The Rehabillitation

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Michael Gordon wrote this morning:

It is a measure of the immense level of faith and hope that is still invested in Turnbull that, each time, there has been a tendency to rationalise the setbacks as part of some cunning plan that will deliver later on

Clear thinkers will notice Mr Gordon taking one step away from “The Media”…  i.e. “that Media, over there”. They may not think we’ve noticed it, but the first stage of the self-rehabilitation of media commentators is to refer – obliquely or directly – to the media, as if they are not part of it.

Hartcher does this all the time. And now many more are doing so in regards to Bill Shorten, the latest being Gordon.

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We all mocked Lenore Taylor (of all people!) saying that the State Income Tax brainfart was so stupid that it MUST have been part of some overarching strategy that Turnbull had in his genius head, which we mere mortals could only begin to guess at. So Lenore guessed, and The Insiders all nodded sagely. It was a brilliantly oblique move to make fools of the Premiers, while making a fool of himself. Something Malcolm must have been been workshopping, honing and mulling over for months.

Except he forgot to tell ScoMo, and the Treasury mob, who presumably were about to be asked to tear up Budget 2016, Draft No. 7 to make it seem like a plan. And all less than a month before B-Day (early B-Day, that is).

Funny wasn’t it? This was the exact spruik that came out first thing next day, this time from the mouths of Liberal MPs at doorstops, as justification for the waste of an entire COAG premiers’ meeting. It was their Talking Point for the day (and that’s about as long as it lasted, such was its brilliance). Oh well, onto the next investment opportunity.

Either Lenore and The Insiders inspired them, or it was the other way round. Whatever, it shows that incest is not yet a dead art when it comes to political commentary.

It was Lenore, reportedly a “good journalist”, still keeping the faith that Turnbull is a tactical and political savant: the person best suited (in view of ScoMo’s comments on Shortens actual suits, literally “best suited”) to govern Australia.

But Lenore is a fading breed. Even Elizabeth Faralley of the SMH – she of “Prime Minister For Life: Malcolm Turnbull” fame – is backing off.

It’s a process of gradual and complete reversal of opinion, that the Press Gallery bozos think the mob won’t notice. Well, I and many others here, noticed straightaway, right from the start.

There was also another column this morning by some SMH numpty called Tom Allard: No more zingers: Shorten finds his voice at last. It was one of the most repulsively condescending pieces I’ve ever read on Bill Shorten, or any other politician.

It lasciviously covered all “the usual suspects” – Shorten’s low personal rating, the almost impossibility of him ever winning a chook raffle, much less an election, the “Albanese Challenge”, “anonymous party sources” talking-down Shorten’s ability to do anything at all, regulation references to Shaun Micallef’s”brilliant” comedy routines lampooning Shorten’s zingers etc. etc – and ascribed his apparent revival path in the minds of the ordinary punters down to conjurer’s tricks: a voice coach (who just happens to be a maddy who sings in funny voices), and slick political salesmen (read “tricksters”) in the background who are pulling the real strings… plus, of course, Turnbull’s inexplicable gaffathon of the past two months.

See? It’s nothing that Bill Shorten did himself: it’s other people… voice coaches, spivs and spin doctors, and the Enlightened One From Point Piper not quite being on top of his game lately.

No credit was given for the very sensible policy of letting your enemy shadow box with himself and slash his own political wrists, rather than deflect attention by the Abbott-like “Lookatmoi! Lookatmoi!” tactic. No reference was made to history, i.e. that Turnbull is known far and wide as a know-all brainfarter from way back who has never successfully led any kind of political movement in his life (as opposed to Shorten, who’s made every post in his career a winner), and that some of the voting class just might be aware, or might become aware of this.

No reference was made to the fact that you can’t just change leaders and dance anymore in the Labor Party, an idea with which the “anonymous party sources” let on to Allard they might be dallying. Gee, it was a close thing! But they let little Billy survive. What good chaps! Maybe later?

In truth, a leadership challenge now would mean a cynical and completely disruptive change of party rules solemnly entered into to even get to a caucus challenge: a challenge that would incidentally play right into the hands of the Tories, and de-legitimize any new leader who benefited from it, immediately, for any number of reasons (not the least of which would be the plonkingly mocking articles that Tom Allard would no doubt write about a “resurgently dysfunctional Labor”). But the journos persist that such a consuming apocalypse might happen. Oh, for the old days of “bring it on” leadership stoushes at 3pm, after a Crean interview at 10am.

