Need some relief from the insanity on steroids of the current régime? Let’s return to the kinder, gentler world of John Howard’s Australia, with the next two chapters of Malcolm B Duncan’s historical satire.
(Image Credit: WikiNarnia))
The Chronicles of Nadir
As told from the grave by Tom Lewis
Tale the First
The Scion, the Wheat and the Cabinet
Chapters VI and VII
Alexander had wandered away from the other children in search of the Fruits of Office. He supposed that the most likely way of satisfying what had by now become an almost insatiable craving was to find where the Queen lived. He had a notion that he would find her house in the electorate of Bennelong and had walked and walked and walked.
Eventually, he came to a spacious bungalow which appeared to be the one. There was a real estate agent’s sign out the front: “Khemlani Realty ‘Leased’.” Alexander did not quite understand but he suspected he would not find the Queen in. What he did find was a small Pakistani-looking gentleman kneeling on what appeared to be some sort of a mat. The man leaned forward and touched his forehead to the mat mumbling something which seemed to be directions to Allawah. Alexander knew it required three changes of train.
The man stood.
“I say,” said Alexander, “you don’t happen to know where the White Lady is, do you?”
“I’m only renting,” the man replied. “We’ve just been released from Baxter but Mr Khemlani tells me the owners moved to Kirribilli House years ago.”
It was then that Alexander noticed the yard was full of statues most of which seemed reminiscent of former Liberal frontbenchers so lifelike that it was as if they had been turned to stone just to get them out of the way. There were a few scattered Nationals as well but, really, Stone didn’t do the medium justice.
Meanwhile, or, in the interim, as Mr Hunter was fond of saying at school (Alexander had had to look “interim” up), the Dwarf, the Lady Jadis and the phlegmatic Corder had returned from the Land of Nadir and resumed their normal appearance. Little Johnnie and Jeanette were taking tea on the terrace.
“Now, dear,” said Little Johnnie, “I don’t want you to think that anyone told me anything or that I know anything or that I’d be able to give evidence about it or anything like that but I had a dream last night about a bloke in Bognor. He told me, but only in the dream, you understand – so I don’t really know anything – but he said we had an enormous amount of surplus wheat and there’s this place called Nadir which is an incredibly wealthy magical land which has no wheat at all but is desperate for it – wheat, that is, ruled by a really nice lady, and if we were to make it worth her while, if you know what I mean, which you don’t really because I don’t know anything to mean anything anyway, we could fix the current account and have enough to live like kings and queens in the Land of Nadir.”
“We’ve got quite enough queens in Oxford Street,” Janette replied.
“Yes, but the point is, dear, that we could all be rich.”
“Let me get this straight: you have a dream about some geezer from Bognor,” Janette paused.
“Bugger Bognor,” said Little Johnnie. “It’d be an economic miracle – the Big End of Town would love us. The Party coffers would be full…”
“Then,” interrupted Jeanette, “You bribe some foreign potentate to buy our wheat.”
“Not bribe, dear. There would naturally be shipping and land transport costs, handling fees and the like. We could do it all using f.o.b. contracts through that $2 company in Fyshwick.”
“The one that sells the manacles?” asked Janette.
“That’s the one – very reliable, very discreet people, completely sound,” said Little Johnnie proudly.
“But what about the Wizengamot ban on exports to magical countries?” asked Jeanette.
“No one told me,” said Little Johnnie, “Never heard of it.”
Just then, Alexander appeared around the corner of the terrace, closely shadowed by Corder who had drawn his pistol – he hadn’t been pleased to see him.
“I caught this talking to a terrorist,” said Corder.
“Speak, Boy,” commanded Janette.
“It wasn’t a terrorist. It was a Mr Patel – he’s just been released from Baxter and he and his family have finally got Newstart and a rental allowance and family benefits and they’re living in a lovely house.” Here, Alexander gave an address which for privacy reasons, national security concerns and the fact that this is a children’s story we cannot mention.
