All the cocks a’crowing, each on their own dunghill

Guest Author Uncategorized

Sally Baxter, Girl Reporter, has consulted her favourite Chinese astrologers to find out what may happen to the movers and shakers in this new Year of the Rooster. As always, Sally, thank you for your permission to republish here.

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Welcome to the Year of the Rooster and Your Girl Reporter’s first post for 2017. In honour of the Lunar New Year I thought we’d kick off with a look at the prospects of some of the leading lights in our political firmament with a little help from the ancient Chinese zodiac. It makes as much sense as anything else that’s going on in this crazy old world.

According to the principles of Chinese astrology, the way to determine your prospects is to see how your sign matches up with the characteristics of the animal in charge of the next 12 lunar months.

How would the two animals interact? And what qualities does the ruling animal possess that you could learn from to improve your chances of a good year?

I think we can all agree that the Year of the Monkey lived up to its reputation for chaos and confusion. The Rooster is so different he’s an astrological backlash, a home bird for all his crowing, happy to be master of his own dunghill.

Where Monkey is more likely to reward agility and risk taking, the Rooster prefers loyalty, hard work and the family values that keep the hens in line and order in the barnyard.

Appearances count. A lot. Nuances and complexities are under-appreciated in the Year of the Rooster who prefers plain speaking and clear intentions. It is not a time for new ideas or the addressing of complex problems. Which sounds bad, I know, but let’s press on.

The Rooster requires hard work and diligence for success, a willingness to play the longer game without the gratification of instant results. The Rooster is related to the harvest and reminds us that we reap what we sow.

Your Girl Reporter’s favourite online astrologer Master Tsai says the Fire Rooster is related to gold and precious gems, suggesting financial events will be uppermost in the year ahead.

According to the folk at the Astrology Club, the Year of the Rooster will be a powerful one, with no middle of the road. Since the times appear to be suiting a certain kind of politician, let’s check out a few horoscopes, starting with the Man of the Hour.

Donald Trump – Year of the Dog

Master Tsai at Chinese Fortune Calendar presciently observes that Dog will happily receive the wealth which Rooster brings with it. He then goes on to say that the generous Dog will also be making donations.

The Dog is the enduring symbol of loyalty and honesty and people born in the Year of the Dog, at their best, are faithful, smart, straightforward and responsible.

Not all of this sounds particularly pertinent to our subject, but Water Dragon at Online Chinese Astrology has a darker view of a certain kind of Dog:

The Overly Pessimistic Dog is always barking up a storm about doom and gloom. The evil Dog sees things in black and white, which kind of makes sense as in real life dogs are actually colour-blind.

This Dog also has fears and anxieties of being not loved or not liked enough. Instead of seeking reassurances, the Overly Pessimistic Dog would rather sulk by itself stewing in its own state of depression.

And, in the case of Top Dog Trump, feverishly tweeting about it.

Master Tsai warns that the Rooster is connected to fog, which can bring confusion to the Dog making it difficult to prioritise and make decisions. The wise Dog will relax and enjoy the comforts of the hearth in a Rooster year, avoiding challenges and risks and certainly not taking on a new job.

Oops! Too late! Good luck, Humanity.

Malcolm Turnbull, Pauline Hanson and George Christensen – Year of the Horse

Back on home shores and Australia has a few politicians seizing their moment in the wake of the Trump presidency. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is being a bit half-hearted about it, as he is about most things, but the commentariat has been in furious agreement that Pauline Hanson’s set for a great year.

Hanson was returned to the Australian Senate in 2016, thanks to Malcolm’s brilliant plan to get rid of some difficult senators in a bold double-dissolution strategy that, to put it mildly, backfired spectacularly. Anyone else hear a Monkey laughing?

So, thanks to Malcolm, Hanson’s openly racist One Nation party holds, at last count (One Nation politicians are slippery), three Senate seats. She’s also picked up a spot in the Queensland State Parliament with a defection of an MP from the opposition Liberal National Party, and is seeking to gain ground in state elections this year in Western Australia and Queensland.