They want to write those articles, make no mistake, but at the moment the meal is all potato and no meat. Bill Shorten is annoyingly not conforming to the “Human Dad Joke With The Squeaky Voice” meme. They thought they got rid of him at TURC time, but he just keeps bouncing back. All those “questions that need to be answered”… got answered, and thrown in their collective maws. How “quaint” – as Aguirre puts it.

So, there’s still a way to go in getting a majority of the Press Gallery into line, thinking positively about a Labor victory, something worth considering for more than its novelty value. Far be it from journalists like Allard – who has most likely never led anything more than a soccer team (if that) – to stop criticising Bill Shorten, who has  led one of Australia’s most rambunctious unions, organizing it into an effective and efficient fighting force as a result, and who now has gotten a defeated, decimated and demoralized Opposition ahead in the feted Newspoll horse race against the member for the Cayman Islands, while the Gallery was too busy writing hagiographies to the PM’s magnificence.

The reality is that Shorten is refusing to play the media’s game, they way they want him to play it. He actually defends himself. The horror! He actually refuses to stand down when some trumped up minor Age hack demands he does so. He persists when a has-been, harumphing old judge descends to threatening him in public for being too truthful in his evidence (as he also threatened Julia Gillard). Shorten keeps on fighting and trying, and now it seems, is starting to show measurable success that confounds, confuses and contradicts the established Media “line”. He comes up with the policy they’re all demanding he comes up with – even if they mostly call this “running a scare campaign” at this early stage in the Rehabilitation of Bill.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much. As long as they get it right in the end, I for one will take that as a win, even if it is grudging, slow, a bit heckly and somewhat half-hearted. Because, for any Gallery reporter or political commentator to admit he or she was wrong – so often wrong in so many ways – is still something to be talked about, something worth noting, right here.

After all, it’s difficult not to note something that’s up and chewing your arse so hard.

555 thoughts on “The Rehabillitation”

  2. I have got a hundred things going on at the moment, but I will attempt to put up a post, in my clumsy fashion, on Sunday about the RSRT and my understanding of it.
    I am against it and will be quite happy if it is abolished.

    Another point of view here:

    The Turnbull Government’s hasty moves to scrap the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal puts truck drivers and the public at serious risk. Managing editor Dave Donovan reports.

    The Turnbull Government is looking to abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT), set up by the Gillard Government to set minimum hourly pay rates for truck drivers.

    Turnbull is acting, apparently, at the behest of owner drivers, some of whom have appeared beside him at press conferences to say they will be put out of business if they need to pay these minimum hourly rates.

    Say the owner drivers, the big trucking companies (whose drivers are already subject to awards) will drive them out of business because the little guys don’t have the “economies of scale” to be able to compete.

    It is easy to feel sympathy for owner truck drivers and their families whose livelihood may seem threatened. These truckies are hard workers, who toil for extraordinarily long hours for little pay hauling big loads, often from one side of the country to the other. They do this to put food on the table for their families. To threaten their jobs, of course, seems harsh, perverse and wrong.

    Yet, the reason for the minimum rate of pay is for the safety of the drivers themselves and the public. The Government’s own reports show the transport industry is the most unsafe industry in Australia, with higher fatalities than any other − 12 times the average rate of all industries – and that RSRT orders will reduce crashes by 28 per cent.

    https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/get-trucked-scrapping-road-safety-remuneration-tribunal-endangers-all-our-lives,8875

    Reply

  3. and of a RC on Banks:

    Banks are worried. Their employees have engaged in practices that they don’t want aired, so they’re pushing back, writes the UWA’s Andrew Schmulow (via The Conversation).

    THERE ARE cultural and ethical malpractices prevalent in Australian banks which our regulations do not address and which our regulators have struggled to contain. Those malpractices appear to be spreading, and our banks have failed to act meaningfully. The potential effects can be dire, so we need to find solutions. The Financial System Inquiry failed to address the problem. A royal commission would.

    It’s important to remember how the global financial crisis started out. It began with the sub-prime disaster: a large industry developed around writing dodgy loans, sold using pressure-cooker predatory lending, by unscrupulous lenders — none more so than Bank of America’s Countrywide Financial.

    When that was not enough, banks, including Bank of America, engaged in document fraud on an industrial scale (something CommInsure employees dabbled in too).

    The point is, dodgy dealings and an unethical culture in the banking system can create catastrophic, national and international problems.

