Urbanwronski continues his clinical evisceration of Fizza’s Wunderkinder Turnbull’s ‘gummint’. Many thanks as always, sir.
In a death-defying acrobatic routine in Canberra this week, the nation’s lame duck PM performs an astonishing back-flip on the high-wire without a safety net in a Coalition Circus show-stopper before a three week break in the slow trick bicycle race that is the 45th Parliament. Pantomime legend, funny money man Treasurer Scott Morrison kids audiences along that his government is not breaking an election promise.
Breaking Turnbull’s “absolutely iron-clad campaign pledge” on superannuation law changes to suit the top one per cent at the expense of poorer retirees is just responsible government. It mirrors Tony Abbott’s “good government” which honoured his promise of no changes to health and education by delivering cuts of $80 billion after a landslide victory.
Its super backdown competes with news this week of Morrison’s failure as Minister for Immigration to notice a contractor add $1.1 billion to its tender to run the gulag on Nauru and Manus when his department suspended public service tender rules in face of our imminent invasion by waves of dole-bludging job-stealing, illiterate immigrants, as Peter Dutton loves to remind us. A confected emergency is ScoMo’s normal operating environment.
“…When you’re in government you have to solve problems, you have to work issues and you’ve got to get to conclusions and that’s what we’ve done today…” explains the Ming dynasty worthy Morrison who demolishes other considerations such as principle, honesty and integrity with effortless ease and more than a dash of self-parody. No-one mentions the massive problem his PM’s double whatsit created in the senate, Manus Island, his NBN or the four banks who hold the country to ransom under government protection. Arch pragmatist Robert Menzies would be proud.
News of Turnbull’s astonishing stunt, naturally earns thunderous applause from high income earners and is the finale to a four day extravaganza which includes omnibus billing, more flogging of dead horse Dastyari, the plebiscite dance marathon and the mother of all fool’s errands, a race to praise Malcolm’s first year as PM.
Not to be outbid in the absurdity stakes, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton pledges to take Australia’s “good UN story” on refugees to the UN next Monday. He recycles the canard that we lead the world in refugee resettlement reprising the old lie that Australia takes the most refugees per capita of any country in the world, so favoured by his idol Tony Abbott.
The lie misrepresents our role in the UNHCR resettlement programme, which takes only 1% of the world’s estimated fifteen million refugees, as evidence that we lead the world in resettling all refugees. It wilfully obscures the 1577, including children, we currently imprison indefinitely in detention centres including on Christmas Island, and the 1296 incarcerated on Nauru and Manus Island. Worse, Dutton’s lie implies that these are not genuine refugees.
“We don’t just provide a refuge, we guide people into a new life; a safe, healthy and hopefully a happy life, ” Dutton boasts in The Australian. “Our humanitarian programmes have helped tens of thousands.” The two thousand incidents of abuse exposed in The Guardian’s recent release of reports by officials on Nauru clearly don’t count.
Nor do those 30 asylum seekers Dutton has put on Christmas Island to enjoy the company of 200 of what the Border Supremo calls “some of the country’s most hardened criminals” at the discretion of the Minister who applies his character test. Two Brigidine sisters report not happiness but fear and despair on the island. “What we witnessed was a group of men utterly without hope, almost all of them broken human beings,” they tell Fairfax Media this week.
Our cruelty is not only wrong it is expensive. This week sees both a Save the Children and a UNICEF report reveal off-shore detention has cost us $9.6 billion since 2013 – more than the UNHCR’s total global budget for programs this year. The reports coincide with an Audit Office report that puts the cost per detainee at $1570 per day or enough to put each asylum-seeker up in a Hyatt hotel and pay them the pension fifteen times over, calculates Fairfax’s Peter Martin.
The Audit Office report shows that not only did the Coalition government breach public service tender guidelines, it created a false sense of emergency to allow it to dispense with proper procedures permitting the successful contractor to add an extra $1.1 billion to its bid without facing any counter-bid. The department of Immigration kept this additional premium secret from then Immigration Minister Scott Morrison who was also not told of the price per head.
Also kept secret is Malcolm Turnbull’s own donation to his party campaign war chest made in the second half of the eight week election campaign although he has volunteered that he chipped in $2 million rather than the $1 million originally reported. It is still a good investment should he last three years. Turnbull is the only PM in Australian political history to have bought his own mandate but, oddly, no-one brings this up as his greatest achievement.
Indeed, Coalition MPs appear challenged to find any achievement at all to mark The PM’s first year in office. Most instead settle on competing to tell the most outrageous lie while an oleaginous Josh Frydenberg admits his boss has been “a good friend of mine” before praising him as ” a very successful Prime Minister.”
A rising conga line of suck-holes is utterly upstaged, however, by George Brandis, a toad in pinstripes, who puffs his pal Malcolm into the equal of Sir Robert “and the great John Howard;” “one of the great Australian prime ministers”, praise so nauseatingly unwarranted, so patently untrue that even Howard The Great must set the sycophant straight.
“I think those sort of comparisons at this stage in Malcolm’s career are a bit unfair and premature,” Howard tells ABC radio. Fresh from recording his own two part ABC hagiography on his idol and fellow philistine, Pig Iron Bob, helpfully scheduled this Sunday, Howard is quick to cut Turnbull off at the knees. “The most immediate thing he can do in emulating Menzies is to successfully go to an election with a majority of only one and increase his majority.”