Jeanette exploded. “That idiot Khemlani has rented the House to Pakis.”
“There, there, dear,” soothed Little Johnnie, “I’ll get Ruddock onto it right away.”
“You don’t know anything about Fruits of Office, do you?” asked Alexander greedily.
“I don’t know anything about anything,” said Little Johnnie. “No-one tells me anything at all. There’s this bloke in Bognor.”
“Bugger Bognor,” said Jeanette. “Corder, release the child. I have plans for it. Johnnie, is that Teak Table Keating bought still in the Lodge?” Turning to Alexander, she said, smiling sweetly, “Do you like teak, Boy?”
“I’ve heard about that table,” said Alexander. “It cost a fortune, didn’t it?”
Quickly Little Johnnie jumped in to demonstrate his complete mastery of the economy. “It was so expensive that the Reserve had to increase interest rates to 17% to take the heat out of the economy. But interest rates will always be higher under Labor [sic].”
“We all know that; we voted on it,” said Janette testily. “Now, young man, come with me and I’ll show you the lovely Teak Table.”
As they walked, hand-in-hand, Janette could be heard saying, “And do you know anything about shipping wheat?”
* * * * * * * * *
Nadir being a magical land, strange things were apt to happen on its periphery where it intersected the space-time continuum near the place we know as Canberra, the home of the House on the Hill or, rather, in it.
Almost on the edge of Nadir, in one such place, there was a public toilet block in Goulburn Memorial Park just by the rose garden. Known as the Four Thrones (obviously because of its configuration) it had been the undoing of more than one Bishop of Nadir and was often frequented by local police dressed in fishnet stockings – and there are few things more fearsome to behold than a lesbian in fishnets. (One of those things was Alexander in fishnets. Of course, he only ever dressed up as a joke or possibly because, through some misfortune, he had been born in Adelaide.)
While Jeanette was discussing with Alexander logistic arrangements for the shipping of the wheat surplus to the Land of Nadir completely unbeknownst to Little Johnnie, Little Johnnie, in turn, was consulting with Ruddock over what was to become known as the Khemlani gaffe,
After a brief discussion which neither Little Johnnie nor Ruddock clearly remembered because it was never minuted, Ruddock gathered together a crack team of ASIO agents, Federal Police, and Department of Immigration operatives and made it clear that, whatever happened, Amanda must never be told and the new NO EMAIL protocol developed quickly one afternoon at the Coalface was to be strictly implemented. Anything that was written down was to be swallowed immediately in accordance with the Government’s view that, the way things were going, Australian citizens wou ld swallow anything.
When this group reached the Former Matrimonial Home, Mr Patel was again out the front with his strange mat, an atlas and a compass. “Drop those,” said Ruddock. “You’re under arrest.”
“What precisely are you meaning?” asked a confused Mr Patel.
“Can’t tell you. Grab him, lads,” said Ruddock.
“Why?” uttered a now clearly frightened Mr Patel.
“Can’t tell you. Search him,” Ruddock said to a large ASIO man who was putting on a surgical glove.
“Strip!” ordered the ASIO man.
“But why?” asked Mr Patel. “What am I supposed to be doing to deserving this treatment from your esteemed selves?”
“Can’t tell you. Now, get the gear off, Paki.”
He then unceremoniously de-bagged Mr Patel and shoved his hand … Well, since this is a children’s story let it suffice that the search was very thorough. When Mr Patel regained consciousness, the crack team was bundling him into the boot of an unmarked Volkswagen Beetle.
“What about my prayer mat?” implored the quivering refugee.
“Probably a bomb,” said Ruddock.
“But I want a lawyer,” said Mr Patel.
“Know someone with a security clearance pursuant to s 39 of the National Security Information (Criminal & Civil Proceedings) Act 2004?” enquired Ruddock.
“No,” said Mr Patel.
“Tough. Take him away, lads.”
“But my wife and children …” said Mr Patel pathetically.
“Can’t talk to anyone,” said Ruddock
“But they will not be knowing what has happened to me.”