    In response to having to bail out banks after the financial crisis, the world’s major economies have moved to write new rules, and we’ve followed those developments here in Australia. But these new rules, largely related to technical criteria like levels of retained capital, have their limits. If they’re too stringent, we strangle our banks. But wherever we set those limits, banks push back against them, and sometimes with considerable success.

    The regulations we enact to control the conduct of our banks are policed by ASIC and APRA. Those organisations face enormous challenges. For whatever reason – be it lack of resources as they would have us believe, or be it poor performance, as their critics would have you believe – both organisations have had limited success. Under ASIC’s nose, the financial advice scandal,

    https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/banking-royal-commission-should-be-paid-for-by-banks,8871

    Some nice comments too.

    Reply

  4. he NEw York Times account of the Lebanon Kidnapping Saga:

    BEIRUT, Lebanon — A bitter custody dispute between an Australian mother and a Lebanese father. A crew of sympathetic Australian television journalists. A grandmother who was clubbed on the head as the children were put into an S.U.V. that sped off.

    Such were the ingredients in a bizarre transnational episode that resulted on Tuesday with criminal charges against nine people: the mother, the four members of the TV crew and two British and two Lebanese citizens, all accused of taking part in what prosecutors called an elaborate kidnapping plot.

    The charges, in what is still a murky case, stemmed from what appeared to be an all-too common dispute between divorced or divorcing couples living on separate continents: In this case, Sally Faulkner of Brisbane, Australia, and her estranged husband, Ali al-Amin, a surfing instructor who lives south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

    The two children — a girl, 6, and her brother, 4 — were waiting with their grandmother for a school bus in Hadath, a southern suburb of Beirut, last Wednesday when three “armed persons” in a silver Hyundai S.U.V. scooped them up, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

    What role the journalists played, if any, is unclear.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/world/middleeast/sally-faulkner-australian-mother-child-custody.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

    Reply

  5. Palestinians mark 68th anniversary of Deir Yassin massacre

    Palestinians on Saturday marked the 68th anniversary of the massacre of more than 100 Palestinian civilians carried out by Zionist paramilitary groups in the village of Deir Yassin in 1948 prior to the establishment of Israel. Deir Yassin has long been a symbol of Israeli violence for Palestinians because of the particularly gruesome nature of the slaughter, which targeted men, women, children, and the elderly in the small village west of Jerusalem. The number of victims is generally believed to be around 107, though figures given at the time reached up to 254, out of a village that numbered around 600 at the time. The Deir Yassin massacre was led by the Irgun group, whose head was future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, with support from other paramilitary groups Haganah and Lehi whose primary aim was to push Palestinians out through force. Records of the massacre describe Palestinian homes blown up with residents inside, and families shot down as they attempted to flee. The massacre came in spite of Deir Yassin residents’ efforts to maintain positive relations with new Jewish neighbors, including the signing of a pact that was approved by Haganah, a main Zionist paramilitary organization during the British Mandate of Palestine.

    http://mondoweiss.net/2016/04/palestinians-mark-68th-anniversary-of-deir-yassin-massacre/

    Reply

  6. Hillary attacks the Gaza dead:

    Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Clinton disputed Sanders’ description of Israel’s assault on Gaza as “disproportionate.” Clinton argued that “Hamas provokes Israel.”

    On top of blaming Palestinians for Israel’s deadly violence, Clinton called into question the innocence of dead Palestinian civilians, arguing, “They often pretend to have people in civilian garb, acting as though they are civilians, who are Hamas fighters.”

    Maybe Clinton was referring to the 551 children Israel killed in Gaza, 68 percent of whom were under the age of 12. Or maybe she was talking about the 844 Palestinians that the Associated Press determined were killed in Israeli airstrikes on residential homes, including 19 babies and 108 preschoolers between the ages of 1 and 5….

    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/hillary-clinton-attacks-dead-palestinians-battle-against-bernie-sanders

    Reply

    • Gives me a smile to see BISONs are still extant. They were originally “BSONs” (Beautiful Set of Numbers) but moi added the ‘I’ to the acronym. Beautiful Inspiring Set of Numbers.

      There they go………… The BISONs

  8. Iconic Photo of Shortage-Ridden Venezuelan Supermarket Taken in New York

    http://venezuelanalysis.com/files/imagecache/block_node_images/images/2016/04/14600624444589.jpg

    Caracas, April 11, 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) – A report by the Spanish website FCINCO has revealed that a photo widely circulated by international media as a depiction of chronic shortages in Venezuela was actually taken in New York in 2011.