George Christensen, another Horse senator, currently lives on the outer right fringes of Malcolm’s Liberal-National Party coalition government. He’s a National who doesn’t like a lot of the same things Hanson doesn’t like and he’s pretty much declared open war on his prime minister.

If he breaks away, will he join his fellow Horse Hanson? Or will he prefer the company of another Australian right-wing warrior, Rooster Cory Bernardi?

Whatever this disparate mob of brumbies does this year, if they are to achieve their goals in the Year of the Rooster they will need to put in the hard yards.

Master Tsai advises that as long as the Horse maintains its passion and continuously sets higher goals, career success should follow. If the Horse is offered a job change, accept the challenge.

“Horse needs to run and compete. They will see victory,” says Master Tsai.

Of course, victories can be hollow. Ask Malcolm.

Cory Bernardi, Tony Abbott – Year of the Rooster

So many senators in our sights and here’s another. Cory Bernardi has been playing coy about his political plans for some time now. If he really is planning his own political party – and speculation is mounting that he is – what are the prospects?

According to Chinese astrology, the year of your birth animal is not regarded as a time for rejoicing. In the case of the Rooster it’s easy to see why, because cockfighting’s a thing. So Roosters by their nature will be in opposition to the prevailing fortune.

Master Tsai warns Roosters seeking a job change that there is no sign that you’re ahead of the people around you. The Venerable Tsai goes so far as to recommend that if you receive a job offer you should think twice about accepting.

He recommends a humble and polite attitude, good advice for Cory and possibly for that other Rooster, former prime minister Tony Abbott, the Banquo’s Ghost of Australia’s 45th Parliament.

If Cory does strike out on his own, he should expect competition. And indeed that’s exactly the situation he would be pondering if he is indeed harbouring such plans. Pauline Hanson has already helpfully suggested that he might like to join One Nation but Cory strikes me as the kind of guy who dreams of his very own dunghill.

And, while the challenges will be many, Master Tsai reckons the Rooster that can face the competition and work hard for his goal could yet yield a good result.

But is a good result for Cory a good result for Australia? While Cory probably thinks so, judging by his Make Australia Great Again hat, it’s hard to see how a move would do anything other than splinter the vote still further.

Get the popcorn in. It hasn’t got off to a great start, with the steel gates slamming down on America, but nevertheless I wish you all a happy and prosperous Year of the Rooster.

© Sally Baxter 2017

889 thoughts on “All the cocks a’crowing, each on their own dunghill”

  2. Katharine Murphy should abandon political journalism. There’s a brilliant career waiting for her writing fantasy. Alternate universe/alternate timeline fantasy fiction is all the go right now. The sort of stuff where we Imagine what would happen if Germany had won WWII, or the South had won the Civil War, where we imagine what would happen if the US became a dictatorship …… oh ……. um …..

    That thing Murpharoo wrote about Turnbull standing his ground with Trump? Fabulous fantasy!

    To stand one’s ground one needs a spine. Turnbull doesn’t have one.

  3. Strange times.

    I never thought I’d agree with a whole Hartcher article. Sometimes I agree with parts, but he always kills it at the end by praising his latest man-crush.

    Not today though.

    His piece on the US/Australia alliance is spot on. They will never come to our aid in a time of trouble, so why do we persist with the silly ‘The Americans will always save us’ myth. More cargo cult nonsense, really.

    As Hartcher reminds us, Howard couldn’t even get Clinton to help with troops for a peace-keeping force in East Timor. What hope would we have of US help if we were really in strife?

    Ever wondered why we have Pine Gap and North West Cape and God knows what other bases here? Because they are first strike targets in the event anyone wants to attack the US. You take out the spy bases and the communications bases first, as a warning shot, and those bases are not in the US, they are as far away as they can get them. Who would suffer if those strikes ever happened? We would.