“This bastard’s read the Act,” said Ruddock to the crack team. “Clearly we’ve got the right bloke. Take him away.”
Strange things were also happening elsewhere on the edge of the Land of Nadir, this time where it intersected the otherworld. Sir Alfred Deakin, being dead, could drift in and out at will. Just now he was at the bar in the High Court Retirement Home for Deceased Knights of the Realm and Other Former Sitting Members of The Court. Since Sir Alfred had been the Attorney who introduced the Judiciary Act, he was a frequent guest. As usual he was holding forth in true barristerial fashion, telling the one about the Key to the Arch of the Federation. Sir Garfield Barwick, as bored by the speech as the first time he had read it, threw another stack of Income Tax Assessments on the fire. As each one caught, he muttered “Bastards!” to himself. Sir Owen Dixon was at the other end of the bar reading to anyone who would listen (although no-one did any more) from an article describing him as the greatest jurisprudential mind ever to grace a bench anywhere. It needs to be said though, that the article had been written by an academic. “Tell us about the separation of powers then, Owen,” said Sir Hayden Starke with thinly veiled contempt.
In a well-stuffed armchair by the fire, Sir Frank Kitto (who actually had been the finest jurisprudential mind ever to sit on the bench) was reading the latest edition of Meagher, Heydon and Leeming. It just wasn’t the same without John Lehane’s humanizing influence although the line about the soi-disant musicians had survived Heydon’s clinical treatment.
Eddie McTiernan was at the TAB window still trying to back I Agree With The Chief Justice (always a mouthful for the callers) in the third at Caulfield. As had happened so often before, The Chief (as the gelding was known) was odds-on. Meanwhile, Lionel Murphy was out on the lawn looking after a few little mates. Had he realized at the time of his appointment that because the House Rules had been drawn up exclusively by people with knighthoods, his refusal to be knighted in accordance with tradition would mean that he was perpetually required to use the tradesman’s’ entrance, he may have reconsidered and we might have been saved a lot of looney left-wing biographies by insane feminist fans. As it was, he was making the best of things and was keenly awaiting the arrival of Gaudron and McHugh. He had been stashing away a vast array of grog under the back stairs in anticipation of the celebration.
Sir Alfred finished the speech for the umpteenth time and decided to drift back to the Land of Nadir. He had a strange premonition that involved the use of the notorious Teak Table and he could feel an overwhelming sense of personal sacrifice coming on. Apart from that, there was one persistent thing he couldn’t get off his mind: wheat.
THE PUB 
Hockey, faking it in 1987, faking it now.
He apparently claimed the credit for that student demonstration but actually wasn’t there. He delegated himself to go to Susan Ryan’s Canberra office.
Crikey List: which MPs were involved in student politics?
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/10/01/crikey-list-which-mps-were-involved-in-student-politics/
Does anyone believe Hockey would have been protesting if we had had a Coalition government back then? He was supposed to be politically unaligned back then, but he became president of the Young Liberals not long after.
There’s more –
Hockey also keeps saying he paid off his HECS debt. He must have spent a long time at uni if that is the case. Hockey began his uni studies in at least 1985, when we know he became an inmate of St John’s College.
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu.au/news/23/
He did an Arts/Law degree which took the same time back then as it does now – five years. That puts him in his final year in 1989, the year the Hawke government introduced fees and HECS. Back then Australia was in a recession and the cost of a free uni education was a big hit to the economy. Hawke brought in a flat fee of $1800 which could be paid up front or deferred into a HECS debt. The fee was introduced to replace the $250 administration fee brought in in 1987. It did not increase until Howard decided to whack it up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_education_fees_in_Australia
With Hockey’s dad not short of a quid his fees were more than likely paid up front, especially considering how small the amount was for him. If he did incur a debt it was only $1800.
If Hockey’s lips are moving you can be sure he is lying, or if not exactly telling porkies he will be stretching and embroidering a few shreds of truth into an elaborate work of (mostly) fiction.