    The now iconic photograph, which shows a woman in a supermarket gazing at empty shelves, was reposted by news outlets hundreds of times over the last three years as evidence of Venezuela’s economic crisis.

    However, a closer examination of the photo demonstrates that it was taken by Reuters photographer Allison Joyce in a New York supermarket on the eve of Hurricane Irene with the caption, “A shopper passes by empty shelves while looking for bottled water at a Stop and Shop at Rockaway Beach in New York, August 26, 2011.”

    The image was first erroneously associated with Venezuela by several small blogs in 2012 and 2013, but only in 2014 did it begin to circulate massively, including among prominent news media such as El Nacional, Prensa Libre, La Patilla, Entorno Inteligente, El Nuevo Siglo, Mercopress, Elsalvador.com and Ahora Visión.

    http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11923

    Reply

  9. Earlier today there was a bit of comment about Labor not doing so well in NSW and not likely to win enough NSW seats to win the election.

    I’d just like to say –
    We are a funny lot in NSW. We seem to like to have a state government that is the opposite of the federal government. So when Labor is in power federally we elect a Coalition state government, and vice versa. The O’Farrell/Baird government was elected in 2011, the first chance NSW had to change government after the 2007 election. It might be time NSW voted Labor again in a federal election. We don’t get a chance to vote Baird out until 2019, so we just might do the next best thing and kick out Turnbull.

    Add to that the deep stench around Baird and his government. Despite what the polls say Baird is not popular and his idiotic policies on TAFE, health and the ruination of Sydney’s parks and trees is going against him. Some of that will see an increase in Greens votes in the inner city electorates because of the uproar over the Randwick tree-felling and the destruction of Moore Park, but the rest is state-wide. Then there’s the fruit-loop decision recently to make the entire state available for CSG exploration. That’s not going down well.

    Don’t write off NSW. A lot of the seats on the Central Coast and in Western Sydney that went Coalition in 2013 will swing back to Labor this time. The government holds them with tiny margins.

    Reply

    • I hope you’re right on that account. A lot of psephologists and alike in the media have been saying that there is a low chance of many NSW seats changing back to Labor.

      I’m just hoping that the opinions of people in the 2015 state election won’t be the same as those in the 2016 federal election. In that there were many quite surprising and downright disturbing results last year in the usual state marginal seats in that they remained very firmly in Liberal hands (at least in Sydney).

  10. From the SBS (PBS) documentary “The Brain with David Eagleman”:

    Sitting next to some hand sanitizer makes your opinions more conservative because it reminds you of “outside threats”.

    Personally, I find exposure to conservatives reminds me to use hand sanitiser – but each to their own…

    Reply

  11. Internet-famous raindrop cake arrives down under

    By Lucinda Kent

    Move over doughnuts, there is a new dessert craze, but this time, there’s zero calories involved.

    The raindrop cake (which isn’t quite a cake, think more of a stylish jelly blob) has arrived down under, being served up by dumpling restaurant Harajuku Gyoza in Brisbane.

    The cake was originally created by New York chef Darren Wong and is made of water and a vegan gelatine. The cake itself has zero calories, but Wong accompanies it with sugar syrup and soy flour for texture and sweetness.

    Hundreds of people have been lining up to buy Wong’s cakes, as he only produces around 50-100 of them a day.

    Over 500 people Instagrammed their raindrop cakes in the first week after they were debuted at New York food markets Smorgasburg.

    They are very delicate and have to be eaten quickly before they melt.

    Videos for similar versions of the Japanese dessert with different toppings are popular on YouTube. The Australian version is served with kinako and sesame powder and brown sugar syrup.

    Harajuku Gyoza general manager Andrew Jeffries told SBS Food their chefs worked quickly to be the first restaurant in Australia to debut the dessert.

    “We only debuted them yesterday, so it’s the first 24 hours, and people are already excited to order them,” he said.

    “A lot of people are starting to see the raindrop cakes on social media from overseas, I don’t think anyone else in Australia is doing it, so instantly people knew what they were looking forward to.

    “The recipe was a lot of trial and error as well, and we’re experimenting with some different flavour options, and we’re doing one now with strawberries and condensed milk and peanuts… there’s a lot we can do with them.”

    Post by Harajuku Gyoza.

    The beautiful cakes have a clear, glassy appearance which Wong has said was inspired by raindrops in the animated film A Bug’s Life.

