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THE PUB 
And Their ABC is salivating as well.
Conroy –
There were times I could have belted him around the ears with my walking stick but he redeemed himself in my eyes with his staunch support for Julia Gillard and I cheered when he joined the throng who refused to serve in a Krudd ministry.
I’m not surprised to see him suddenly resign. He was never really a Shorten man, despite all the flowery words today. There has been some chit-chat today says he was not happy with Shorten giving him the Special Minister of State portfolio when he really, really wanted Defence. If that’s true then I’m glad Shorten didn’t give him that portfolio, I think Conroy might have been a disaster there.
I’m happy to accept the ‘I want to spend ore time with my daughter’ excuse, he has only one daughter and if he wants to coach her in soccer moves then good luck to both of them. But couldn’t he have come up with that excuse before the election? That he didn’t lends weight to the ‘going off in a huff’ gossip. It really does seem he waited to see what Shorten would give him and when that offer wasn’t good enough he decided to jump ship.
Labor will find new blood to take his place and pretty soon Conroy will be forgotten by political commentators. He will take up his new, well-paid corporate position (it had better not be with a company associated with mining or CSG) and he’ll be OK. His wife and daughter might get to spend a bit more time with him if the demands of his new job allow that.
Shorten won’t be too worried. It’s not a disaster for Labor, despite what the MSM would have us believe.
The ABC and Murpharoo can salivate all they like, it’s just a welcome distraction for them. It gives them something to talk about other than the idiotic behaviour of Turnbull and his dodgy election promise-keeping. Anything will do as an excuse to avoid talking about that.
Could it be all the things that happened when he sought another term. Such as the police raids, especially in late hours of the night. With senate hearings and ongoing police actions why would one want to stay.
Government put police on him for little more than doing his jobs. The public are entitled to the documents.
Suspect is spur of the moment decision, as he said.
Personally I believe all should serve limited term. 20 years is more than enough,
As Albo said, it is no ones business.
While in Tassie I visited SeaHorseWorld in Beauty Point. We saw seahorses!
Think my greatniece loves seahorses:
I arrived home last Saturday dog tired and caught a bad cold, just recovering now.
Next door in Monotreme World she got quite close to some echidnas:
Heh, before the tour guide could say not to pet them Milly had petted one 🙂
At least Conroy has go Dastyari off the front page.
If that was the hr plan, well played Conroy.
Staff at National Gallery of Australia told their jobs won’t exist on Monday
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/staff-at-national-gallery-of-australia-told-their-jobs-wont-exist-on-monday-20160916-gri6ns.html
A rather haunting piece..
jaycee423
Never got to see that show so did not realise that was where that came from. Thanks.
I came across this cover of one of my favourite songs this week, and I don’t seem to feel any other than positive emotions from it.
Ugh. Well, hopefully they’ll celebrate instead with this golden number.
On another tangent, I heard a little of Hanson’s speech in the senate, and ye gods, she sounds like a complete wreck. Almost every syllable she uttered sounded like she was being electrocuted as she was speaking.
Well, I hardly imagine she’d last very long as a force in the senate at this rate. But on the whole, I’d like to see the back of Malcolm Roberts before Hanson, mainly because Roberts unlike Hanson seems to take himself seriously, and screeches about “empirical evidence” when his definition of “empirical” seems to be “LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU BECAUSE MY FINGERS ARE IN MY EARS LA LA LA LA”. Not to say Hanson is any better than that, but with Roberts’ absolutely weird phase with his Citizens rebellion about the carbon tax makes me realize he’s just a complete loony.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers. Plenty to get your teeth into today.
Hartcher writes a long article about mandates. The trouble is there is no such thing in the constitution.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/malcolm-turnbull-does-he-have-a-mandate-20160916-gri1s2.html
Bill Shorten says that Trump is not the problem. Rather it’s that a lot of Americans believe he’s the solution.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bill-shorten-on-donald-trump-hes-not-the-problem-20160916-grifmx.html
Laurie Oakes calls out Turnbull’s hypocrisy over the plebiscite. Google.
