbott promise isn’t worth a tinker’s cuss. It’s almost gotten to the point that if he does promise something, the punters would do well to believe the opposite, which will probably be closer to the eventual outcome.

    Weasel words, convoluted logical twists, and re-definitions of concepts like “never” and “permanent” (anything under 4 years is now “temporary”, which gives us all hope, at least, for the 2016 election) have become the stock in trade of the government. It might do OK in a Sydney Uni student debate, where words are all anyone has to play with, but not when peoples’ lives and livelihoods are at stake.

    The credibility tank is empty and they still haven’t finished the journey. They’re STILL working on the Budget, trying to get the right mix of spin, deception, snake oil and fiscal action together; one that the voters might not actually riot in the streets over.

    These were supposed to be the economic geniuses. These were the people that had such a comprehensive set of policies that they claimed (and have been claiming for years) that they could have taken over the reins of government in a heartbeat at any time.

    Their “Budget Emergency” has not been as effective as they thought it would be. It’s been obscured by all the lying and by Abbott’s tinkering around with his “Captain’s Picks”, his parsing of his own words, and his continual white-anting of Joe Hockey. It’s been exposed by the typically pitiless, humdrum Tea Party ideology that came out of the CoA, and all the unnecessary noise that it created.

    The natives are restless, and why wouldn’t they be? They’ve been told they’re lazy, over-paid, hypochondriacs. And by fat cat millionaires, no less, whose companies stand to profit greatly (or so they believe) from a compliant, low paid workforce.

    Today there’s a big shitfight going on the Cabinet room, over the Budget, a document that should have been settled months ago. They’re still making it up, trying to find that magic formula that will at least make it look like they’re having a go at being responsible “adults in the room”.

    Captive crackpots like Mark Kenny (who never considered the policy merits of the Carbon Tax, just ran the line that it could be seen as a lie) have suddenly got Jesus in their souls (or should that be Jesuits up their arses?). They’re urging readers to forgive Abbott because, after all, his idea is one for the times.

    They are actually suggesting that all the millions of words they collectively wrote last year about how “honest” Abbott was, and how “trustworthy”, how “decent” and even “Prime Ministerial” was his countenance, are now out the door and into the skip in the loading dock, waiting to be taken to the tip.

    Hartcher chided his readers for not taking Abbott at his word. Anyone remember that? He told us that were were being overly cynical for trying to read between the lines of Abbott assurances, looking for loopholes. We should just go with the flow. The days of lies, lawyerly weasel words and double meanings were over. We should trust Tony. He was!

    Well, here we are now, with the Budget in disarray, the Cabinet bickering, leaks everywhere, even their own people turning against them. And it still hasn’t gone to the printer’s!

    Abbott is continuing the habits of a lifetime.

    One is his tendency to run his political life as if he only needs to survive until the end of the day.

    Another is to king hit Joe Hockey at any and every opportunity. Abbott enjoys decking Joe. Then Joe gets up like a beach dummy and says, “More please, sir!”.

    Another is to issue brain farts and thought bubbles as if they are soberly considered philosophical thinking.

    Another is to be contrary to whatever system he is part of, be it politics, the seminary or government… to stir up trouble for its own sake. It’s how he gets his kicks.

    Put these all together and you have a perfectly predictable outcome: chaos, wherever he goes. It’s how he gets his kicks. He loves to get into trouble then smarm his way out of it. I used to do this myself. My aunties thought I was so cheeky. They chuckled at how I could talk my way out of anything. That was when I was six. I’d grown out of it by the time I was 8 because I realized no-one took me seriously anymore, and the Brothers used a strap, even on cold days.

    No wonder the polls are down. I believe they’ll stay down, as one thing becomes crystal clear: never trust Tony Abbott or any organization he leads. They’ll sucker punch you every time.

    Just ask Joe Hockey, Abbott’s perennial pop-up victim. Or Turnbull. Or Peter Reith. Or Bernie Banton. Hell, just ask the Cabinet. They’re locked in that Parliament House room right now, trying to talk sense into their leader, before it’s too late.