    So far it seems that Harajuku Gyoza’s South Brisbane restaurant is the only place in Australia serving up this unusual dish, but if it is like food trends before it, others are surely soon to follow.

    http://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2016/04/11/internet-famous-raindrop-cake-arrives-down-under

    Reply

  13. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36041534

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/the-dubious-market-for-ancient-artifacts-a-1086597.html

    http://www.nature.com/news/first-paralysed-person-to-be-reanimated-offers-neuroscience-insights-1.19749

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-14/westpac-set-to-exit-nauru/7326892

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-13/wangan-and-jagalingou-plan-legal-action-carmichael-mine/7323728

    Reply

  15. It’s not a cake, it’s a blob of jelly with goo around it. Oh yummy! Not

    Leone I agree it’s not what I regard as a cake, but:

    Hundreds of people have been lining up to buy Wong’s cakes, as he only produces around 50-100 of them a day.

    Who am I to argue the toss. 🙂

    Reply

  17. This pic is Planet of the Apes Worthy

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/14/national/chimp-caught-residential-area-escaping-sendai-zoo/

    Chimp caught in residential area after escaping Sendai zoo
    Kyodo
    Apr 14, 2016

    SENDAI – A chimpanzee that escaped from a Sendai zoo was caught Thursday afternoon in a nearby residential area after being shot with a tranquilizer gun and falling from power lines.

    The male chimpanzee Chacha was one of the five chimpanzees kept at the Yagiyama Zoological Park in the Miyagi Prefecture capital. No one was reported injured in the incident.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3539711/Dramatic-moment-chimp-escaped-Sendai-Yagiyama-Zoological-Park-Tokyo-shot-tranquiliser-hangs-precariously-power-lines-plummeting-ground-live-TV-luckily-survives.html check out the video clip in this one (the chimp was not injured in the end)

    Dramatic moment chimp shot with tranquiliser hangs precariously from power lines before plummeting to the ground
    Chacha, 24, was shot with a tranquiliser gun after it escaped the zoo
    He runs along along the power lines before the drug kicks in
    The chimp loses his footing and plummets to the ground

    By Harriet Mallinson For Mailonline
    Published: 21:56 EST, 14 April 2016 | Updated: 23:23 EST, 14 April 2016

    Reply

  22. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Waleed Aly on the coherence and value of Labor’s policies.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/governments-new-budget-policy-a-response-to-labors-agenda-20160413-go5yc8.html
    “View from the Street” war games a DD and its lead up in an interesting way.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-lets-game-this-whole-likely-double-dissolution-thing-out-20160414-go6dxk.html
    Michelle Grattan on the prospect of a DD.
    https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-turnbull-sees-even-a-difficult-new-senate-as-an-opportunity-for-a-fresh-start-57805
    Mark Dreyfus writes that a RC is the only way to learn the true health of our financial services industry.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/mark-dreyfus-au/the-only-way-to-learn-the-true-health-of-our-financial-services-industry_b_9687676.html?utm_hp_ref=australia
    The Panama Papers are likely to reveal significant criminal activity among the 800 Australians listed in the files of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, says a prominent tax lawyer.
    http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/2016/04/13/panama-papers-will-reveal-aussie-criminals/
    Jennifer Hewett says Turnbull is losing the corruption debate. A Google job.
    /opinion/columnists/malcolm-turnbull-losing-in-upside-down-banking-debate-20160414-go6cgh
    The government takes off the gloves and goes after Palmer. Fair enough.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/government-intervenes-in-queensland-nickel-administration-to-chase-clive-palmer-for-70-million-20160414-go6oft.html
    The Climate Institute says that we need to do some things we did before for a while in order to respond to the Paris climate change agreement.
    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/15/carbon-price-needed-to-avoid-economic-disruption-from-paris-climate-goals-analysis
    This professor of journalism puts the 60 Minutes effort into good focus.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/60-minutes-put-entertainment-before-journalism-in-lebanon-professor-says-20160414-go6on5.html
    The Germans raise the ante on the submarine contract. I’d like to see them get the gig but my mail is that it’s in the bag for the Japanese. (Google it).
    /news/south-australia/german-shipbuilder-tkms-ready-to-relocate-australian-headquarters-to-adelaide-if-it-wins-new-submarines-bid/news-story/343496f1711a19aac3d55136bb2ee83f
    Alan Fels brands ASIC as “too timid” as an enforcer.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/tough-cop-asic-too-timid-on-enforcement-fels-20160414-go6jqe.html