/news/opinion/laurie-oakes/laurie-oakes-if-plebiscite-good-for-samesex-marriage-why-not-in-other-areas/news-story/d10b756da6fb9ed14f7297de2a8a7837
Jacqui Maley on why Pauline Hanson is an intellectually lazy pest as she contrasts her maiden speech with Julian Leeser’s. Well worth reading,
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bill-shorten-on-donald-trump-hes-not-the-problem-20160916-grifmx.html
Paul Bongiorno on repairs to the budget omnibus. In the article too, he explains the “mandate”. And Barnaby Joyce got tossed under the bus.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2016/09/17/running-repairs-the-budget-omnibus/14740344003737
Katherine Murphy looks at the last week in parliament.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/16/stranger-things-in-parliament-this-week-with-varying-doses-of-reality
Paula Matthewson writes that the conservatives in his party have delivered him an unhappy anniversary.
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2016/09/16/turnbull-conservative-anniversary/
Turnbull’s biographer turns on the PM n a big way.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2016/09/17/malcolm-turnbulls-biographer-turns-the-pm/14740344003733
And worse and worse it gets for Clive Palmer.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/clive-palmer-chirpy-before-another-queensland-nickel-grilling-20160916-grhmgx.html
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/16/queensland-nickel-clive-palmer-says-500000-loan-an-incentive-to-stay-in-townsville
Section 2 . . .
Michael Gordon goes into the dark side of our border protection policy and practices.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australias-forgotten-detention-centre-the-peculiar-torture-of-christmas-islands-asylum-seekers-locked-up-with-hardened-criminals-20160916-grhlx7.html
Karen Middleton looks into a blistering audit of Transfield’s offshore processing contract farce. It’s a shocker.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/immigration/2016/09/17/transfields-11b-offshore-processing-contract-farce/14740344003749
Ross Gittins wonders if the power of “king coal” is overstated.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/is-the-power-of-king-coal-overstated-20160916-grhpqf.html
Adele Ferguson on the misconduct of financial institutions in general. And they do so with comparative impunity.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/financial-misconduct-costs-a-fortune-20160916-grhp8g.html
Labor says there is a foul stench over how the government put together the bank hearing and its dates.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/16/labor-says-coalition-gave-special-treatment-to-banks-when-setting-hearing-dates
Investigative journalist Michael West on how Macquarie Bank rooked the US.
http://www.michaelwest.com.au/how-macbank-rooked-the-us-government/
Evan Jones on what makes Morrison tick.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/hey-scomo—banana-republic-here-we-come,9477
Our climate policy’s house of cards.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/climate-policys-house-of-cards-20160916-grhyl5.html
Joanne McCarthy, the Newcastle Herald writer who Commissioner Peter McLellan singled out for praise, muses over how it all started.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/shine-the-light-this-christmas-and-into-the-darkness-that-still-haunts-adults-20160916-grhsbo.html
Richard Willingham on Conroy’s adlournment..
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/stephen-conroy-quietly-adjourns-political-career-for-expected-business-role-20160916-gri69n.html
Section 3 . . .
Tony Wright also writes on Stephen Conroy’s departure.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/senator-stephen-conroy-the-labor-rights-man-of-political-intrigue-20160916-grhsia.html
Michelle Grattan adds Halton’s to Conroy’s departure in this article.
https://theconversation.com/the-strange-case-of-stephen-conroys-invisible-resignation-65574
The plebiscite problem all boils down to politics.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-plebiscite-problem-20160914-grfxa1.html
Mike Seccombe – the battlelines are drawn over the plebiscite.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2016/09/17/battlelines-drawn-same-sex-marriage-plebiscite/14740344003747
And Turnbull is “open to compromise” over the plebiscite. Be aware I say.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-open-to-compromise-on-samesex-marriage-plebiscite-20160915-grhlf1.html
One Nation pits Australian against Australians. That’s no way to make it one nation.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/ms-hanson-how-can-we-be-one-nation-if-you-pit-australian-against-australian,9479
House prices are running away again.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-house-price-souffle-is-rising-again-20160916-grht56.html
Trump FINALLY admits Obama was born in the USA.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/us-election/donald-trump-finally-admits-barack-obama-was-born-in-the-united-states-20160916-grifwo.html
Bill Clinton destroys Trump in one sentence.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/09/16/bill-clinton-destroys-donald-trump-in-one-sentence-on-daily-sho/?utm_hp_ref=au-homepage
The reactions of this 9 year old girl to Obama and Trump says it all.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/little-miss-flint-trump?utm_term=.qberdZzvR#.hkNokgD1B
Section 4 . . . Cartoon Corner Pt 1
Ron Tandberg on Conroy’s departure.