Gippsland Laborite
Yup. I did not appreciate Keating until after he was gone. As Joni Mitchell said.
BB – Surely Tony will just tell them that’s not what he said, only what they thought he said? He’s got a lie for every broken promise, so he’ll have no trouble with this one.
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5604-aussies-name-most-admired-figures-201405272325
Admiration nation: Aussies name their most admired public figures
May 28 2014 Finding No. 5604 Topic: Press Release
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), Jan 2013- Dec 2013, n= 10,209. Base: Australians 14+ who named at least one public figure. Respondents were asked: ‘Please write down the names of 3 public figures you admire the most’
If you were asked to note down the names of the three public figures you admired the most, who would you pick? A politician? A scientist? A sporting hero? One of each? In this day and age of brawling media tycoons and naughty rugby players, lying MPs and disgraced celebrities, it’s not necessarily an easy task. And funnily enough, the public figure named most often by admiring Australians last year isn’t even Australian.
Put your hands together for Barack Obama!
In 2013, the US President was named by 12.7% of Australians aged 14+ as one of the public figures they most admire. In fact, of the five people whose names came up most often, only two were Australian: former Prime Ministers Julia Gillard (12.3%) and John Howard (7.7%). Nelson Mandela and the Queen also made the top five.
Click to access 5604-Admired-figures-1.pdf
Heh, we did turn up to Saltram’s a fashionable three hours late, nah just 45 mins late. But Puffy did with malice aforethought demolished a pizza in addition to the salted caramel mousse. And we bought wine at 40% discount, life is sweet.
test
The caramel moose was yum. The discounted wine fantastic. Laughing at Pyney going ape-crap over Martin Hamilton-Smith, priceless.
Kaffeeklatsch,
Are you feeling testy?
puffytmd
Pyne Cone’ rocking on and “Going Ape”
puffytmd,
Was the caramel mouse just the appertiser? 😉
scorpio6to2
They looked like this.
So you took a picture of them before you ate them! 😉
Yummy!
The mouse was too small, so I asked Chef for a moose.
You know, I wish I could hate food. I love food. if I was a dog, the dog-trainers would call me food-motivated.
NSW !!!!!!!!
Abbott’s week from hell, as reported by the BBC.
Blimey, Kate! That’s a bit of a bummer! 😉
http://www.chinatopix.com/articles/2701/20140528/kate-middleton-bare-bottom-revealed-german.htm
Just accidentally saw some on the news on their abc24, wow the arse cover is in overdrive for the dark side eh!
Honestly, you would think that the “Powers That Think They Are” would have realised that the majority of Australians would recognise a unicorn by now *sighs sadly*
(Though you would have thought someone would have told the lass about hem weights by now!)
Moir on selling the budget
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Seemed like a nice lad.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/kidnapping-and-assault-gaos-murky-past-revealed-20140528-394sd.html
I wouldn’t put anything past this mob!
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/christopher-pyne-suggests-collecting-hecs-debts-from-dead-students-as-way-to-help-budget-20140528-394rx.html
I don’t think Rolf will wobble out of this.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/rolf-harris-denies-his-darker-side-included-abusing-girls-20140528-zrr8h.html
Joe must be an “adult” now.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/joe-hockey-video-from-1987-shows-treasurer-protesting-against-university-fees-20140528-394jn.html
Mike Baird supports the RET. Well done.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mike-baird-gives-backing-for-renewable-energy-target-20140528-394ri.html
The IPA strongly supports Brandis’s 18C changes. All the more reason to resist it, I’d say.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/ipa-urges-tony-abbott-and-george-brandis-to-stick-with-flawed-race-law-changes-20140528-394o1.html
No doubt the gutted workforce in the ATO will be able to get right onto this.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/westfield-short-26b-on-tax-report-20140528-394rm.html
Whatever the outcome these allegations must be properly investigated and the facts brought to light. So far Dutton has not substantiated his serious claims.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/health-minister-stirs-states-on-hospital-procedure-figures-20140528-394s0.html
The school chaplains program’s religious mandate continues to ruffle feathers and strengthen the odious Access Ministries outfit. Psychologists get bumped by witch doctors. What a scandal.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/schools-to-lose-secular-welfare-staff-under-christian-chaplaincy-drive-20140528-394sk.html
This Senate Committee seems to be doing good work.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/cba-planning-victim-losses-may-escalate-20140528-394tg.html
And it doesn’t help the FoFA legislation argument either.