  19. I was beginning to worry about Mark Kenny. For a little while it seemed the real Mark had been stolen by aliens and replaced by a clone with a real brain who was writing decent pieces that made sense. It’s so good to see him back to his true form supporting Abbott for all he’s worth. I can stop worrying now.

  20. Another stuck pig squealing about the debt tax, because she will have to pay it. I didn’t see any headlines about Ms Gambaro saying Hockey’s pension changes and Pyne’s uni fees brainfart were broken promises though.
    Coalition MP Teresa Gambaro has fired a rocket at the idea of a new deficit levy, saying that, if one were introduced in next week’s budget, it would be a “breach of promise” to voters and criticising her colleagues for not consulting the party room about the proposal
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/teresa-gambaro-adds-her-voice-to-concern-about-debt-levy-20140507-zr618.html

  21. 2gravel
    The reporting of ICAC is very muted in NSW, nowhere near the screaming headlines we would have with a Labor government in trouble. The Fairfax reporting is usually tucked away in the NSW politics section and you have to look for it. The Telegraph is not saying much at all, today they are running a headline unicorn – distraction story about a Labor MP seen drinking with a former NSW minister found to have been corrupt by an earlier ICAC investigation in 2011. Oh the scandal!
    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/labor-frontbencher-ron-hoenig-seen-drinking-with-corrupt-former-minister-tony-kelly/story-fni0cx12-1226908121584

  26. PA,
    What a mess we are in for with the NBN. Why oh why was there not bipartisanship where this infrastructure is concerned?

  27. If Therese Gambaro is squeeling about a deficit tax, then she’s only joining many others in the Liberal Party including Peter Costello, Tony Shephard and John Hewson. Bingo! It makes it certain that the Libs WILL introduce this tax.

    The bleating is an orchestrated move to make Abbott/Hockey look brave, by going against their colleagues. They can point to their taxing of the rich as a balancing against the hitting of the poor and middle class through reducing or upcosting basic services and increasing the pension eligibility age.

    If this deficit tax is not imposed, I’ll be amazed. It would of course be a great result for us, as Abbott’s credibility would be completely shot.

  28. Here I am in the Northern Rivers with my ADSL speed a massive 1500mb/s with my download speed at 150mb/s and an upload of approximately 43mb/s.
    What we will end up with in the next 10 years? a miss mash of wireless and nodes down the road.

  29. Its a moral issue, those who argue for a cut in the minimum wage, ala CoA, should ask themselves if they would be able to live on the current, let alone proposed, minimum wage. If the answer is that they cannot, then it is immoral for them to demand that others do.

    YB, you were trapped in Pending after I went to bed – hence the redate. F

  30. The Sri Lankan government has publicly thanked Australia for its “bold” decision not to co-sponsor a UN resolution to investigate alleged human rights abuses in the south Asian nation.

    “The visit shows the price this Government is willing to pay in its one-eyed obsession to stop the boats,” said Emily Howie, director of Advocacy and Research Human Rights Law Centre. “Not just silence on ongoing human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, but a concerted effort to stifle international efforts at justice for victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Ms Howie said.

    (Warning: this contains harrowing viewing)

  32. Very comprehensive polling analysis, well worth a look.
    http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/budget-blowout-in-coalition-polling.html
    Kevin advises caution in saying govt can’t recover from this.

    http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2014/05/07/with-the-top-end-of-town-in-the-top-end-the-clps-foundation-51/

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/07/slower-less-reliable-less-productive-this-is-what-turnbulls-nbn-looks-like

  33. TILBM’s on the job:

    The orange lifeboats used to return asylum seekers to Indonesia were stripped earlier this year of safety equipment, including ropes, scissors, knives and other emergency tools, raising further concerns about the use of the vessels, according to a customs officer involved in their deployment.

    The lifeboats are designed to act as emergency vehicles and come stocked with items for crises. Guardian Australia has also learnt the fuel tanks were capped to prevent any refuelling.