    Reply

  23. Section 2 . . .

    The Greens outline what ought to be done to rein in the revenue losses from companies that have offshore tax minimising structures and practices.
    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/15/greens-call-for-companies-who-use-tax-havens-to-be-financially-penalised
    Chris Bowen did really well on Lateline last night with a particularly aggressive and interrupting Tony Jones.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-seizes-on-reports-the-government-is-planning-a-tobacco-tax-hike-20160414-go6vps.html
    More stuff from Nauru to be proud of.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/refugee-battles-for-abortion-after-rape-on-nauru-20160414-go67o6.html
    A great headline – “Lovechild Abbott abandons Bishop”!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/prodigal-lovechild-tony-abbott-abandons-bronwyn-bishop-ahead-of-preselection-battle-20160414-go6vh4.html
    I posted this last night but it is a blood boiler.
    http://www.smh.com.au/victoria/parents-shocked-as-priest-compares-adultery-to-paedophilia-20160414-go6j5a.html
    The gap between young and old caused by the tax treatment of property investors is widening. It must be attended to.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/property-tax-imbalance-widens-gap-between-young-and-old-says-me-bank-20160412-go49ie.html
    Morrison’s all over the place as he intimates there will be increases to tobacco taxes.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australias-aaa-credit-warning-at-risk-unless-turnbull-government-raises-taxes-moodys-20160414-go62bj.html
    Bob Hawke goes in to bat in favour of voluntary euthanasia.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/absurd-bob-hawke-blasts-lack-of-political-will-to-legalise-euthanasia-20160413-go5w9u.html
    Is anyone convince by Telstra’s comments on its reaction to the Catholic church’s threats?
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/telstra-denies-catholic-pressure-forced-it-to-abandon-marriage-equality-campaign-20160414-go60fl.html

    Reply

  25. So nice of Michelle Grattan to pinch my line.

    Michelle, this morning –
    “Labor’s Penny Wong indicates the opposition won’t be playing silly buggers by trying to delay the bills”

    Me, at 3.52 yesterday –
    “Labor rules out playing silly buggers in the senate next week”

    Reply

  26. And to round out a week of Rehabillitation, I give youse Laura Tingle.

    Like Waleed Aly, Laura can’t quite bring herself to say anything particularly nice about Bill, and couches her comments more as negatives against the Coalition, but there are some nuggets in there if you read closely enough.

    Presumably Laura believes that “Labor” sort of just “got into” this position kind of by osmosis, or divine intervention (Divine Intervention is always a good one because Press Gallery journos cannot be held responsible for missing it before it happens), and not because the boring old Human Dad Joke, Zinger Bill, had anything to do with it as, y’know, leader or anything. Laura wrote Bill off months ago, so it can’t be anything to do with him. Whew!

    But it IS nice to see she’s finally twigged that usurping the processes of Parliament, screwing around with the Budget timetable and getting staffers to write it under a Treasurer who practices ScoMonomics without talking to his leader all that often, is not a great look. Only a couple of weeks ago on Insiders they were all nodding assent to this kind of behaviour, giving it the shrugged-shoulder.

    “Meh… prorogue the parliament. Tick. Then start it up again 3 days later. Tick. Threaten the Senate. Tick. Pull the Budget forward. Tick. Double-D with 100 days notice. No problemos. Perfectly normal. ScoMo doesn’t have a clue about economics. No biggy, he’s got the Treasury wallahs to help out! Bill Shorten. BOO! HOPELESS! GIGGLE! Turnbull’s lucky he’s got Bill up against him or he might be in trouble!”

    So I invite Pubsters to read the following from Laura in the light of the observations above.

    It truly is Rehabillitation Week.

    Turnbull’s government is in all sorts of shtook

    It is hard to remember a government that has gone into an election campaign so ill-prepared to persuade voters to give it another chance.

    ……it is hard to think of a government that has been in such diabolical trouble at this stage of the cycle.

    …It’s problems are not a result of dirty tricks, or stunts, or being undone by a difficult parliament.

    It is that at a logistical level, a policy level, even a philosophical level, the government is in all sorts of shtook.

    The normal processes of parliament, the budget process, the election timetable have all been whacked off their normal axes.

    Voters don’t know, in general, what the government stands for and, where they do think they know, it seems to stand for all the wrong things.

    They are confused about a prime minister who seems to stand for things which they don’t think he believes in.

    Most notably, the Coalition is facing an opposition which has steadily revealed itself as prepared to take risks, is politically sharper, which has continually been setting the agenda and which has been prepared to paint itself as standing for something that has an internal coherence.