https://theconversation.com/commonwealth-bank-behaviour-sends-more-warning-signals-about-liberals-financial-advice-changes-27285
The ACCC is going after cartels. Egg producers are in its sights.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/accc-hatches-fresh-case-tackling-industry-collusion-20140528-394os.html
Vindictiveness and secretiveness runs very deep in the Liberal Party.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/liberal-gary-humphries-stripped-of-award-over-criticism-20140528-394t3.html
David Pope with the Inquisition.
Alan Moir shows us Joe Hockey readying himself for another day at work.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/alan-moir-20090907-fdxk.html
And from the Land of the Free –
A Repug Senate candidate from Nebraska shows his splendid characteristics.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2014/05/28/ne-mayor-take-fucking-court-dont-care-minorities-going-run-city/
The father of one of the slain Californian youths continues to speak out against guns.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2014/05/28/second-amendment-cited-as-holy-writ-on-a-par-with-scripture-notonemore/
TYT’s Anna Kasparian weighs in on the above shooter’s apologist.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017194442
Hmmmm………….Budget or leadership challenge? Or both?
Could this be the plan? PUP helps knock back key elements of Abbott’s budget, Abbott then becomes a dead-in-the-water PM with a huge budget problem, Turnbull challenges for the leadership……..
Clive Palmer and Malcolm Turnbull busted in secret dinner meeting, along with head of treasury Dr Martin Parkinson
http://www.news.com.au/national/clive-palmer-and-malcolm-turnbull-busted-in-secret-dinner-meeting-along-with-head-of-treasury-dr-martin-parkinson/story-fncynjr2-1226935148249
A little reminder of what a lying liar the bastard is. “No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS.”
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/09/06/no-cuts-abc-or-sbs-abbott
We keep being lectured to about how BRILLIANT and how FANTASTIC is the education a child receives from the “private school” system as against those “bumbling” “barely literate” public schools…..and then one looks around and notices that the most public voices on ANTI – civilisation..ie ; anti science, arts, climatic research, civil-society, civil health, universal education, disability health…..and on and on and on…all seem to be graduates of the “private school” system!….one has to ask…: JUST WHAT THE HELL DO THEY EVEN TEACH THEM IN THESE SHIT SCHOOLS……..RUM AND BUGGERY…SANS RUM?……AND JUST A DAMN LOT OF BUGGERY!
Don’t know why they call Turnbull the “Communications Minister”….the way he’s going, he couldn’t deliver communication person to person standing five meters apart on a flat rice paddy with a bullhorn!…….he’s as useless as a crotch-piece on a castrato!
Sounds plausible to me, Leone. Turnbull isn’t there to do a little bit for his country – he absolutely yearns to be PM.
Meanwhile, both the abbott and HoJo cannot believe how big their “piddling little GP Co-payment” became as soon as they announced it. Apparently they learned a lesson over workchoices but never dreamed that to put their grubbly mitts on medicare would be instant death.
http://www.news.com.au/national/prime-minister-tony-abbott-tells-youth-dont-waste-your-life/story-fncynjr2-1226934966273
Hypocrite.
Abbott did not have a job until he was almost 30 years of age. He did have parents who were wealthy enough to pay all the bills while he loafed around as a professional student for a decade after he left school. Uni for five years, Oxford, St Patricks, all for nothing, he didn’t learn a thing. Now this hypocrite is lecturing young people about the importance of having a job and threatening those under 30 who cannot find work with starvation on the streets.