Ouch!. No matter how bad it gets Malcolm is still the leader, team player George Christensen ventures helpfully.
Others outside the parliamentary party also see Turnbull as a fizza. A D+ is awarded by 50 business leaders, former Liberal politicians, academics, economists, administrators, lawyers and lobbyists who grade the PM for the AFR Weekend. Turnbull has failed to translate our joyous excitement over his rolling of Abbott into any action at all. Nor has he hung on to that surge of popularity. Even Newspoll reports that what it coyly terms satisfaction levels with the Prime Minister are down six percentage points to 34 per cent since the July 2 election.
Yet there is no shortage of vacuous, self-interested puffery from Liberal MPs to inflate the PM’s party balloon this week.
“This Turnbull Coalition government has much to do and much to get on with — indeed, that is the business of government. We get on with it,” pronounces maiden Liberal Senator Jane Hume in a gesture of utter absurdity. As her 18th Century namesake David Hume advised, a wise woman proportions her belief to the evidence.
Senator Hume, a former bank manager who currently works for a superannuation fund, with absolutely no conflicts of interest, wins biggest whopper in a week of lies and desperate dissembling. The Coalition government has nothing to do and less to go on with. There is not even an agenda for the senate, Monday. Everything grinds to a halt forcing Liberal Senators to filibuster, fidget or even pedal backwards as they frantically try to stay in the saddle until Question Time.
Government senators pad out their speeches to twenty minutes to stretch things until Question Time. Bridget McKenzie back-handedly grabs a chance to call Nigel Scullion a “deep thinker” despite appearances and to praise a colleague from Tullarook but the National Senator can’t recall his name or place, “Andrew, it will come to me she says.” Party amnesiac, Arthur Sinodinos grins infectiously. George Brandis government leader in the senate is, once again, missing in action.
What follows is strangely edifying. Whilst having senators speak without prompt or preparation produces some of the most tedious, trivial if not excruciatingly inept speechifying in history, it also provides a privileged peek into a government upper house consciousness unsullied by thought, reflection or wretched talking point. In this space also, Pauline Hanson makes the second maiden speech of her career, calling for Muslims this time, to go back to where they came from. This is our country, our land our lifestyle, she says. “Take advantage of our freedom” and leave.
Greens senators stage a walkout yet Michaelia Cash embraces the One Nation leader to remind all of Turnbull’s one true legacy, a cross bench of misbegotten populist monsters. While One Nation owes its much of its revival to the PM’s double dissolution fiasco, its members also faithfully reflect the way the Liberal Party continues Howard’s tradition of gleefully dog-whistling up the bigoted, the racist and xenophobic amongst us to achieve its political agenda.
George Megalogenis in Australia’s Second Chance traces migrant bashing to 1840 when Horse Tray Yah was threatened by 4000 orphan girls, economic migrants seeking asylum from persecution and Ireland’s Great Famine. Since then it’s been the turn of other groups to be vilified and persecuted, as Annabel Crabb cheerily notes in The Age as if the idea that this too will pass may somehow comfort or compensate victims of state sanctioned abuse. Or right any wrong.
Helping any who may misread Ms Cash’s public embrace of Pauline Hanson, gorgeous George Christensen, Dawson Pauline-whisperer is quick to tell the Australian that Hanson’s views are “largely those of the Liberal Party rank and file.” It emerges that George arranged a cosy deal with Pauline not to stand a One Nation candidate against him in the last election. Julie Bishop also endorses former Liberal Hanson, cutely saying she does “not agree with all” of Pauline’s views.
Cory barnyard Bernardi is off to New York to observe the UN a body which he, too, along with One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts has called “unelected and unaccountable.” If Cory’s not in bed with One Nation, he’s smoking the same stuff.
Like One Nation Pokémon Malcolm Roberts, Bernardi fears we are “outsourcing aspects of our national sovereignty to unaccountable foreign organisations like the United Nations,” or the Chinese or else hordes of alien invaders from the planet Zorg. Bernardi will be right at home in New York where wacky is normal but surely he will need to be recalled when the party’s Turnbull experiment is blown up by Abbott’s marriage plebiscite time bomb.
Neither Bernardi nor Christensen will have to cross the floor, however, because the Labor party won’t play the game on a plebiscite which was less about seeking the will of the Australian people than about the rat cunning of a Tony Abbott desperate to defeat the do-gooders in his own party room. But what’s a broad church without a narrow, rigid and remote pontifex?
In the interim, national discourse is drowned by disingenuous drivel from right wingers who pretend that government funding to both sides is some sort of equaliser.
The same dangerous nonsense is buried in the clamour of Bernardi’s band wagon to repeal 18 C of the racial discrimination and vilification act and his crusade against safe schools. He and Leyonhjelm certainly know better although the less said about the rest of Turnbull’s freak show of a cross bench the better.
What matters is power. Funding those who already enjoy immense wealth and power is no way to promote anything but bullying and the more effective dissemmination of hate speech. Stripping away safeguards for the vulnerable, the disadvantaged and the marginalised in order to add further to the power of ruling classes is no way to achieve social harmony – or democracy. If only like the PM everyone were rich enough to fund their own campaign.