    “They did a heap of work on those boats,” the officer said. “They stripped out everything they thought was unnecessary … the lifeboats come with an assortment of stuff, a mirror, fishing line, knives, ropes, a bucket. They stripped all that out.”

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/asylum-seeker-lifeboats-stripped-of-their-safety-equipment

  37. In case anyone was wondering about the intelligence of the MSM:

    Kate McClymont ‏@Kate_McClymont 7m

    Some media outlets have published photos of Nabil Gazal arriving at #icac today. Bit difficult since Mr Gazal died in 2010.

  38. Lyndal Curtis is back. At pains to explain why tough action has to be taken after an election. Never mind the broken promise.

  39. Sitting here in Changi airport using their free wifi, which is way better than what I pay for at home, reading the absolute bullshit the msm is putting out about Abbott. The hold he has on them is unbelievable.

  41. Hell’s bells. It looks like the Abbott government has already reached the “please trust us” stage. It seems Cormann has been saying that a lot in this presser. Eight months in and they’re already begging us to give them a go. That’s got to be some sort of record.

    Abbott’s a frigging snake, isn’t he? Prior to the election, he was saying, “We’ll get the budget into surplus, and here’s how we’re going to do it.” Never mind that the methods he was talking about were pure nonsense, that’s what he was offering. Now he wants to drop all of the “…here’s how we’re going to do it” part, and just claim he said he’d give us that surplus. Doesn’t work that way, dickhead. We vote for the plan, not the promise.

  43. One comment was “I’d pay a lot more not to see Kevin Andrews”. 😀

  44. Leone (@ 9.24 a.m.)
    Your observation about the improbability of austerity operating to return the budget to balance/surplus is quite correct, certainly in the short- to medium-term (say up to 5 years).
    If the portents like declining consumer confidence prove accurate, and if people have less spending capacity, then business revenues, employment, and the whole variety of taxation revenues will fall (or at best, rise very slowly). At the same time, even with cuts to various forms of means-tested welfare, spending will inevitably rise.
    On its own terms, this is viewed as a necessary period of restoring a sustainable balance between the public sector and private expenditure. Yet there is no guarantee that this will come about.
    The Libs/NP imagined that this cycle would take effect after the Dismissal, yet seven years on, the economy was in the gutter, double digit unemployment, accompanied by double digit inflation (thank you, Treasurer Howard). There is also the historical example of the slow recovery from the Keating recession. Even though the breaking of inflationary expectations set the economy up for the 23 years run of growth, it took several years for business investment and consumer spending to reach levels which made an impact on unemployment.
    In the present situation with mining investment going off the boil, consumer spending hesitant and governments (other than Victoria’s) vigorously cutting expenditure, it’s difficult to see what will drive the economy.

  46. Scrot Morriscum testing his latest idea for tow back “lifeboats”. .

  47. Can we call Chrissie Pyne ‘Merkin’ Pyne now? Please?
    Or is that just his faux George W Bush accent misleading us – ‘My fellow Merkins….’

  48. Boys? Whacker Packer is nearly fifty, I have NFI how old that other bloke is, but he’s no ‘boy’ either.

  49. Looks like the presence of Hockey himself doesn’t bring in the bribe money. Inducements are needed, like inside information from an economist appointed to head an ‘independent’ review. Who cares if the invited speaker brings a huge conflict of interest along with him, as long as Hockey gets the money for the bums on seats. Would you pay to hear an economist drone on about the budget? Thought not.

    Labor slams Hockey’s use of independent reviewer as fundraising bait

    Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has been accused of inappropriately using a senior economist conducting an independent review of government policy as a “drawcard” for a $3000-a-head budget day fundraising event for the NSW Liberal party.

    Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has written to Mr Hockey voicing his concerns about the appearance of Professor Ian Harper on a list of speakers at an exclusive event organised by a secretive Liberal Party fundraising body, the North Sydney Forum

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/labor-slams-hockeys-use-of-independent-reviewer-as-fundraising-bait-20140507-zr69u.html

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