    It’s time we became more independent, moved away from this alliance.

    Some reading on what a post-ANZUS Australia might be.
    https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/anzus-ii/

  6. Rod Culleton was not eligible to stand and not validly elected, high court rules
    Decision means Culleton will not be able to resume Senate seat regardless of outcome of bankruptcy appeal

    The high court ordered that the vacancy created by Culleton’s ineligibility be filled by a special recount of ballots, meaning preferences will flow to voters’ next selection after Culleton.

    That process is highly likely to return the second One Nation candidate, his brother-in-law Peter Georgiou, but there is an outside possibility that votes that gave other candidates second preference could swing the sweat to another party.

    Ironically, the result may benefit Culleton if his brother-in-law takes the seat, because the recount will deprive One Nation of its own pick to fill the vacancy

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/03/rod-culleton-was-not-eligible-to-stand-and-not-validly-elected-high-court-rules

    If the ‘outstanding’ person Hanson had picked to replace Culleton is anything like the other loons, bigots and dirty old men she has personally chosen as candidates in the WA election then WA has just dodged a bullet.

  7. l2

    Ever wondered why we have Pine Gap and North West Cape and God knows what other bases here? Because they are first strike targets in the event anyone wants to attack the US. You take out the spy bases and the communications bases first, as a warning shot, and those bases are not in the US, they are as far away as they can get them. Who would suffer if those strikes ever happened? We would.

    The ‘stations’ exist here (and in the US and Spain) because of the need for them to be in direct ‘sight’ of the satellites. There are three ‘sets’ of satellites matched with three sets of ground stations to give 360 degree coverage.

    • Billie,

      Who cares? It’s delightful. Thank you for posting – we need as many giggles as possible.

  19. Overlooked in all the phoned call discussions, but very important, because once again, we find Turnbull has lied to us.

    Govt slammed by experts, rebuffed by industry, over ‘clean coal’ power stations.

    Meanwhile, the Australian Energy Council, which represents 21 major electricity and downstream natural gas businesses, said the industry had no plans to start building new coal-fired power stations.

    “While lower emissions coal-fired power stations could be considered theoretically, in practice there is no current investment appetite to develop new coal-fired power in Australia,” said chief executive Matthew Warren.

    “The industry’s investment focus has shifted to a combination of firm lower emissions gas generation, renewables and enabling technologies like storage.”

    http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2017/02/02/turnbull-slammed-clean-coal/

  20. It’s sheer lunacy to take productive farmland and use it for war games. If Singapore wants to send increasing numbers of troops to Australia to play ‘goodies and baddies’ in a paddock then surely there is somewhere else they could play. Who cares if the original base has been there for decades? That’s no reason to expand it into farmland. Either move the whole thing far, far away or tell Singapore to bugger off.

    ‘Is this real?’: the farmers forced to defend their land against the Australian military
    Only after the election did 60 landholders receive letters informing them their land could be compulsorily acquired as part of a defence deal with Singapore
    https://www.theguardian.com/news/bush-mail/2017/feb/03/is-this-real-the-farmers-forced-to-defend-their-land-against-the-australian-military

  22. The Wikipedia election project I’m working on is going nicely. So far, all lower house WA elections since 1917 are available for viewing with seat-by-seat results. I’m now currently working on the 1914 election.

    The Upper House elections from 1962 are also available, although they’ll be a bit tricky to complete since the history of the WA upper house was a bit all over the place, namely because they had an election every 2 years that was separate from the lower house.

    • “We are calling on both major parties”

      There is only one party in govt. It’s entirely up to Turnbull. Labor would immediately agree.

    • Labor would definitely agree.

      Did you notice Shorten’s terse response to a question about the refugee deal at the NPC on Tuesday? His face fell, his answer was a few words – ‘I expect it to be honoured’ and then he looked around desperately for the next question.