Luckily our PM has never been too shy to blow his own trumpet. Malcolm Bligh Turnbull has been quick this week to point out what an incredible asset he is to the nation with his genius for economic management. He takes full credit for rubbery figures suggesting business is booming. Like Arthur Sinodinos we must all put out of our minds all memory of the Reserve Bank lowering interest rates to boost a flagging economy or of wages flat-lining for three years at least. If we are not technically in recession we need to have a hard look at the way we measure it.
Our leaders want us to applaud the ABS. Crippled by funding cutbacks, a failure over its census, the ABS coughs up some dodgy figures about GDP being up just as it produces wildly erratic and unreliable unemployment statistics because it is pushed to report on what it can’t afford to count properly. More reliable is the news that a third of us now put off or avoid entirely going to the dentist because we can’t afford the cost.
Luckily birthday boy Malcolm Turnbull will take time out from his first anniversary and being bullied by Eric Abetz, George Christensen and other right-wing nutters who run his government to bask in the admiration of leaders overseas.
Turnbull will dazzle the world with his agile, innovative shtick, his economic trickle-down wizardry, his war on the poor and Australia’s abuse of asylum-seekers’ human rights. DIY two million dollar mandates from the one seat wonder from down under, will go over well, especially after his predecessor’s G20 talk on GP co-payments, his lecturing the UN about how sick we are of being lectured by the UN and his mad plans to invade Syria or to send Aussie troops into Ukraine.
It is Senator Jane Hume and her fatuous speech, however, who sets the week’s tone by exposing her government’s illegitimacy. Despite its overweening arrogance, triumphalism and braying inanity, the Turnbull government cannot disguise the fact that it has nothing to say. It is hopelessly and utterly seduced by the delusion that it is back on top where it belongs; all that it needs now is to talk itself into a government.
THE PUB 
Thanks Leone and gravel. I also saw the parallels to us in that interview.
Angrybee’s post about changes to the Tasmanian education system reminded me of something.
One of the aims of Gonski was to ensure this country had a uniform education system instead of the differences between the states we now have.
We’ve lost sight of that aim, just as we have lost so much more under this farce of a government.
We could have had a system where kids moving interstate picked up where they had left off in their old schools. Now we can’t have that – not until Labor gets back into government anyway. The sheer lunacy of the Tasmanian proposals shows us why we just can’t trust state governments with agendas to handle education in a decent way.
I suppose tonight’s news will be all Malcolm The Munificent.
Think I’ll give it a miss.
Wouldn’t this set the cat amongst the pidgeons.
It would have to be a lot sooner than 2050, and Penny would need to get a seat in the reps, but Bring It On!
2025? I’d like Bill Shorten to have two terms.
Sounds good to me.
Mad Mal did an interview on The Project tonight. It didn’t go well for him.
My dad used have a saying – ‘nutty as a fruitcake’. I think Mal is nuttier than a bakery full of pecan pies.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/09/21/malcolm-roberts-cant-explain-how-were-being-swamped-by-muslims/?utm_hp_ref=au-homepage&ncid=fcbklnkauhpmg00000001
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but what the heck is it about engineers that makes so many of them climate change sceptics?
Engineers are fussed on construction.
Destruction is what they build upon.
Geologists similar!
And they, of all specialists, should know better.
Hip pocket – links with mining and petroleum.
That connexion should immediately put roberts out of the field. Unfortunately, the meeja are not so clever/are suborned/are …. not … etc.
Ducky,
I’m not sure that applies to all branches of engineering. I’d be grateful for your further comments.
Can’t do: I know nowt about what they do; just the outcomes.
I have watched British police drama since Z-cars and Softly, softly
Lewis is the epitome.
Just watched “Falling Darkness”.
Ah Z-Cars. Never saw it but was very intrigued by the program. When I started school there were a couple in the class who were allowed to sit up rooly late (7.30pm) and watch it, or so they claimed. In the playground the slightly older kids always talked about Z-Cars the day after each episode. Poor wee me could only listen and wonder about the marvels I was missing out on 🙂
7Two serves a useful purpose in rerunning these various series. Many are classics and raise interesting human questions. Currently ABC-1 daytime is rerunning early The Bill episodes from the late 80s/early 90s. They stand up very well for the same reasons.
kk
For your edification –
I am now edified. That is the first footage I have seen of the program. Thanks.
Tested the memory with that one, but both were great series. Stratford Johns was brilliant as Inspector Barlow, later, Superintendent, Chief Superintendent and Chief Constable. The character was a first-class bastard and bully, ruthless and ambitious and he got results.
Goodnight.
Pō mārie Fiona
Speaking of great cats. Henri
The only Z-cars I remember growing up (Datsun 240Z et al.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_S30
Jaeger
Really good at rusting out in the rails under the doors.
A pristine 240Z or 260Z worth money these days.
Darwin adventures.
Potter….I shared a flat with Potter and a piss-wreck nick-named “Hopkirk” in Darwin in the seventies.
Potter’s first wife..: “Chic” had a horse agisted out at East Arm, Darwin which , as one has to do with horses, she attended and groomed and rode, much to the chagrin of Potter, who demanded a lot of attention.