Turnbull gets a newbie MP to move a lying motion on the NBN. The silly woman could be done for misleading parliament while Turnbull skips off into the sunset with Palmer.
Liberal MP misleads Parliament with NBN motion
http://delimiter.com.au/2014/05/27/liberal-mp-misleads-parliament-nbn-motion/
That’d be right – Trust Turnbull at your peril because he’s the perfect smartarse who’d get you hung.
As for the pious liar, the abbott telling young people to get a job or keep on furthering their education, he’s worse than a hypocritical bastard. He looks down on more than half the population as being peasants and worthless no-bodies who deserve nothing more than to scrabble around the feet of those of ‘calibre’ and be grateful for the crumbs they might let fall out of the goodness of their heartless souls.
Pyne is not an MP…..he’s a medical condition!
I thought Abbott thought the 52% of the population born without penises were his chattels.
Then of course there are those blokes who aren’t gentlemen or worthy of cultivation
An intimacy with idiocy.
There is a disconnect going on between irrigated farming proprietors and the source of irrigation around these parts where I live. On the one hand we see a limited resource..: The Murray River…on the other hand we see the desire and need (as the current situation stands) for unlimited draw from that resource. The “equation” does not add up…and if I may extrapolate on the metaphor…the “subtraction” does not even “add up”!
The requirements by the market from “farm-gate” growers is for more and cheaper….there being a mathematical limit as to how many root-vegis’ of any variety can be grown on one square metre of soil, and a water allocation limit on all secured farms, means that the older “family farms” that have only so many hectares, aged irrigation systems and too many sons and limited borrowing capacity are doomed to failure…while the Managed Investment Schemes that are Corporate Farming can expand, buy out the surrounding old family farmer’s water allocations and produce mega crops on a pivot-farming method with virtually unlimited financial backing…..not only can these MIS. farms produce the crops, they can dump produce on the market making it totally nonviable for the smaller producers to even put a crop in.
The two biggest corporate buyers (you know who!) of vegis’ are then able to squeeze the price so low, those who do trey to make a living on the land can and in some cases I have heard , DO have to borrow money to make up the difference between crop cost to grow and crop loss to sell…in effect, borrowing capital to sell their crop!…….one can see where this is heading…and with this “economic rationalist” govt’ , there is little or no sympathy…as in the case of those unemployed youths….”get better or cop it sweet”….and if you go back to that mathematical equation of what can be grown per sq’ metre…it’s almost an inevitability of copping it sweet.
And then we come to the Murray River. If you are a farmer at the tail-end of the Murray, in those times of drought, you get to learn where most abuse is enacted…ie; “the tail end”….quality, capacity and flow all add up to restrictions…yet the “free market” knows no sympathy….the “economic rationalists” govt’ has the ear only, it seems, for the eastern states irrigators….as one farmer eloquently put it…”we got the water before you..so stiff shit!…you want it…come and get it!”….THAT is the way the Nat’s have managed the Murray Darling Basin for decades…then along comes the Labor govt’ and with Burke negotiated a sensible solution for ALL parties, in ALL states, only to have that agreement now torn up by the current vandals in office.
And here is the “intimacy with idiocy”…..from the mouth of one of the most vulnerable farmers…” all the Labor party are interested in is arty-farty things….and the media back them..the media are all on the side of Labor and arty things…not farming…!”……..go figure.
Abbott has slapped down Pyne’s brainfart about collecting HECS debts from the estates of the deceased.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-scotches-idea-of-collecting-hecs-debt-from-dead-students-20140529-395ch.html
BUT
That is because Abbott wants to flog off the entire HECS debt to private business and they will do the dirty work – for their own profit. Think about it. This government floats the idea of higher HECS/HELP interest rates, and compound interest at that, while telling us that they are ‘helping’ students. The higher interest rates and deregulated fees make the debts more attractive to business who will then make more money when they recover the debts – either while you live or after you die. It’s all so transparent. Blind Freddy would have no problem seeing what is going on here.