      Shame Bill, Shame.

  24. Precious petals.

    Malcolm Turnbull staffer suspended over three-month old ‘Tuck Frump’ Facebook post

    The Prime Minister’s Office has suspended an administrative staffer over an “inappropriate” three-month-old Facebook post about Donald Trump, amid a media storm prompted by a Sydney shock jock.

    2GB radio reported the executive assistant to Malcolm Turnbull’s chief-of-staff Drew Clarke had been suspended Friday afternoon after announcer Ben Fordham inquired about her online activities.

    The junior staffer was accused of posting to Facebook a photo of a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Tuck Frump”, a play on the phrase “F**k Trump” and which also promotes an anti-Trump website.

    According to 2GB the original post was made in November, but the staffer had the image permanently fixed on her page as recently as January

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-staffer-suspended-over-threemonth-old-tuck-frump-facebook-post-20170203-gu50yy.html

    This is the government that keeps banging on about allowing ‘freedom of speech’.

    • Tweeters are on the case

      “Substandard and Poor ‏@64AnthonyP · 8m8 minutes ago

      It was a long hard week, so to show he was still strong and in control, Turnbull sacked a staffer for a Facebook post saying”Tuck Frump”

  25. leone

    I must have missed that question as I was out for a minute or so. In general, Shorten doesn’t like being asked such questions. Anything to do with refugees. A lack of courage, imo. He’s in front in the polls. It’s time to show compassion. People are dying in the camps but never mind.

  26. We watched the Shorten presser. The question was to be a gotcha, Bill was short and sweet with the answer. He told it like it was.

    • Definitely a gotcha, from Sabra Lane, but I was not at all impressed with the answer. I thought it was gutless.

      WHY can’t Labor politicians – all of them, from Shorten down, just admit that Labor’s nasty ‘if you come by boat you will never settle in Australia’ policy has been the cause of all the revolting things we have seen on Manus Island and Nauru since Kevin Rudd said those words in July 2013.

      Why won’t Labor apologise and reverse that dreadful policy? Why so weak? What’s the point of parroting ‘We are preventing deaths at sea’ over and over again when people are dying in camps because of this policy?

      I know, I know, it might lose votes. But it would also win votes, and I suspect those who support this filthy policy aren’t mostly Labor voters anyway. Why not try to bring Australians up to a more sane and compassionate level instead of continually pandering to the worst of us?

      This is a good read on this topic –
      Trumping Australia’s refugee deal
      https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/trumping-australias-refugee-deal,9990

  29. Sooner or later Turnbull is going to have to admit the refugee deal is a failure. Trump might, eventually, accept a handful of refugees, but definitely not all those currently on Manus and Nauru.

    I would really like to see Labor reverse their policy soon. Jump the gun, so to speak. If just one refugee finally makes it to the US Turnbull is going to claim it as a huge triumph.

    Wouldn’t it be better for Labor to say right now ‘We should bring them all here”? Get it done now, before that poor woman on Nauru dies in childbirth.. Otherwise Labor is just supporting genocide.

    • My understanding was that Manus at least had to close following a High Court decision. Why isn’t PNG insisting on that happening? I suppose it’s a question of money.

  30. The people at Scientific American magazine covering scientists’ protests against Trump.

    March for Science Set for Earth Day
    Rally backing evidence-based policies planned for April 22 in Washington, D.C., with supporting events around the country
    .

    Scientists Protest Trump Order with Boycotts of Journals, Conferences
    More than 4,500 academics have pledged to skip U.S.-based meetings
    .

    “Rogue” Science Agencies Defy Trump Administration on Twitter
    Anonymous accounts are purportedly linked to NASA, National Parks and other agencies
    January 27, 2017 — Mindy Weisberger and Liv
    .