How good is this David Rowe effort! Not to mention sickening.
Trump’s health results.
Cathy Wilcox has worked out One Nation.
Ron Tandberg’s view of “the mandate”.
Paul Zanetti on the Greens’ senate walk out.
Section 5 . . . Cartoon Corner Pt 2
Sean Leahy on Turnbull’s handling of the right wing rump.
And more on the subject from Peter Broelman.
David Pope joins the fray.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/act-news/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0
And also Bill Leak.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/c576dacb1ab99c21eb249238e3dcca82
Mark Knight with a homecoming or Stephen Conroy.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/cccf6866fea5b922a5e6e562b38a4eb8?width=1024
Good morning everyone!
There’s a fog spread out over the Mallee today ,
Out over Oliver’s fields.
From the trees in the east to Schwertzy’s Swamp,
I wonder it will ever yield.
It spread from the Bulldog Run to The Sleeper Track I see,
It’s thick, it’s dense and from my fence
It’s as far as the eye can see.
There’s a fog spread out over the Mallee today
That’s fresh and moist and clean.
It’s moving over field and track,
Swallowing the scrub between.
It makes one breathe deep the day ,
It makes one bright, awake and keen,
To greet the new day dawning in the Mallee evergreen.
You must have got permission to wear those tracky daks!
Jacqueline Maley writes about ‘maiden’ speeches.
She really needs to keep up.
We don’t have ‘maiden’ speeches these days, we have first speeches.I’d expect a political journalist to be aware of basic facts like that one. It’s not a new thing, the term ‘first speech’ has been used officially for a few years now.
She’s not alone – just about every journalist and news broadcast is making this mistake. It’s sheer laziness, no-one can be bothered keeping up with changes.
George Christensen shows some unusual perception here –
Here’s a thought..:
The Final Solution : The LNP. and democracy.
The answer to that pesky problem of Democratic Governance by Bureaucracy for John Howard floated serenely over the Australian horizon with the arrival of the Tampa with a number of refugees rescued on board..who immediately morphed into “illegal arrivals” and were dealt with by sending a detachment of SAS. Military to take control of the situation.
With that one svelte move, John Howard had crossed many international treaty lines, many democratic ideals and usurped both bureaucratic and military convention and took Australia momentarily by his unilateral decision to use the military for a domestic political solution, to a “Military Monarchy”…With himself as “head of State.”
This was no small moment in Aust’ history…no shrug of sleeper awakening..this was THE clue, sought by the conservative side of Aust’ politics since Menzies left for his “adopted home” on English soil to admire that ; “…butt that did pass him by…” This action, pragmatically unchallenged by any constitution or military legality, gave conservatism the “physical” clout that would guide their hand in many future decisions both domestic and abroad.
But it was only a temporary incursion into military monarchy, the conservative mindset from Turnbull / Abbott to Howard to Fraser is not one to usurp REAL regal power..that is why it is always a “forelock tugger” to Buckingham Palace before it would take a major step like domestic treason. It is why Fraser would “consult” the Governor General before acting a coup..something Whitlam and subsequent Labor govts’ would not consider in their wildest frolics on the lawns of The Lodge.
“ Impracticableness of the Ideals.
However much of the ideal of his party and of his youth–
to found a Periclean government in Rome not by virtue of the sword,
but by virtue of the confidence of the nation–Caesar had been obliged
to abandon this in the struggle with realities, he retained even now
the fundamental idea–of not founding a military monarchy–
with an energy to which history scarcely supplies a parallel.