    And slowly and steadily the props that have in the past reinforced a government’s economic management credibility – props like endorsement from the business community and the fiscally conservative commentary of the ratings agencies – have fallen out from under the government.

    …It has put all its political eggs in the basket for the election campaign of portraying Labor as the high taxing party as the centrepiece of its own claim to superior economic management.

    Yet there are more risks than normal……the creation of the Parliamentary Budget Office had empowered opposition parties to more confidently engage in the tax debate and this has certainly been true of the current Labor opposition.

    …{Labor} has put forward proposals that involve increased taxes without apologies, arguing their policy merits on other fronts – like the impact on housing affordability in the case of negative gearing.

    Bill Shorten ruled out cuts in company tax this week, but pointedly evaded several questions about personal income tax cuts..

    The government, by contrast, has nowhere to go on this.

    …Newbies doing budget and election work

    Despite considerable experience around the cabinet table, the budget is being put together by people in the treasurer’s office who have never had to do it before, just as the election strategy is being put together (at the government end, rather than party end) by people who have never had to do it before.

    Labor….is talking about saving the steel industry and about a Royal Commission into the banks, a style of politics that creates clear discomfort for the Coalition.

    ……The government, meanwhile, has been struggling to get out of the spot of simply looking like it is defending the big end of town.

    The prime minister could well call the election on May 5 (depriving Bill Shorten of his address in reply) or (more likely) on the weekend of May 7 and 8.

    The government goes in to the election campaign wounded on higher education, in big trouble on schools funding and holding its health funding policies together with band aids.

    It is hard to remember a government that has gone into an election campaign so ill-prepared to persuade voters to give it another chance.

    http://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/laura-tingle/is-the-turnbull-government-the-most-unprepared-for-an-election-campaign-ever-20160414-go69pk

    Reply

  27. Helen has her job interview yesterday.

    Clark was grilled for more than two hours by General Assembly representatives in New York early this morning

    Earlier during questioning by representatives, Clark rejected suggestions that she was a household name. “I have never been an establishment candidate for anything,” she said.

    “I have come from the outside of everything I have done, from a rural background to urban settings, as a woman breaking into a man’s world, which was politics in my country, as a woman becoming the first elected Prime Minister, the first woman appointed Administrator of the UNDP

    ……………..”I grew up on a back country farm on an unsealed road in New Zealand and I learnt from my parents values which I think are essential to leadership.

    “They are about being ambitious but realistic, about being hardworking and resilient when the times get tough.

    “Many in my family and my local community fought and were killed in World Wars I or
    II and so like other New Zealanders of my generation I was brought up to have deep respect for the United Nations.”,,,,,,,The first cause she had become actively involved in as a young person was against apartheid in South Africa. “Its end, to which

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11622909

    Reply

  28. Well done Tony and Malcolm – right on target to achieve that slave underclass of poor, sick, uneducated beings. All that remains now is taking way their right to vote.

    UNICEF: Australian children are falling behind in health, education

    Australian children have poorer health and education outcomes than Latvia, Slovenia and Croatia, a new report from UNICEF has revealed.
    The Fairness for Children report, released on Thursday, shows Australia ranks 27th out of 35 in health equality outcomes among OECD countries and 24th out of 37 in education equality results.
    National Children’s Commissioner Megan Mitchell said Australia was failing to give all children the best start in life

    http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/unicef-australian-children-are-falling-behind-in-health-education-20160414-go6li2.html

    Reply

  35. Leone

    I saw a tweet earlier today from Shorten that he was going to be on 2SM with John Laws. I scrabbled around on my computer but couldn’t get it, so I went to Razz’s laptop and we listened to it live. It was between 9am and 10am. It was one of the most respectful, insightful and revealing interview I’ve heard with Bill. The two men had never meant before, and Laws said after he was impressed.

    I can’t put a link up because it was on Razz’s laptop, but I did notice that you can download the podcast, ( I don’t know when it would be available).

    I am telling you this Leone, because you have an admirable skill in finding stuff on the internet. If you have time I would appreciate a link to it to listen to again.

    Reply

    • It looks like the podcast won’t be available until tomorrow.
      http://2smsupernetwork.com/audio-laws/

      Can’t get the podcast of yesterday’s show it to work on my PC, I think I am supposed to install iTunes, which I’m not going to do.

      I’ll keep an eye on Shorten’s tweets, he might have a link later on.