As I said, I shared that flat with Potter and Hopkirk and would spend my weekends playing baseball or relaxing on the bed with a good book and mostly enjoying the peace and quiet when Hopkirk was down the “Koala Hotel” getting pissed and Potter was out marauding about somewhere..those “seventies!..they were the days..I must comment here that my incessant reading of books infuriated Potter, whose only perusal of literature was to read , for his own reassurance, the alcohol content listing on the label of a can of Vic-bitter ..Though one day in a moment of weakness, he did purchase from a persistent door-to-door salesman a whole set of Encyclopedia Britannica…for the sole purpose of it being just the right height to set near the 8-ball table so he could put his beloved “green-cans” (vic-bitt’) on them…sometimes he’d stop at my room door and shout in frustration :
“People die in bed you know!”
I confess that I used to order my books through an Adelaide bookshop to ship to Darwin..Those days, Darwin was not known as a capital of education and the perusal of anything literature was seen as suspect and perhaps even worthy of reporting to ASIO for possible communist activity!…Potter caught me one day reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s : “Ecce Homo” ( trans; “Here is the man”) , his autobiography…He went into a sullen sulk toward me for about a week until at last at the 8-ball table I demanded to know what was his gripe..?..He paused, stood loose limbed clutching his cue and with the most downcast look quietly asked of me..:
“That book you are reading..something Homo….is that about homosexuals and are YOU a homosexual?”
I rest my case just there about Potter’s political and social depth of knowledge.
Anyway, this one day I was at the flat by myself peacefully reading, when the door burst open and in came Potter and Chic accompanied by a cacophony of mutual accusation and abuse..
“You and that bloody horse!..” Potter was shouting…to which Chic put up a courageous and solid defence..and they stood there just outside but on opposite sides of the door to my room, arguing back and forth…I lay my book on my chest and watched as first one head protruded into the door frame space, shouted their point and then withdrew and the other would immediately intrude…back and forth , like some bizarre Punch and Judy show until…with a lengthy tirade from Potter on his demands from Chic for a successful relationship, his chiseled jaw jutting out and that Dennis Lillie moustache bristling aggressively… time froze that “frame” in that doorway for me forever!…because just as Potter had reached the zenith of his vocal eloquence, I saw Chic’s big brown leather (hand made w/ embossing and brass clasp) handbag, containing a multitude of heavy, wooden horse-brushes, commit a perfect parabolic curve to connect with Potter’s head in an act of physical and physic intensity (There must be an mathematical equation for this connection of ;a) descending force meets; b) immovable force..a sort of ; DF–IF = X ) equal to a king-hit from Muhammad Ali at his peak.
Potter went down like a screaming bag of shit!…Chic immediately rushed to their bedroom, Potter rose with an unsteady poise and regaining his intellect, immediately gave chase..I lay abed in weary but curious observation..moments similar to this had happened before..I could make out the movements of the protagonists by the screaming of Chic..: “He’s gonna kill me, he’s gonna kill me!” and the sound of mattress inner-spring as they leapt from one side of the room to the other…Chic got the better of the moment and fled through their door, right past mine with screaming fright and Potter not two steps behind…she lunged into the bathroom and just had time to slam the door on Potter’s face…literally…he became a tad more upset at this and proceeded to punch three holes through the bathroom door..”wham, wham, wham!”..
It was this activity which inspired me to take some action. I wearily arose from the bed, slipped on my thongs, excused myself past Potter still furiously “negotiating” through the door with his girlfriend to make my way, as I had so many times before, to the poster shop on Cavanaugh Street to purchase some more cute pictures of doggies or cats to place over yet more holes in doors or walls..I returned to the sound of the two lovers doing what they both did best after the release of these regular moments of “sexual tension” and vacated the flat for a few hours to seek the company of this crazy public servant at a known pub near by . Who would insist he was either (depending on the day) a secret agent (he’d have a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist) or John Wayne in disguise (he was about five foot five in height).
But we were young and carefree then and life was one big long-weekend.
Good morning Patrollers. We have another bumper edition today!
Massola on Chris Bowen’s blunt outlook on housing.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/chris-bowens-blunt-housing-crisis-prediction-20160920-grksfm.html
Demand for Sydney’s rail system is growing at 8% per year!
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-trains-rail-timetable-changed-to-handle-day-trippers-different-working-hours-20160921-grkzog.html
Oh oh! Liberal Leadershit polling has begun.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/polling-shows-tony-abbott-julie-bishop-more-popular-than-malcolm-turnbull-in-byelection-seat-20160920-grksfr.html
Andrew Street cuts to the chase about our modern multiculturalism and border protection in the wake of Turnbull’s speech in the US.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/australia-finally-ending-long-nightmare-of-peaceful-multiculturalism-20160921-grl34x.html
And letters to the SMH editor support Street’s concerns.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/poll-result-smacks-of-bigotry-and-racism-20160920-grkvie.html
Kristina Keneally asks whether the churches would support a plebiscite on euthanasia and abortion. A superb contribution!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/21/would-church-leaders-support-a-populist-vote-on-euthanasia-or-abortion
Michelle Grattan reckons Turnbull’s Costa Rica announcement is a con.
https://theconversation.com/resettlement-is-the-test-for-malcolm-turnbull-on-refugees-65795
The SMH editorial describes Turnbull’s Costa Rica refugee undertaking as “masking a toxic debate”.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/malcolm-turnbulls-costa-rica-solution-masks-toxic-refugee-debate-20160921-grkwgh.html
Laura Tingle tells us that documents released under Freedom of Information laws suggest Attorney-General George Brandis has misled Parliament in claiming he consulted with the Solicitor-General over a move that means Senator Brandis has to personally give permission for anyone else in the government to seek advice from the solicitor general. Google.