Certainly this too was an impracticable ideal–it was the sole illusion,in regard to which the earnest longing of that vigorous mind
was more powerful than its clear judgment. A government, such as Caesar had in view, was not merely of necessity in its nature highly personal, and so liable to perish with the death of its author just as
the kindred creations of Pericles and Cromwell with the death
of their founders; but, amidst the deeply disorganized state
of the nation, it was not at all credible that the eighth “king of Rome” would succeed even for his lifetime in ruling, as his seven predecessors had ruled…”
One could never imagine Julia Gillard usurping military right to enforce domestic policy as has the LNP. SHE governwed with democratic bureaucracy, and governed very successfully. Unlike the LNP.leadership with it’s quasi military “Borderforce” and the now affiliated “AFP” and “Asio”. Tony Abbot was very keen to talk about a “Guided Democracy”..the idea of himself as head of state in such would see a new type of Military Monarchy that would fulfill his adoration of monarch with his love of martial rule. If such a order of governance could have been put in place..and we have to concede that there was work being done to allow more power..MUCH MORE POWER (witness the Flinders Street Border Force “stop and search” day in Melbourne recently) to those arms of martial authority, then coupled with the meta data surveillance by Brandis and the placement of IPA. apparatchiks in the Senate and retired military personnel in places of authority, the scenario is set for all the makings of a new “Guided Democracy” that satisfies both the conservative love of Monarchy and demand for “Born To Rule” power.
There is a danger with installing a military flavour into a democratic government that can have far reaching consequences for the future of a nation..:
“…the standing army–after it had during the last civil war
learned its power and unlearned its reverence–once more
as a subservient element in civil society. To any one who calmly
considered to what extent reverence for the law had disappeared
from the lowest as from the highest ranks of society, the former hope
must have seemed almost a dream; and, if with the Marian reform
of the military system the soldier generally had ceased
to be a citizen,the Campanian mutiny and the battle-field
of Thapsus showed with painful clearness the nature of the support
which the army now lent to the law. Even the great democrat himself
could only with difficulty and imperfectly hold in check the powers
which he had unchained; thousands of swords still at his signal
flew from the scabbard, but they were no longer equally ready
upon that signal to return to the sheath. Fate is mightier than genius.”
And THIS is the eternal flaw in far-sighted policy of the right-wing..as prepared as they are to unleash reprimand and admonishment upon a peoples, they then do not have the power to pull back in check those vicious implements they gave licence to enforce such demands..History lends evidence to the result.
John Howard’s “final Solution” to his confected “illegal immigrant crisis” has laid the ground-work for a desired form of governance that stands ready in the darkened shadows of democracy, neither total dictatorship nor tyranny, but certainly a blunt-instrument toward the Abbott (and one would suspect many others)ideal of a “guided democracy” with a “selected” Head of State.
“Caesar desired to become the restorer of the civil commonwealth,
and instead became the founder of the military monarchy which he abhorred; he overthrew the regime of aristocrats and bankers in the state,
only to put a military regime in their place, and the commonwealth
continued as before to be tyrannized and worked for profit
by a privileged minority.”…(All quotes taken from ; Mommsen ; “History of Rome” )
Go the Doggies. 🙂 🙂 Unfortunately grandson says they won’t have a chance against the GWS, but to beat the three time Premiers, they’ve excelled this year.
Jason
If you are around, if the Doggies and Cats do happen to meet in the GF, you and I will be in conflict. Our Cats have had a good run, time for the Doggies, they haven’t had a flag since 1954, so although my heart is always with the Cats, I will be backing the Dogs this year.
Hi 2gravel,
I think we’ll both be safe on grand final day as the dogs won’t be there 🙂
Go you Cats.
And go you $13 for the premiership taken back in February.
Jason
We will know next week. 🙂 Hope all is well with you. 🙂
A friend of mine that I posted about here yesterday donates $100,000’s to the Western Bulldogs.
THAT, early’ has to be considered as a “charitable donation” most worthy of the name if not capable of the intent to which in spirit it was given!
He also has other examples of largesse I don’t agree with.
Experience has taught me never to give to sporting clubs.
Though I have to suspect, early’ , that it is with a less grudging hand you “donate” to some bookies 🙂
kk – The ‘take me to your leader’ Prior is a classic.
I have to admit that I’m not normally a follower of football – it being a little peeve I have with this country about people valuing sports over other things that make a country productive such as science and industry. (I was particularly annoyed to learn that the biggest course at Federation University is of course Sport related while the Science courses are getting trimmed down).
However, in my teenage years I picked the Doggies as the team to follow whenever people asked. And, admittedly, seeing them beat Hawthorn, I feel pretty good about that. Hopefully they’ll go to the top this year.