  36. Every day it becomes clearer – what this government wants is an underclass of slaves who will work for literally peanuts so the government’s wealthy mates can make bigger profits (and pay no tax).

    Now we have the Screeching Harridan telling those on Newstart they should accept work that pays less than the minimum wage, even thought that is against the rules. Needless to say she has the support of the usual shockjocks, who would never dream of lifting even a fingernail if they wren’t sure they would be handsomely paid for their effort.

    John Maycock for IA.
    Stop the hectoring tirades Sentaor Cash and fix the jobless problem.

    People cannot be forced to take a job that pays below minimum wages — the suggestion being that job agencies are sending clients to below minimum wage jobs and then sanctioning them for refusing (and here we can assume that the unemployed person in this position, once they inform Centrelink of the matter, have their payments re-instated as per the rules).

    However Mitchell took the position that the unemployed should take below minimum wage jobs and that if they were “fair dinkum” they would take what they could get and, no doubt, his listeners will see that as fair, especially considering the emotive language around the whole issue. But this begs the question: Does Cash believe that protections from state sanctioned slavery are loopholes?

    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/stop-the-hectoring-tirades-senator-cash-and-fix-the-jobless-problem,8883

    Reply

  38. Here’s some advice for Sco-Mo. not that he’s going to take it ….

    Want to get the economy moving, stimulate the retail sector, get things moving?Then don’t cut welfare payments, instead give them a boost.

    Back in 1992 Paul Keating wanted to create an economic stimulus. He did all the usual things governments do, fast-tracked infrastructure work, brought in new welfare payments, but as well as the longer-term things he wanted an immediate stimulus, he wanted to get some cash into the economy in a hurry. So instead of giving company tax cuts or business handouts (the usual Liberal fix) he decided that every family getting Family Allowance (formerly the old Child Endowment) would receive an immediate one-off payment. If I remember, it was $150. I received that payment. For a single mum on welfare it was a very welcome present, and of course I spent it right away on things the kids needed. Exactly what Keating had planned – give the mums of Australia a wad of cash and they will be off to the shops as soon as it lands in their bank accounts. Aim achieved.
    https://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/release/transcript-8421

    Kevin Rudd did the same thing during the GST. Everyone on welfare received a substantial one-off payment. I used mine to buy a new washing machine. That was followed a few months later by a one-off payment to taxpayers. The Labor-hating MSM went into melt-down, criticising these payments and digging up whining retirees who complained about not getting both, but these payments did the job, they got money flowing, retailers survived and partly due to these measures Australia came though the GST in good shape.

    Morrison should ‘grow the economy’ (he used that ridiculous phrase again this morning) by increasing the age pension and DSP substantially. Newstart needs a boost. Single parents trying to cope on Newstart could use some extra cash too. An increase in payments would mean the world to those on them, and the money would be spent, not socked away in the Caymans. Welfare increases could be paid for by making tax avoiding companies and squillionaires pay tax.

    It’s not going to happen, of course. It’s not Liberal slave-state friendly, the Liberals always kick the little people whenever they need a few more shekels in the Treasury piggy-bank, but maybe Labor might like to think about it.

    Reply

  40. Rupe supports Donald

    Donald Trump is a rookie candidate — a potential superstar of vast promise, but making rookie mistakes. The nominee Republicans need for the fall campaign is often hard to make out amid his improvisations and too-harsh replies to his critics.

    New Yorkers vote Tuesday. What to do?

    Here’s how we see it.

    Should he win the nomination, we expect Trump to pivot — not just on the issues, but in his manner. The post-pivot Trump needs to be more presidential: better informed on policy, more self-disciplined and less thin-skinned.

    http://nypost.com/2016/04/14/the-post-endorses-donald-trump/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

    Reply

  43. I thought it was a crime to pay less than minimum wage in this country Cash? Against the law. #auspol

    Reply

  44. Leone

    Thanks.

    Just found out Craig Emerson and John Hewson are on NewsRadio every Friday at 9.45am. It will good to listen to Emmo again.

    Reply

  48. Are there any more plots this lot can lose?

    Treasurer Scott Morrison is moving to assure voters the May budget will not increase the overall tax take, while a senior cabinet colleague is personally endorsing an increase in the tax on cigarettes.

    Yesterday, the Government’s economic team gave the strongest indication yet that some taxes would rise in the May budget.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-15/scott-morrison-moves-to-assure-voters-of-budget-tax-plan/7329064

    Reply

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