/news/foi-documents-back-case-that-brandis-misled-parliament-over-solicitorgeneral-20160921-grlekt
Five things we now know about the census.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-gets-a-high-quality-census-despite-the-problems-20160921-grl8h3.html
Scott Ryan on the political donations issue. He singled out Getup but didn’t seem to talk about outfits like the BCA and the mining lobby.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/22/onations-reform-must-consider-rising-power-of-activist-groups-says-scott-ryan
Section 2 . . .
Michael West lifts the lid on multinationals off-shoring their jobs and on-shoring their expenses. It’s a disgrace!
http://www.michaelwest.com.au/multinational-expenses-its-all-show/
Duterte goes from “strength” to “strength”.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/philippine-president-rodrigo-duterte-flings-profanities-at-eu-tells-adversaries-hes-watching-them-20160921-grkwho.html
The Essential poll that should make us all sick.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/every-2nd-person-the-poll-on-muslim-immigration-that-made-mariam-sick-20160921-grl3ol.html
Ross Fitzgerald writes that dying with dignity is a no-brainer. He has a dig at the religious opponents of the principle at the end of his article.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/dying-with-dignity-its-a-nobrainer-20160921-grl67c.html
This columnist calls out Turnbull as a coward over his handling of the SSM issue.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/malcolm-turnbull-is-a-coward-20160921-grkzot.html
I hope the ACCC comes down on Hewlett Packard like a ton of bricks!
http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/hp-outrages-printer-owners-after-it-blocks-the-use-of-cheap-ink-cartridges-by-stealth-20160921-grl6ea.html
The police have been investigating the Catholic church over its failure in handling the paedophile priest Farrell. This came out in yesterday’s CA Royal Commission hearing where Counsel Assisting and His Honour got a bit testy with Monsignor Usher.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/senior-church-figures-under-police-investigation-royal-commission-told-20160920-grkvmo.html
Peter Martin decries the extremely low Newstart allowance.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/stress-the-real-reason-our-extraordinary-low-rate-of-newstart-is-dangerous-20160921-grkw43.html
Rob Burgess says that the government is cutting corners with its “welfare revolution”.
http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2016/09/20/welfare-revolution/
Section 3 . . .
A bureaucratic standoff might put Adelaide Hills residents at risk in the fire season. Google.
/news/south-australia/adelaide-hills-council-cant-commit-on-date-to-have-flooddamaged-montacute-rd-fixed-before-fire-season/news-story/2fb35b2a1cdd6bdabaaf43e6c4f4cf33
Stephen Jones has uncovered a certain bias in the funding for mobile black spots.
https://newmatilda.com/2016/09/21/gaming-mobile-black-spot-funding-a-malcolm-turnbull-innovation/
Eric Abetz tells Michael Lawler that he should drop his legal action against Michaelia Cash. Google.
/national-affairs/industrial-relations/michael-lawler-urged-by-eric-abetz-to-drop-legal-action/news-story/3e2717e24edb36da58b34775c7208fad
Are blockchain transfers coming to our big banks?
http://www.smh.com.au/business/innovation/with-a-10-payment-nab-starts-to-unlock-blockchain-20160919-grjfzw.html
Malcolm Roberts can’t explain how we are being “swamped by Muslims”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/09/21/malcolm-roberts-cant-explain-how-were-being-swamped-by-muslims/?utm_hp_ref=au-homepage
This major study on bike helmets debunks all the junk science that is going around.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nsw/bike-helmet-review-throws-cold-water-on-sceptics-theyll-likely-save-your-life-20160914-grg5mo.html
Welcome to the post-Gonski era.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/welcome-to-the-postgonski-era-turnbull-government-lays-down-challenge-to-states-20160921-grl56m.html
Here’s Michelle Grattan’s take on what Birmingham will say.
https://theconversation.com/birmingham-prepares-for-fundamental-changes-to-labors-gonski-funding-model-65828
The AFR tells us that the NBN is forcing small to medium telcos to raise their retail prices. Where is Australia heading? Google.
/business/telecommunications/excessive-nbn-fees-forcing-telcos-out-of-business-20160921-grlb3k
Are private health insurers ripping us off or are they being ripped off by the medical profession and system?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australians-pay-thousands-more-for-private-health-cover-20160921-grl2y1.html
Dave Donovan has some interesting information about goings on in the Gold Coast Council.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/leaked-letter-shows-mayor-tom-tate-and-gc-planning-head-misleading-council,9500
John Warhurst on profile and self-promotion in politics.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/profile-and-selfpromotion-in-politics-20160921-grky55.html
Section 4 . . .
AGL gives a lesson on how to upset customers.
http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/your-budget/2016/09/21/agl-billing-mistake/
Read this about Trump and weep.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/ivanka-trump-cant-conceal-donald-trumps-misogyny–or-the-danger-he-presents-20160921-grl0q3.html
Why Trump owes the US an apology.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/why-donald-trump-owes-the-us-an-apology-20160920-grkury.html
Trump on terrorism is the McCarthyism of the current age.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/21/donald-trump-on-terror-mccarthyism-for-new-age
Meanwhile things are hotting up for Trump over the shenanigans in his charitable foundation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/09/21/trump-faces-allegations-over-charity-that-forced-other-politicia/?utm_hp_ref=au-homepage
Section 4 . . . Cartoon Corner
David Rowe turns to the Jolie/Pitt breakup for inspiration.