Back in the early 70s, a great columnist of Nation Review, John Hepworth, revealed how he coped with the monoculture of Australian Rules football in Melbourne.
The problem for Heppy was that every conversation anywhere always had to include football. New acquaintances would invariably commence with “which team to you barrack for?”. He worked out a perfect response to that question almost by accident, perhaps to do with where he resided at the time. He’d respond with “South Melbourne”, which usually led to a smiling pat on the head and a quick shift in the conversation. South (now defunct, or reincarnated as Sydney) were always at or near the bottom of the ladder with no prospects of improvement. Heppy soon realized what a boon this was for getting conversation going on something interesting and became well-practised in it.
To his dismay, however, South Melbourne at that time of writing had broken all the rules and actually made the finals! I think they might have even won their first semifinal. Heppy was thinking he’d have to come up with a new way of shifting the conversation.
You may be placed in a similar position today with the Bulldogs, Kirsdarke. They have defied the odds with very limited funds by building up community relations and developing youth. You may have to talk football if they keep it up. The positive side is that JG is a fan.
I knocked around at times with the amazing 1960’s South Melbourne coach, Alan Thomas Miller. A Port Melbourne larrikin who also wrote poetry and attended the opera.
GeorgousD – Alan and other South Melbourne devotee’s were highly regarded for other reasons if you were in the know!
Keith Miller, Lindsay Hasset, Frank Galbally, politicians, olympians, tycoons etc were frequent lunch companions.
Alan like Julia Gilliard was disliked by the media even though Alan was a regular on World of Sport etc. He established his own commercial radio station 3MP in the 1970’s.
Bob Hawke was also a South Melbourne fan. As PM down the track, he was quite happy to let the confusion about his surname and Hawthorne’s 80s successes (especially as he was there as PM to present the cup) to give the illusion he was a Hawk man. Later he did transition to Sydney which in a way was legitimate since he’d been a Swan both with WA and with South Melbourne. Another Sandgroper also important for Sydney’s rise was Mike Willissee, who might’ve even played a few games for South in his very early days.
Thanks for the information on Alan Thomas Miller, earlyopener. He sounds like an interesting, almost Renaissance, type of character. I’ll have to look him up. I guess he would’ve been Bobby Skilton’s coach if he was there in the 60s.
Bobby Skilton was mentored and coached by Alan. Alan even did Skilton’s tax return.
Graham John was another and he later headed Aussie Post.
Alan was inter alia an accountant and would do the tax returns pro bono for many wharfies. He told me he could do 200 returns at home on a Sunday afternoon.
Alan also took me once to visit Dame Elizabeth Murdoch at Cruden Farm for morning tea.
I’m off to the races.
RIP Edward Albee. A major US playwright of the 20th century.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/16/edward-albee-dies-playwright-whos-afraid-virginia-woolf
gorgeousdunny
My grandsons are responsible for my interest in afl. I have learned a lot over the last five years. Having been forced to watch it on tv and having to be able to talk footy (and cricket, and one is starting to keen on soccer!) with them otherwise there is not much conversation.
Our local club is the Doggies, so that explains my veering away from the Cats, at least this year. If they get the flag this year I will be happy and go back to full allegiance to the Cats. 🙂
Gorgeous Dunny,
As several Pubsters have observed, this is a horror year for departures of too many magnificent, creative people.
Gigilene
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was in my opinion Taylor’s and Burton’s best work ever.
In an acting sense, you could very well be correct, Fiona..but their several marriages did deliver public displays in themselves of dramatic display worthy of several Oscars!
You could be right. They both expressed raw emotions such as anger, fear, worry, jealousy extremely skillfully.
Yet my favourite Liz movie will always be “Giant”. She played each age extremely well. And so did Rock.
While we are on about football and such things.here is a little diversion..I had to censor some parts in consideration to those here who are of a “genteel nature”..
Silly me!!..
The “Tank Sisters”.
The Tank Sisters were a couple of voluminous and weighty ladies (not related in any family sense) that hung around the front bar of the Seacliff Hotel..why, was anyone’s guess..as there was little prospect of linking up with any respectable males in that establishment..at least not this side of sobriety..which, of course led to this little tale.