    The War on Facts Is a War on Democracy
    In a time when facts don’t matter, and science is being muzzled, American democracy is the real victim

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/the-sciences/

  31. Hmm. The thing with asylum seekers has always been a difficult subject for me. Of course I want those people fleeing war to be treated humanely, but, the “Let everyone come” policy did result in hundreds of deaths and of course the Coalition would take advantage of that.

    But, maybe something like the Malaysia Solution would end up being something to consider? Of course extremely difficult to implement because the Coalition-Greens in the Senate would vote against it. But maybe a deal could be struck up with another country perhaps? Trying a deal with Europe might be a good idea for instance.

    But yeah, such a solution would have to have a way of dealing with people that take advantage of our generosity and lie about fleeing from a place of persecution just to give themselves an advantage. That kind of thing resonated with the Australian electorate.

    • I’m surprised you mentioned Europe which has accepted hundreds of thousands migrants in the past two years. The camps in Greece, Serbia, Italy are full. And yes thousands have died at sea on their voyage. Sorry to say: but so what? It’s very sad, and I wished they hadn’t. But the ones who arrive at least are accepted in various European countries and Turkey. Sure it’s problematic too.Nothing is simple.

      Why not open a camp in Australia?

    • Do you really believe refugees are lying about their origins? Most are fleeing from wars this country has gleefully taken part in..Yes, there are some liars, but they are a tiny minority and are weeded out during processing.

      Why would Europe want to take refugees from this part of the world? European countries are not coping with the influx they have.

      Striking up a deal with another country was what the Obama deal was. Or was supposed to be.

      No matter what figures get thrown around now there was no quota in the original deal. All the Americans agreed to do was interview anyone interested in applying and then assess the applicants.That 1200 figure refers to the number of people still on Manus and Nauru. Not all of them have been processed yet so for too many there is no refugee status and they are ineligible. The ‘deal’ was only to apply to processed refugees.

      There was never any guarantee anyone would ever be accepted by the US. There is still no guarantee.

      The Malaysian solution was deeply flawed in its original form, that’s why the high court knocked it back. Then it was amended and the Greens knocked it back.

      It’s time to take another look at regional processing and at the Bali Process, something this government really doesn’t want to talk about, despite Australia being a co-chair.
      http://www.baliprocess.net/

      The billions we spend on locking up just over 1000 people could have gone to establishing proper regional processing centres and re-settling refugees, but why do that when donors to political parties are making a stack of money from persecuting innocent people?

      As Gigilene says, why don’t we re-open the camps here? Why don’t we process on-shore and look at regional resettlement? Why stick with this dreadful off-shore gulag business?

  32. I mean to say that Australia could do a similar deal to the Malaysia solution with Europe – that is, we accept a large number of their processed refugees and in exchange, we send asylum seekers that arrived in Australia by boat to Europe.

    Apparently Malaysia was shot down as an option by the other parties because apparently Malaysia was “inhumane”. So, why not try a European country that’s currently struggling with an influx of refugees as an option? That’s basically what I’m suggesting.

    • You’re right. lnp and so called greens voted against the Malaysia deal because they were frightened that it would work and take away their Labor bad bullshit.

  33. I know that this crap about mandatory detention and off-shore processing is horrible, but, all I know is that if Labor attempts anything like its 2008-2013 policy again, it’ll be mercilessly attacked and Labor will just be voted out of power.

    I do deep down want to have an on-shore processing policy, but I also want a policy that can work in this electoral climate.

    If Labor goes ahead and accepts any and all refugees, then people will start to hate it because the opposition would then just encourage people to yell “They took our jobs” and Labor would become electoral poison.

    But thinking about it, if Labor started to accept large numbers of refugees -while- beginning a massive infrastructure program where those already in Australia can still get jobs without causing an employment crisis, I would be in support of that. But if that can’t happen, then, I’d be in support of a regional processing agreement instead.

    I do not support the Coalition policy and I frankly hope those in charge get punished for it.