I know Abbott said early this year he would not sell off HECS debts, so that is pretty much a guaranteee it will happen. Not in this budget, of course, this budget is just the preparatory work, but keep an eye on the next budget.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-28/pyne-wont-rule-out-privatising-hecs-debt/5051194
Here’s how Hockey can save $90 million in his lousy budget – forget about spending that amount of money over the next two years searching for that damned Malaysian aircraft.
It looks like Tony’s Big Unicorn Plane Search was very much an own goal and we have spent squillions on nothing.
Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 pings ‘may have come from searching ship’
http://www.smh.com.au/world/malaysia-airlines-jet-mh370-pings-may-have-come-from-searching-ship-20140529-zrrdr.html
Stray thoughts of the morning:
Managing life as a business is a good thing
Business assets are what produce the money for businesses
Managing a country like a business is a good thing
Selling assets that make money for the country is therefore a good idea …
Annoying both the people who ‘work’ for you and the people who ‘buy’ from you (especially when they are they same people) is probably not a good idea either way.
Mmm, either I need more coffee or there is something warped about this scenario into which this country is being dragged.
Haven’t these individuals worked out what Henry Ford worked out 100 years ago? If workers have sufficient funds to buy the stuff you make, every one wins? It’s not 1950 that Mr Abbott and his puppet masters want us to return to, but 1850!
That is really disturbing as Mr Abbott was born AFTER Sputnik was launched, which technically makes him a ‘space age baby’ *shudders*
Definitely need more coffee this morning…
Don’t look for your dream job any more … Abbott’s condescending words. Never mind if you’ve got a degree/certificate/skills. Just take anything.
As day follows day in the tenure of this Government, it becomes more and more obvious that the lunatics are in charge of the asylum.
brianmac
Hopefully it becomes more obvious to the idiots who voted for them in the first place. Unless and until they realise it, there will be no change.
Here in Gilmore , Ann Sudmalis is considered a joke. Under the control of her ‘special’ friend Jo Gash [who’s popularity as mayor is plumetting] she is a walking,talking embarrassment
That is classy, walking out on The Idiot. Well done, you!
Walking out on Abbott might mean a second term for the Libs with Turnbull as Leader.
That would be a great disappointment to OH being deprived of his yearly Tour escapism through the French landscape.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-29/sbs-budget-cuts-could-threaten-future-world-cup-broadcasts/5486442
A good review of Piketty’s important study by John Quiggin here
http://inside.org.au/thomas-piketty-mass-audience/
The truth has a way of coming out.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/29/png-police-criticise-australian-review-into-violence-and-death-at-manus?commentpage=1
If you have some pineapple guavas growing on a shrub in your garden, make jam with them. It’s deliciously sweet. I add a few strawberries to give it a pinkish colour – instead of a honey one – and an extra tang.
Gabrielle is on the job
“10.12am AEST
As you saw earlier, race commissioner Tim Soutphommasane was asked for his views on the changes to the Racial Discrimination Act and Brandis objected, given his views are well known.
Subversive that he is, he tweeted soon after:”
Tim Soutphommasane @timsout
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Here’s what I think of the RDA exposure draft (as recently expressed) https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/stories/why-our-laws-must-support-racial-tolerance …
10:03 AM – 29 May 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/29/tony-abbott-medicare-co-payment-is-a-necessary-price-signal-politics-live
Time for Dolores to unleash her inner botch.
HOW will the co-payment make Medicare sustainable when $5 goes to the doctor/provider and $2 goes to the research fund? HOW will that ‘fix’ the budget and make Medicare sustainable? WHY WON’T ANYONE ASK THE IDIOT THAT QUESTION?
Sorry about the yelling, but this is driving me nuts. Abbott gets away with this day after day and no-one asks the big question.
TLBD
Freedom of speech Brandis style.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/the-pulse-live/politics-live-may-29-2014-20140529-395dv.html#ixzz334eqkP1q