Overheard conversations of lurid desires between the two ladies had been reported at different times, but the reproduction of those intimate details is best left to more scurrilous publications.. sufficient to relate that the general complaint between them was that if they didn’t get some sexual satisfaction soon (they didn’t say it QUITE like that!) , “It would heal up”…whatever the “It” was.
There were rumours that Little Johnny, the SP. (starting price) bookie was running a tote on which of the ladies would absorb a bar-stool first…such was the broad beam of their backsides!
My old mate , Mark..you have heard me mention him in that story of ; “To the Lighthouse”..well, Mark had a Saturday morning routine he would rarely swerve from, and that involved getting to the front-bar of the Seacliff Hotel just at opening time, claiming his favourite spot at the bar with an uninterrupted view of the television set to watch the days footy, open his copy of the Saturday paper at the horse racing page and settle in to a good days exercise.
This morning, rather than being the first to the bar, he had to share his place with Tim the plumber….who, Mark noticed was sitting sombre mood, slouched, arms crossed on the bar encompassing a pint of beer…further, Tim appeared to be in some kind of trance, staring at the rising bubbles in the amber fluid.
“G’day Tim..” Mark greeted “How’s it going?”
“Huruumph!..effing’ shithouse!” Tim growled out the corner of his mouth.
“Why..what’s the matter?” Mark inquired as he snapped open his paper.
“Well, I got pissed last night, didn’t I ?” Tim took a long draught of the’hair of the dog’.
“So..” Mark shrugged “You get pissed every Friday night”.
“Yeah, well..” here, Tim tossed and fiddled with the coins on the bar-mat…he finally confessed ; “..I..I woke up this morning , at about one o’clock , on the beach , with one of the Tank Sisters hanging off my dxxk !”
Mark lowered the paper down , turned his head slowly toward Tim, wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the seriousness of the situation.
“JeEEzus, mate!…wadidyado ?…”
At this moment of reflection, Tim gave one of those involuntary spasm jerks of the arm..making his beer spill a tad.
“ Dammit!..waddya think I did ?! ” he angrily spat..
Now, neither Mark , nor anyone else of that front-bar clientele has ever inquired to Tim for the answer to that question….nobody wanted to know…
The thought of georgie porgie shooting the breeze is a little too much, even in the middle of the day.
I’m pretty glad that Jacqui Lambie is still a senator. Yes, she can be pretty stupid sometimes, but at other times her heart’s in the right spot, unlike with a lot of other senators. She knows who the bad guys are in this parliament.
As for the rest of the newcomers, I’d gladly trade Malcolm Roberts for Glen Lazarus and Derryn Hinch for Ricky Muir any day.
Kirsdarke
Yep.
Don’t you just love banksia roses:
Another three weeks for them to bloom in our yard.
Why?
Hopefully one day soon the lot of them will be in the dock at The Hague for crimes against humanity.
Gruppenführer Potato and the Good Girl are there as minders. . Truffles is there so the adoring press can report how he shone overseas and has his mojo back has renewed confidence etc etc etc.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/17/western-australia-minister-quits-says-government-has-lost-its-way
Tomorrow night we’ll be watching or, in my case, not a war criminal in his dotage dribbling about someone many think was a traitor.
I think it’ll be more than a hagiography: it’ll be an attempt by Minitrue, aka The ABC, to erase some inconvenient truths from history. Maybe he didn’t say those nice things about the German chancellor or maybe those nice Japanese didn’t use that “pig-iron” to manufacture ordnance to be used against Australians. We’ll see.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-17/wa-govt-mister-tony-simpson-to-resign/7854928
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/32640088/irons-in-the-fire-after-mp-charges-for-golf-trip/
http://www.watoday.com.au/good-weekend/scientology-and-the-kidmancruise-split-20160905-gr928n.html off topic a bit, but Steve’s book looks good
http://tonyortega.org/2016/09/12/steve-cannanes-oz-flavored-scientology-history-fair-game-gets-a-uk-us-canada-publisher/
In a quiet moment, thinking about tax returns, my mind goes back to the mid sixties.