  34. When it comes to refugees, I don’t blame Shorten and Labor for going along with the Coalition – Whilst in Govt Labor was crucified by one and all because the boats came in droves and all the detention centres overflowed. Bloody Abbott was on TV and radio day in, day out screaming “pick up the phone to the Pres of Nauru”. The media backed Abbott to the hilt and the people, even Labor people, joined in the national song to stop the boats….The Greens did their bit by yelling foul and promoting an open door policy and helped their coalition mates to put a stop to trying the Malaysia solution.

    So Abbott got into power and stopped the boats (?) spent a couple of billion on new border protection rackets, orange lifeboats in which to transfer boat people to send back to Indonesia, and patrolling the sea to intercept the boats and send them back from whence they came….all done in a thick cloud of secrecy so that to this day we, the people, are mostly unaware of what actually went on or how much of our tax payer money was being pissed into the sea. Then of course the news trickled through at the horrific conditions these poor people were enduring on Nauru and Manus, and with each horrifying story the cry that was heard above all else came from the Coalition and lovingly reported by their media mates, i.e. IT IS ALL LABOR’S FAULT.

    Frankly, I’d rather have Shorten tell the media over and over and over that ‘You, the media promoted these rotten policies and you, the voters, believed it all and gave both the media and the coalition the thumbs up…..

  35. Please, make yourselves familiar with the High Court judgement on the Malaysian Solution.

    It’s a complex issue, has nothing to do with anything being ‘inhumane’.

    Here are the three reasons the High Court knocked it back..

    The Court held that, under s 198A of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), the Minister cannot validly
    declare a country (as a country to which asylum seekers can be taken for processing) unless that
    country is legally bound to meet three criteria. The country must be legally bound by international
    law or its own domestic law to: provide access for asylum seekers to effective procedures for
    assessing their need for protection; provide protection for asylum seekers pending determination of
    their refugee status; and provide protection for persons given refugee status pending their voluntary
    return to their country of origin or their resettlement in another country. In addition to these
    criteria, the Migration Act requires that the country meet certain human rights standards in
    providing that protection.
    The Court also held that the Minister has no other power under the Migration Act to remove from
    Australia asylum seekers whose claims for protection have not been determined. They can only be
    taken to a country validly declared under s 198A to be a country that provides the access and the
    protections and meets the standards described above. The general powers of removal of “unlawful
    non-citizens” given by the Migration Act (in particular s 198) cannot be used when the Migration
    Act has made specific provision for the taking of asylum seekers who are offshore entry persons
    and whose claims have not been processed to another country, and has specified particular statutory
    criteria that the country of removal must meet

    Click to access hca32-2011-08-31.pdf

    Here’s some explanation.
    https://theconversation.com/malaysia-solution-high-court-ruling-explained-3154

    Later amendments that dealt with these issues had to get through parliament, the Greens refused to pass them for political gain, or so they thought. Hypocrites.

  36. Kirsdarke

    “we accept a large number of their processed refugees and in exchange, we send asylum seekers that arrived in Australia by boat to Europe.”
    .
    That sounds a pretty pointless exercise. How about we just meet our international obligations ?

    • Well, the idea behind the Malaysia solution was that we accept 4,000 of the refugees that they currently hold in their camps that have been -confirmed- to be Refugees. And in exchange, we’d send 800 refugees that arrived to Australia by boat to Malaysia to be processed. Those 4,000 would count toward our international obligations.

      I think the thought process behind this was that the theoretical young adult from Pakistan couldn’t suddenly just get up one day and decide “I’ll pretend to be an Asylum Seeker and go to Australia by boat, then I’ll take advantage of their generosity and give myself a much better life than what I have now” couldn’t get what he wanted and would end up in Malaysia instead. And as ridiculous as that was, much of the Australian electorate thought that many Asylum Seekers that arrived by boat were people like that.

      Meanwhile the real asylum seekers fleeing persecution from the ME would end up in a reasonably safe environment. At least that’s what I hope the Labor leadership was thinking at the time it was attempting the Malaysia Solution, from my limited memory of the matter.