Let’s hope Sean Leahy is right.
Alan Moir with the latest middle east intelligence briefing.
Warren Brown on Hinch’s drinking.
Ron Tandberg gets to the heart of Porter’s welfare proposal.
Peter Broelman also has a go at Porter.
It’s interesting that David Pope put quite a few tweets out yesterday denouncing Bill Leak’s disgusting cartoon.
And now Leak directs his News Ltd bile on the unemployed.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/7782d4ba4d811c224904d25f642cbfef
OMG! David Pope and the rise of the angry white underpants.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/act-news/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0
Mark Knight with an absolute cracker!
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/act-news/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0
BK
Thank you. Once again you have excelled yourself.
Not only Solicitor General -v- AG Brandis in JUSTINIAN but also this:
Bronwyn Bishop was very disappointed about losing pre-selection because she wanted to become the ‘Mother of the House’ after Ruddock retired.
This and other revelations – like senators have an unspoken agreement to keep an eye on Hinch to make sure he doesn’t drop off his perch during a senate session – are in this long but very good session of ‘The Double Disillusionists’ with Andrew P Street, Dom Knight and special guest Alice Workman.
Great stuff if you have an hour to spare.
A scorned ex really knew how to sink the stiletto into the boozy human headline!
jaycee – has your blue & white paint shop opened?
It has…but there is a delay getting the labels printed…I can’t decide whether to put the name ; “Blue” first or “White”…as in ; “Blue and White paint shop”…or : “White and Blue paint shop”….am open for suggestions.
What about ‘Potty’?
The Macquarie Island research base will not be shut down.
Now Grunt and Frydenberg are trying to claim all the credit for that and trying to shove the blame for the proposed closure onto anyone but themselves.
Macquarie Island: Federal Science Minister Greg Hunt shifts blame on shutdown decision
http://rock.ly/gqjkp
How suprising that LNP ministers would blame the APS.
#auspol http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/family-first-senator-bob-days-firm-ashford-homes-accused-of-ripping-off-clients/news-story/268d19918f2e3797ee01ec573da00bcf …
Bob Day Family First – his own family!
You can get to the article by Googling this
/news/family-first-senator-bob-days-firm-ashford-homes-accused-of-ripping-off-clients/news-story/268d19918f2e3797ee01ec573da00bcf
Oh Good Grief!
Senator James Ashby: Why not?
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/senator-james-ashby-why-not,9505
I can so see this happening. To get Ashby into the senate won’t mean a wait until the next election. All it needs is the red-head finding a way to get rid of Mad Mal by either a fight or a forced resignation, then hoping the Queensland parliament agrees to Ashby’s appointment as his replacement.
Mal had better watch his back, the knives were sharpened long before he was elected. I wonder if he knows he was just s stooge, just a seat-warmer.
And the real crunch – I wonder if Hanson realises Ashby has just been using her as a way to finally get himself into politics as more than just a staffer.
A good ‘christian’ man like Bob Day? SURELY not!
Such a charming place:
10. Morbihan
http://www.thelocal.fr/20160921/regional-france-the-top-spots-for-airbnb-tourists
Well to be fair Family First did not say which family . Now we know.
Marine Le Pen and Francexit:
http://www.thelocal.fr/20160919/le-pen-vows-to-win-back-freedom-for-france
Damn right, Tanya
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/22/muslim-immigration-poll-result-due-to-poor-leadership-says-tanya-plibersek
I’m just not quite sure what Labor does to counteract this rather violent phenomenon.
There are quite a lot of Big Lies being told lately.
Turnbull told one today re Labor’s Asylum Seeker policy. Hunt (a past master of The Big Lie) told one the other day about how pre-eminent the CSIRO would be in a few years. He told one before about how he’d saved the Barrier Reef, and then there are the ones about how we’re ahead of the world in our response to Climate Change.
If you’re going to make swingeing cuts to just about everything, tell the punters you’re not going to make cuts to anything, like Abbott did. If you’re going to slash Gonski funding, tell the ABC to tell their listeners that iLabor stuffed it up, not you (even though the funding agreements you’re referring to are explicitly all your own work).If you’re too gutless to run a vote in the house, accuse Bill Shorten of breaking a nation’s heart. Accuse Sam Dastyari of compromising National Security for taking $1600, while completely ignoring the millions that Sam’s benefactor has given your own party. Accuse Boat People of blocking traffic in Western Sydney. The bigger the Lie, the better. A Big Lie is easily uttered, but is almost impossible to rebut.
Of course a complicit media helps. But they’re in trouble too. They have outdated business plans, antiquated methods of delivery, and a hierarchical system of resident “expert” journalists who know nothing but write like they know everything. Media shares are tanking and they are losing viewers and readers in industrial amounts. But they still feel perfectly comfortable with advising others how to run their lives, their businesses and their governments.
Some people actually listen to the lies, but ultimately the pollies and the media are shitting in their own nest. Eventually the public susses them out and marks down politics and governance, and the coverage of them. Then they elect fruit cakes who don’t so much tell lies as sincerely believe their own publicity. They switch to Twitter (who of course pays no taxes here) and generally feel that, in the absence of analysis, its OK to just react.