One weekend a young bloke then aged about 18 or 19 turned up at the house to ask Dad for a job. Dad already had a couple of blokes working for him on the farm and so was not very interested. Mum looked out the window and saw who it was and apparently guessed what the conversation was about. She went outside and over to the stockyards and called Dad aside. She knew the young bloke, Ned who had lost his mother when aged about five and was left to the care of his father Phonse, a rough and tough illiterate bushman and rouseabout of the district. Young Ned was married to 16 year old Meg, and had one child with another on the way. They were eventually to have six all up.Ned had had minimal education but had been working alongside his father since he was very young. Mum suggested Ned be given a couple of weeks work to tide him and his family over until he could find something else.He started on the Monday and left six years later of his own volition to work for a trotting trainer down in the Riverina.
A year or two after Ned started work at home, he mentioned that he was worried that the Tax Man might be after him as he had never submitted a return. Mum and Dad told him the best thing to do would be to submit as much of the missing returns as he could find records for as that would get the Tax Man off his back. The next weekend he brought a couple of ragged bundles of papers to the house and left them with Dad. Dad and his cousin, an accountant, sorted through them and bodgied up about four years worth of tax returns. Lo and behold, a few weeks later Ned reported that he had a cheque back from the ATO and handed it over. It was worth over 100 Pounds, and everybody was sure that Ned had never had that much money at once, ever. He and Meg were ecstatic, and thought Dad was just the greatest financial wizard of all time.
Every end of financial year thereafter Ned would ask Dad to help him do his tax return, and always the same pantomine would play out. Dad would go to Ned and Megs home at the appointed time to be greeted by Meg who would invite him in and sit him down to a cup of tea. Then she would tell him that Ned was somewhere close by doing something or other so they should enjoy their tea and wait. After the tea had been drunk Meg would suggest that they get started on the return and that Ned was sure to be back soon. So they would do the return which was a pretty basic one, and when completed Meg would offer another cuppa. Whilst making it she must have made some signal or other because as the cuppa arrived at the table, so would Ned appear from wherever he had been. Both Ned and Meg were embarrassed that Ned was unable to read or write, and Meg was not that good at it either.
Dad had somehow always known that Ned was illiterate and was always careful to not give him a job which required reading or writing down anything, such as tallies of stock. I think Ned believed to his dying days that he had kept hidden his problem from Mum and Dad and all the neighbours.
I went to Neds funeral last year, and was greeted by Meg, now into her seventies like a long lost son. She was so pleased that despite them having left our district over fifty years ago we still remembered them.
Wow 8 Likes – record!
What about the guy that raised inter alia the subject of tax returns?
What I was told it was also not easy to do 200 individual signatures on a single day by the same accountant for wage earners living in the same area with basically similar details and claims.
Left hand, backhand, standing on one’s head options soon run out.
What are you trying to say, early’o?
Doesn’t matter as all witnesses are now dead jaycee
I don’t know why it is , early’..but I find your brief, succinct “revelations” more thrilling than a plethora “bright ideas”…but I do wonder just who you are in “real” life?
Earlyopener
I don’t know what bought this subject up but I was once in a job where once a week I’d sign about 250 cheques.
Totally destroyed my normal signature.
Ok, I’ve just had a read of Hartcher’s ‘mandate’ article (BK’s first link this morning). Quite aside from the observation that it is a stupid piece that deliberately confuses the way in which Parliament works with some idea that any elected government can do whatever it wants no matter what the Senate has to say about it, it misunderstands a fundamental element of the ‘plebiscite mandate’ Turnbull is claiming:
Assume for a moment that a ‘mandate’ is a legitimate claim. For the sake of argument. If so, an elected government has a ‘mandate’ to deliver a policy outcome, not to construct a mechanism. A mechanism – a plebiscite, for instance, is simply a way to deliver the policy that you promise. And nobody particularly cares what the mechanism is, as long as it works. If a PM decides to utilise an unpopular and ineffective means to deliver that policy, that must reflect badly on that PM. Particularly when an easier and more effective means is readily available.
Turnbull has neither promised to deliver SSM nor to block SSM. Therefore he has no ‘mandate’ either way. He can’t claim one. And he can’t claim to be a progressive PM, one in favour of SSM, if he refuses the obvious pathway to enabling it.
Put simply, there is no such thing as a mandate to complicate a policy outcome. There is only a mandate to deliver that policy outcome.
If plebiscites continue to be used to avoid elected representatives having to make direct votes the the Remuneration Tribunal should consider reducing their pay.