  37. If we released the refugees into the community we would save $4 billion a year so we wouldn’t have do the Centrelink robo-clawback, with its 90% false debt notices

    Today’s herald-sun had an article about informing the Sudanese juvenile deliquents that they will be sent a waning letter saying that if they persist they will be deported after their prison time. I heard many calls of endorsement today so I pointed out that we already deport people who are charged with crimes that face a max 12 month gaol term

  39. Expanding on that idea of a massive infrastructure project, I think it would be a neat idea to start planning to make one of the northern cities of Australia (Broome, Darwin, Cairns, Townsville) ttempt to expand into a city with over 1M people.

    Perhaps combined with a generous policy toward refugees – “If you’re capable of working with the construction of this city, you can come here”, it’d be a boon to Australia?

  40. The influx continues in Europe:

    More than 1,400 migrants have been rescued in the Mediterranean within 24 hours, Italy’s coast guard said on Thursday, as EU leaders prepared for a summit on stemming the flow of boats from North Africa to Europe.
    The coast guard said more than 1,300 people had been rescued on Wednesday from 13 makeshift boats.

    At dawn on Thursday, the Aquarius, a humanitarian ship chartered by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), rescued 100 others, including seven women and 41 unaccompanied minors.

    Picked up 22 nautical miles (41 km) off Sabrata, the rescued migrants – travelling with only an old compass to help them navigate and no lifejackets – said they had set off around 10:00pm along with other people.

    “Those on board tell us there are other boats needing help so the crew is searching hard and fast,” MSF Sea said on Twitter.

    http://www.thelocal.it/20170202/italian-coastguard-more-than-1400-people-rescued-at-sea-in-24-hours

  41. Kirsdarke

    Trying a deal with Europe might be a good idea for instance.

    I wouldn’t think this would be a ‘goer’. Our numbers of asylum seekers are minuscule when compared with theirs.

    • The things you learn. I just checked up on ‘minuscule’ and it appears its primary meaning is ‘lower case writing’. And there is such a thing a ‘majuscule’, which could loosely translate these days as caps-lock.

  42. Alright, I give up.

    This is probably the reason why Labor can’t do anything but agree with the Coalition’s asylum policies for now. There’s no easy solution, returning to 2008-13 is political suicide, so, I’d prefer to focus on battles that Labor can win.

    • Exactly, Kirsdarke. When Labor get into govt. then it is time for them to put in place a good policy to deal with asylum seekers and hopefully, one that they can get the Coalition to sign up to so that it never again becomes a political football.

  44. There is one thing the ALP can do. Once they get into power – and barring anything really weird happening that will be next election – they instantly set up a Royal Commission into the legality of the Coalition’s refugee policy. That’ll keep the Liberals’ hands tied while the ALP processes whatever refugees are currently being held, and moves toward a rejigged version of the Malaysia Solution. Any bleating from the right can be parried with the old, “You’re in no position to speak on the issue considering the international disaster you’re created.”

    I should think an RC would turn up all sorts of interesting stuff.

    • Yes, I think a RC into the Coalition’s Asylum policies will be a very good move for Labor.

      Partially because I want to see Morrison, Dutton, Abbott and Turnbull squirm in the witness box, but mostly because the secrets they’ve been keeping from us have involved people dying. And that must be investigated.

  45. Kirsdarke .
    You are correct the A/s issue is big and if Shorten even hints at a relaxation the msm will go ballistic again. I blame this situation Squarely on Labor when Rudd first won. The relaxed the rules way too far .
    I would rather labor get into govt. again with a whole suite of excellent policies than lose because of A/s policy.

    • P.S. Forget wireless as an NBN “solution” – it’ll never scale… Approx. 1:42 in:
      “I’ve got no connection.”
      “Try going back to ‘3G’.”

Comments are closed.