It’s easy to see why so many are so pissed off with politics and politicians. The nests have well and truly been shat in. The system is based almost entirely on lies, with occasional truths being told as the exception that proves the rule. Facts are a matter of opinion, and reality is something that’s on TV.
That’s how we got Trump? That’s how we got Abbott? Not, not really. We got them because the punters want to believe the lies. They are such simple solutions to such complex problems. And don’t look to the media to help. They’ve got enough problems of their own.
Is Bananaby bent?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-22/company-run-by-lnp-members-linked-to-group-awarded-federal-funds/7865950
Just as well Blue Poles isn’t the property of the NSW Art Gallery. Baird would sell it.
“All I can say is when it comes to government investments it’s probably the best investment the government has ever made in Australia,” he said.
http://rock.ly/fe7jv
Like most of us I have been up and close to Blue Poles.
However, an investment requires a return some time.
Sell it for the $billion and spend it all on public housing!
Stimulatory and a great concrete gift to the needy.
If we sold it, it would probably go overseas. Australia should keep all its heritage.It belongs to its citizens.
Of course it would go overseas as no-one would pay the $billion here.
Heritage? It was painted by a drunk yank. And is overrated.
Shearing the Rams by Roberts. Now that is one example of heritage.
Drunk or not, a masterpiece all the same. Are you an art connoisseur to say it’s “overrated? ” And yes the Roberts’ piece is also one to be kept here.
Masterpiece?? Just another one of many similar abstracts he painted.
Me a connoisseur? Humbly not at all.
I just visit a few galleries and happen to own a couple of Boyd’s and a Whiteley.
And there’s was no debate about retaining Shearing the Rams In Australia was there.
Blue Poles.
One of my cousins used to work at the ANG. I went to have lunch with her one day and she took me to see Blue Poles while it was getting a bit of maintenance done.
The protective wax that covers it was removed.
Electric blue very intense.
Not sure if this explanation of the war in Syria has been posted, by max fisher originally published in New York Times, appears to have watered down the statistics and details
http://www.afr.com/news/world/middle-east/straightforward-answers-to-hard-questions-about-syrias-war-20160920-grk27i
It looks like the UN has had more than enough of Fizza.
This was the audience for his first speech to the UN General Assembly – mostly empty seats.
That must have been quite a blow to such a huge ego.
Malcolm Turnbull Tells The UN That Australia Has ‘The Solutions’
The PM has addressed an almost empty UN General Assembly.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/09/21/malcolm-turnbull-tells-the-un-that-australia-has-the-solutions/?ncid=fcbklnkauhpmg00000001
Not enough empty seats.
The US Rep was probably sitting in the back row slashing the seats.
Nicely put “To a less than packed audience, the Prime Minister …”
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/hes-back-former-labor-party-godfather-don-farrell-finally-finds-his-way-back-into-party-power-base/news-story/763849a9d88d6d1bd97ef1b414b20cf2 paywalled, so google the URL
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-22/company-run-by-lnp-members-linked-to-group-awarded-federal-funds/7865950
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/france-waves-au-revoir-plastic-tableware-180960533/
https://www.wired.com/2016/09/elections-loom-officials-debate-protect-voting-hackers/
The LNP. govt is soo corrupt now that it spends most of it’s time on PR. rather that planning or delivering real policy..and the MSM. is a complete vacuum on the subject…and it has to get worse because they then have to start defending their lies and the MSM must then defend their defence of the lie…from there it goes to physical defence and action…history repeats..
Quick as a flash… just had $4200 stolen off my credit card.
They had my name too, so the details must have been hacked from some online supplier.
They bought a $3050 camera (some camera!). Paid $650 for a hotel booking in Bali. Plus $500 cash out at a Woolies this afternoon.
Dumbasses… the Bali hotel booking is for October 1st-4th. I rang the hotel direct. They’ll have the meat cleavers sharpened for when the perps turn up.
I hope they put the thieves in a tiger pit and throw away the key.
But apart from that… the Bank doesn’t care, ditto Woolies. The online camera store was slightly worried until they realized the transaction had looked suspicious, so they didn’t send the goods. Lucky they didn’t send them, this was the shipping address…
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.091366,142.0348649,3a,39.1y,311.28h,94.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s15zDbTWNM55MoB4MPaYtRQ!2e0!7i3328!8i1664
“But you’ve GOT MY MONEY!” I cried, “AND YOU’VE STILL GOT THE CAMERA!” I added.
The camera store assured me there wold be a refund because the transaction didn’t go through, “but this can take up to 45 working days.”
“Why so long?”
“It’s the banks,” they told me.
Geez, there must be a lot of this around, if the big retailers, the cops and the banks yawn at you when you report the theft.
I had a card stolen by a postman once (over 25 years ago, before EFT), who identified both the replacement card and the (supposedly anonymous) PIN number letter straight out of the mailbag, and then went to town with my card. I had the NSW Police around, then a follow-up from 2 rather heavy looking detectives who gave me the 3rd Degree. They thought I had stolen my own money.
Not any more. IF you are lucky enough to get through the robots that man the phones at these places and speak to a real person, they are quite underwhelmed.
Maybe I’m getting old…
Here’s something to make you feel young again …play LOUD!..
You’ve got carried away with the blue eyes on white background. Bowie ordinary here.
I’m not looking for class here , early’ ..I’m looking for ; “Wham bam thank you mamm!!”
You want young?
I’m not a fan. Not then; not now.
More on Potter..:
On Potter…I remember one balmy afternoon, sitting back in a recliner at the flat , sans Hopkirk, sans Potter , listening to my latest LP. acquisition : “Santana : Caravanserai”…when suddenly there was a howl of spinning tyres and then a screeching of brakes in the car-park underneath the flats…Potter was back from the “Adelaide River Show Society” ( ARSS. ) horse event his fiance competed in..
He crashed through the door in a foul but kind of satisfied mood..went to the fridge, swished the door open , plucked out a “green-can” and threw himself on the other recliner (I had swapped Santana, which he did not like for Neil Diamond ; “Hot August Night” which he did like)…He took a long draught out of he can smacked his lips a couple of times then began;
“Bloody hippies!…you wouldn’t believe what just happened to me down by Adelaide River on the way back here……You know how windey and narrow that stretch of road is there, not many places to safely overtake and all..well I came flying around a bend in the road and there, right in front of me was this Kombi van…fuckin’ all painted over with peace symbols and rainbows and fuckin’ flowers and shit and chock a block full of pot-smoking hippies!”
He took another draught to lubricate and continued..
” Fuckin’ hippies..hate ’em!..so the next straight stretch I planted the foot to overtake ( Potter, it must be mentioned at this point, ALWAYS drove these souped up V8’s as hot as f#ck with high-lift cams, edelbrock manifoldas and dizzys or what the f#ck it takes to hot a car up so I swear it was running on NASA rocket fuel..and this one had a bull bar on front as solid as the Berlin wall )..but the bastards swerved right out in front of me to block my way..”Drrrrrrrrr” ( he made the noise of a kombi “powering on”)like it was some sort of joke…and they’re leaning out of the Kombi waving their “peace man” fingers and laughing and offering me a joint while they’re at it…fuckin’ hippies!…and every time I tried to over take..the same thing ..Drrrrrrrrrrr ..the Kombi would swerve over to block me…with them all laughing..I got jack of this so I waited until we straightened upon the road and then I crept up to the rear-end of that Kombi, nudged it on contact with the bull-bar and then PLANTED MY FOOT!!…”
“The fuckin’ Ford howled and the wheels spun like fuck and I pushed that Kombi up till we were going over ninety miles per hour and they’re all screaming now!..”
“…scream you fuckers! scream..it’s not funny now is it !!??” and I started singing that John Lennon song : “Give Peace a Chance” out the window at them banging my hand on the door in time and they’re screaming and I waited until we got to a clear part of the road-side and I shoved them into the paddock..you shoulda’ seen it…geez it was fuckin’ funny..!!”
…and he got up, went swanning to the fridge and got himself another beer…I was thinking as I watched him swish around..he has the spring of a boxer and the balance of tight-rope walker..you know, the bastard coulda been a bloody good dancer…but he was a mechanic instead.
Speaking of which …
I’ve been having a think about that Essential poll figure on Muslim immigration. There’s been a bit of discussion today on the accuracy of polls and the rampant racism in this country. I think the figure is likely correct, but it doesn’t really tell the whole story. The idea that it’s just Hansonism and Muslim-hate is too simplistic, and I’m sure there are other factors.
Firstly, I’d like to know that attitude of Australians to immigration in general. I’m pretty sure a fair proportion of our people just don’t like any immigration, wherever it’s from. I’m sure the figures have been calculated somewhere, and I’d be surprised if the figure isn’t already around 30-35% against any form of immigration.
Secondly, we tend to become protectionist when we’re feeling financially insecure. And there is a lot of unease around right now about cost of living, the future of business, employment, pretty much anything to do with the economy. That’ll be feeding into it. In fact I suspect that it’s the major factor stimulating the current wave of xenophobia. I wish people would have the brains to point the finger where the blame really lies, the current government, but it seems they can’t do that for some reason.
The other factor has to do with those who have already benefitted from immigration. Those who have settled here as part of an immigration program tend to be more strongly against further immigration. You’d think they’d be more sympathetic, as they know what it’s like to go though it and how fortunate those who have made it here have been. But then again, now that they’ve got those privileges, they tend to see the idea of others also gaining as somehow ‘against’ those already here – as if it dilutes the advantage they have gained to see others gaining the same advantage.
There’s a failure of the media of course. There’s always a failure of the media. Hanson has been treated as a celebrity ever since she announced she was running for the Senate, and her poisonous views have been widely facilitated. That’s given the opposition to Muslim immigration a short-term boost. But those other factors still feed in.
Those who have settled here as part of an immigration program tend to be more strongly against further immigration.
Spot on. I’ve seen this personally in a few of the places I have lived. you’d think migrants would be sympathetic, but they can be the most vicious haters of those who are not of their own ethnic group.
It’s like BB’s marriage account the other day. These haters see themselves as the immigrants who made good, they are not willing to share that status with anyone else.
There are many cases like that, and I’ve met some, but there are also so many others who really are sympathetic to migrants.
Never even heard of this show, but if you like a bit of nostalgia about Julia in 2006 this is worth six minutes, especially to see her so relaxed and her wonderful laugh.
Jaycee
Did you ever do Sunbury Pop Festival early 1970’s?
I reckon I may have seen you stripping off in the creek.
Nah!..you were stoned off your face and that was an eel you were holding onto!
Be Bop Thorpie!
TLBD
I’ve got it on original vinyl along with some others (even some Elvis) from the period.